Good, good! That first step is often the hardest to make but it’s all a river after this and not even the biggest dam can truly stop that instinctual natural flow that we writers possess. Lol, and procrastination isn’t a bad thing. If I didn’t procrastinate so much I might not have ever come up with half my current projects. :D

Good luck to you Willow and let me know if you need someone to rant at. :D

There’s nothing wrong with unofficial! :) I prefer it that way with most things, somehow is almost, keyword being almost, takes the edge off the stress and makes it a little easier because goodness knows we writers are a stressed out bunch as it is but who isn’t these days, right?

I’m happy to hear I might have helped a little, I personally can’t imagine not doing the NaNo. It helped me out so much last year and though I came out with many lessons learned from it… It’s like re-reading a really good book. You always come back with something you missed the first time around even though the words haven’t really changed and it’s the same book, it’s that we change over the course a year (much more than most people realize) and with that new viewpoint we take in so much more, alas, I’m babbling again. :)

Muchly agreed, I don’t see my revisions as editing as much as I see them as expanding. When I write another outline I’m not changing the old one at all (my poor spell check is cringing at that knowledge and I know my poor sister, who’s avidly been reading everything, cringes through all my errors and I still don’t change it. :P), I’m just putting more into it. :) I don’t personally look forward to the day when I finally go and read back on everything I’ve written. I smile because of the word count but I know the second I go and look back at my first draft I’ll want to edit it… so I don’t. :) It’s good to be reminded of that though- we writers are brought up in school to write so differently from our true creative potential… it’s hard to break old habits. :)

Lol, that is true. I like that last line, I might have to quote you someday. :D

Thankies and Peace and also, good luck on the contest. :) I hope you get it!

Indeed! For me it’s a bit of a balance too, I know what over planning feels like. I’m quite capable of doing it during my long hours of procrastination if I let my mind take the reins long enough on that matter but I try very hard not to because I know that just doesn’t work for me. Having no plan… well, that works well for my poetry but not much else. I feel uprooted without some sort of idea laid down on paper to the general direction I want to go. I don’t need to write out all the ideas just a vague road map so I can make plenty of stops and changes along the way. :)

Thankies!!! :D I thought it was very fitting this blog but I’m still thinking of toning down the color bright/dark thingy, something about it is still making my eyes go a lil weird.

I’m still procrastinating like crazy, but I feel like tonight, I am going to do that first vital step – the overall outline. Things’ll fall into place after that. I think. :p

Right now, I’m gearing up for a web promo tour in celebration of my urban fantasy HOW TO TAME A HARPY being chosen as a finalist in the American Title V competition (sponsored by Dorchester Publishing & Romantic Times magazine). But your post kind of kicked me into gear because I’d like to do Nano, so I will attempt (stress the attempt) to write a 10k novella during that time.

I think the competition is a great way to meet other writers and to create a writing support system, since we’re all in this “race” together.
Oh — and as a side note — I agree with Chibi’s opinion that editing during the writing process can actually do more harm than good.

Since I’m a former editor, it’s a habit I really try hard to break, but still find myself doing. I end up writing something and then having to go back to the beginning because I don’t think it flows well. But again, that’s the great thing about NANO. You don’t have to put out a perfect manuscript. Just the word count. After that, we have all the time in the world to revise our babies to death.

Happy writing!

Michelle Lauren
HOW TO TAME A HARPY
American Title V Finalist
**Voting starts soon. Check my site to see how you can keep me in the competition + also how you can win some free goodies during my promo tour**
http://www.michellelaurenbooks.com
http://www.myspace.com/michellelaurenbooks