Nano week 1

Um, have no real energy after completing two midterms, a presentation, two recaps and some odd hours of watching POTW and studying (and still need to get back to drafting), so will do a list instead:

1) Don’t give up.

2) Never ever attempt to convince yourself that you can’t do Nano if you miss out a few days at the beginning. (it’s kind of critical if you miss half the month, but 3 days? Not a huge deal.) As it is, I’m still running around with 3 large bits and little cohesion.

3) Write what you want to write – if you’re stronger with humour than high-flying literary fiction, go with humour. If you hate the genre, chances are you’ll stare at the doc/paper for a long time and find excuses not to complete it.

4) Do not tell yourself that you can make up 1000 words later. There will always be later (and late enough, you will find yourself saying, ‘next year’), so plan well.

5) Keep writing. Even if it’s the worst cliché or pastiche of the genre and makes no sense whatsoever, keep writing. The point of Nano is to get that ‘first vomitous draft out’ (to borrow javabeans’ words). Editing is for December. Seriously.

6) If you get stuck, move on to something you do know fairly well and come back when the muses hit you again. (Or, if you’re like me, and tend to write during 3 hour blocks, then get up, walk around, eat something, and come back.)

7) Don’t give up. (Again. This is important.)

Love,

Sevenses (As a sidenote, doing screencaps is such fun!)

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