It’s day 8 of National Novel Writing Month. Had a good writing session today, broke 8,000 words. Yes, I know I’m behind word count wise, but this horse is still in the race. Since this is the first NaNo I’ve participated in, I’ve found things about my writing style that have room for improvement, and may make the journey to the end of the month a lot smoother. Because there have been some bumps in the road so far. So…

Here’s me critiquing myself (the title of my biography in 50 years.)

Note to self.

Stop trying to edit and be perfect – Now is not the time! I’m trying to get to 50,000 words here. I’m trying to hold myself back from deleting things that bother me for just being plain terrible. Trying really hard, but sometimes there are just garage sentences that nag at your brain to remove them. Holding out until December. (December will be a freaking slaughter of words, won’t it?)

Focus on one scene at a time – I have this problem that always seems to get me frazzled. I plant the seeds of all these different scenes, and then I end up confused and overwhelmed in a jungle.  Instead of jumping around and writing a bunch of bits for a bunch of different parts, I should tune in to one scene and only focus on that one part at a time.

Write more descriptions – For some reason, dialogue always comes first when i’m writing. It’s like the bones of a scene for me. I’m pushing myself to work on describing the setting and characters more vividly. An image should be painted in color, not black and white.

Sometimes you gotta ask yourself, how can I be better at my craft, or whatever I’m trying to excel in? It’s not about listening to the voice in your head that says “Man, this story is a dumpster fire.”, it’s critiquing yourself in a way that you improve. Well, that’s what i’m working on in order to (barely) survive November. What are you guys working on in your writing? And how is NaNoWriMo treating you? Well, I hope. Look forward to hearing from you all.

 

Write with heart,