Day 1: 1797 Words

Not a bad start. It took about 2 hours to exceed my daily goal of 1,667 words. Granted, a lot of this was just introductory / background stuff, and fairly easy compared with dialogue and conflict and suspense, but it flowed and felt comfortable and fun, and was not at all frustrating.

In addition to the email pep-talks and video encouragement on the NaNoWriMo website, No Plot? No Problem! has a chapter for each of the four weeks of NaNoWriMo. In the Week 1 chapter, which I read immediately before starting, I was challenged to do something I knew would be very hard for me.

It actually says in the book, "I'll need to confiscate your Inner Editor."

The Inner Editor is described as "The doubting, self-critical voice that we all inherited around puberty as an unfortunate door prize for surviving childhood...happiest when it's tsk-tsking our shortcomings and weaving our past blunders into a rich tapestry of personal failure."

Mine is HUGE.

But I agreed to turn her over for a four week stay in the NaNoWriMo Inner Editor Kennel so that I might write my first draft "in a high-velocity, take-no-prisoners, anything-goes style that would absolutely horrify" her.

And that's exactly what I did, at least on my first day. I have not gone back to read over what I have written. I have not changed a word here and a sentence there. I have respected a strict No Tinker Zone throughout the evening.

And the first 1797 words were practically effortless.

Were they crap? Maybe. But that's for my I.E. to decide, once I let her out.

IF I let her out.

Sending her packing felt really good. It makes me wonder what other Inner Editors are lurking about in my psyche that I could purge.

Dangerous, dangerous stuff...