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3 Reasons Why I'm Not Concerned That My NaNoWriMo Word Count Is Dismal

Maybe the end of October was a bad time to start screwing around with Twitter (I'm @YAWriterNews). Because now in November I find myself fiddling around with Twitter and tweets and whatnot instead cranking out those words.

But this is why I'm not worried (yet!):

1. I can write fast. Last year I cranked out around 5,000 words a day for the last 4 days of NaNoWriMo. While I don't recommend this for everyone, and I don't particularly want to repeat that feat, I can thank years of working in television production for the ability to write fast. Good is another thing. Good will come later.

2. I'm not afraid to rewrite (remember, good comes later). So I let myself go. "Dare to be stupid" was a great piece of writing advice I once read from Sue Grafton. And if there's any place to get stupid it's NaNoWriMo. This is not the time for self-editing. Good will come later.

3. I recognize that what I'm writing for NaNoWriMo is unpublishable. There's been some backlash about NaNoWriMo. I recognize that it's not for everyone. Especially writers who don't rewrite. Or think 1 or 2 revisions makes their novel publishable. Dude, it's not. You need at least a year, probably 2 or more, to make that NaoNoWriMo puppy even readable. (P.S. Laura Miller: You need the crap to get to the good stuff. Though most writers don't time the time --or have the craft-- to take their pile of crap and find that nugget of good.)

So I'm not going to tell you my current word count because it sucks. All that matters is that I have until November 30th. And on December 1, that when good starts.

(Updated 11-12-10)

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