Don't You Dare Revise!

Some of the most popular advice floating around for those interested in attempting the NaNoWriMo challenge is: "Turn off your inner editor!" —closely followed by: "Don't revise until after NaNo." At some point during the month, there also comes a warning: the novel you'll have written through this process will need to be completely rewritten, possibly many times. 

• For instance, Jody Casella—a successful NaNo winner and soon-to-be-published author—writes on her blog: 

"Doing NaNo will kill (or at the very least, muffle) that pesky internal editor voice that streams along in your head as you write, telling you that what you write is crappy and stupid and pointless. You don't have time for that voice during NaNo. If you want to finish, you are going to have to keep writing those crappy words. NaNo is about quantity not quality. Repeat that after me: quantity not quality. Write it on a sign and tape it to your computer screen. No, you are not writing the word Bluh over and over, but some days it will feel like it. Whatever. Keep writing anyway –"

I have seen many variations of this admonishment, and I haven't seen any contradictions.  People in my writing group swear by this process: "Don't even think about revising until you have the first draft down!" they advise. Hopefully, such an approach works for them—maybe it even works for the vast majority of writers and specifically of NaNoWriMo winners.  But I didn't do that.

I successfully completed my first attempt at NaNo without strictly adhering to the belief that it's about quantity not quality.  I wrote a story with an organized plot, ensured that my characters and plot didn't contradict themselves, researched details for my locations, drew designs for my characters' living spaces, and in general made sure my first draft was still a readable (though of course not perfect) story.  I didn't always worry about having the ideal words on my first way through, and I absolutely agree with the insistence that first drafts must be revised and polished, but I didn't write "crappy words"—and I still reached 50,000 words in 29 days.  

I even dared to revise, not only before I finished my first draft, but in November!   For me, writing was about getting the scenes onto the page—making sure that the plot and snapshots of moments didn't slip through the holes in my mind and disappear forever. Revising meant reminding myself of what I had already written (descriptions of my characters, outfits they'd worn, snippets of conversation which had already happened) but also adding words as I filled in details to ensure the moments and settings I saw had translated to the page.  Revising helped me complete the challenge while also giving me a break from the pressure of knowing exactly what needed to happen next, because sometimes my characters and plot ideas needed time to percolate before they could synthesize into a clear plan.

I write this not to contradict the "tried and true" wisdom of successful, published, NaNo winners, but rather to underscore the fact that every writer writes differently.  Yes, when starting out, it is important to consider the advice of our successful predecessors, but it is equally important to be selective when adhering to any advice and even more important to find our own way.  

I wrote my novel in such a way that it does not need to be rewritten, only revised, which I now continue to do.  That means I wrote 50,619 words in November as opposed to the 90,000 or even 150,000 of some other participants, but it is nevertheless, in my mind, a more efficient approach in the long run.

Regardless, revising is a long and complicated process, which I now continue as the next mandatory and inevitable step toward publication.