NaNoWriMo 2010 - Day 5

[ladyseishou]

Day 5 - 25 days remaining

I do a first draft as passionately and as quickly as I can.
I believe a story is valid only when it's immediate and passionate,
when it dances out of your subconscious.

If you interfere in any way, you destroy it.

- Ray Bradbury



A popular writing aid that is a favorite for many Wrimos is Dr. Wicked's web site: Write or Die, a particularly fiendish creation wherein you type in a word count goal and a time and start to write. Simple enough, right?

Well the catch is that if you stop writing there are evil consequences that range from annoying pop-ups that remind you to keep writing to a mode that will actually erase your hard work if you dally too long.

I think what work bests about this method is the incentive it provides to keep you writing, that the fear (or annoyance) of "punishment" actually acts to beat down the voice in your head that urges you to stop, rewrite, rethink, redo... In other words, it helps you help yourself to kill your "inner editor" so that the words of your story can flow, immediate and raw, passionate and real.

And there will be typos. For me, lots of typos. And your characters may not stick with your original outline, change sex, and adopt a new point of view. But if you give them the chance, who knows what new really cool stuff you'll discover?

Today's Word Count: 8,333! Did you beat it? Tell us about it! Excerpts? Questions? Frustrations? Amusing typos?

...Keep Writing!

Comments

[aviekokyre]

Yup, and while I'm there, I also try to encourage some of the other Wrimos with me. Some of them are trying to catch up. Some of them are halfway already!

I think it was two years ago, final day. I hit 50k on the forum, but I stayed and checked back every 15 minutes to cheer on the last two or three until they reached 50k in the last hours of NaNoWriMo. We were all going to cross that finish line, and we did! Fun times. =D