The first week of National Novel Writing Month is over. So far I’m having a blast. Somehow (it still feels like a miracle) I have managed to silence the internal editor that’s been shouting more loudly at me with each book and I’m having so much fun with this story it ought to be illegal. Possibly it is in some states!

You can see my progress at my NaNoWriMo profile page. I’m up to 12,000 words already and amazingly enough, they’re better than my usual rough draft.

I think the reason it’s working so well is that it’s just a month and it’s November, a month when holidays often interfere with serious writing. My inner critic will usually tell me I shouldn’t waste time noodling around with story ideas that might not work. But somehow limiting the noodling to a normally unproductive month makes it a low risk proposition. Low pressure=high productivity. Duh!

BTW the cartoon is by Debbie Ridpath Ohi at www.inkygirl.com. She’s got quite a few that speak to the craziness of writers!

Now I’d like to share a poem my daughter wrote at school. The assignment was to use some number of their weekly spelling words, which included the terms they are using to describe story development. Here ’tis:

MY MOTHER’S WRITING

Lots of drafting and revising,
As for editing, the computer does that.
I wonder whether she has a planning page?
For publishing, go to the publisher,
Afterwards…
What do you do with the book?
Put it in a contest!

Where judges are admiring your book,
or giving it a dirty look.
Sometimes “I won” is right.
Sometimes “I lost” is right.
It can still be good, you hear?
One book wins.
Could it be yours?
If not maybe not here,
Because judges have different likes and dislikes.

I thought this was cute and sure wish the computer did my editing!

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, RT Reviewers’ Choice, Best Regency Romance of 2005
www.elenagreene.com