I know, I’m doing PerNoFiMo (Personal Novel Finishing Month) instead of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) but this is about how it feels.
I spent Saturday cranking out 3000 words in the novel I’m working on, tentatively titled Whip It! I was feeling pretty proud of myself because that’s a lot of words to produce in just a few hours, so I posted an announcement to Twitter. Someone almost immediately came back and said, “That’s great! If they’re the right words…”
If they’re the right words? If they’re the right words? I said it last week and I will say it again. NaNoWriMo and PerNoFiMo are not about putting the right words down on the page. These events are about putting words down, period. A bad first draft can always be re-written, edited, cleaned up, etc. A blank page? You got nothing to work with.
I explained this, and the person who made the comment understood immediately, and I’m glad, because there are lots of people out there who would still insist that if I didn’t write the right 3000 words, then I’d just wasted a lot of time. Well you know what? Those people most likely aren’t ever going to succeed in writing novels. So there!
Have a great day! I’ll post my progress on PerNoFiMo tomorrow in my Writing Wednesday post 😉
Don’t forget to visit www.nanowrimo.org to find out more about National Novel Writing Month.
Also at Oh Get A Grip this week, we’re talking about what it’s like to live with a writer. Good stuff. Stop by for a look!