NaNoWriMo Writing Tip #1 - Save the Editing for December

I’ve been to three NaNoWriMo write-ins now, and every seasoned novelist attending has told me the same thing: “Turn off your inner editor and save the revising for December.” According to their gospel of wisdom, if you have any intention on hitting your 50,000 word goal, you have to stop revising and remind yourself that it’s okay to wait one month to go back before you fix every little imperfection.

Me? I’m a blogger. Most of what I’ve written online is published very quickly and in essay format, which means I often have time to go back and revise what I’ve written several times over.

Getting through the process of writing a novel during NaNoWriMo is not the same. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to tell your motherfucking story, then go back and edit only after you’ve spilled the beans on it all. This new process, this new routine of turning off my obsessive editor – it’s so different from...