Getting Creative

So, this is us into the second week of NaNoWriMo today. Has it been worth it so far? Definitely. First of all, the reason for me signing up still holds true: I've replaced my world-class procrastination with good writing habits. I've managed to write some of my new novel every single day and even if I haven't exactly kept to the suggested word count, I'm now 8,530 words further on. I begin each morning straight after checking emails and don't look at forums, blogs, twitter or Facebook until I've produced some more words.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I find it difficult to continue for hours at a time, so I often go back in the afternoon and do a little more, if I'm in. But here's a strange thing, the whole exercise is making me more creative in general. In addition to NaNo, I'm also still doing final edits on the tween novel and preparing a talk for a writing group in a couple of weeks. Then I suddenly had an urge to get on with redrafting the mainstream novel that is actually finished. But I've always felt it needed a rewrite of the first couple of chapters which were too long. After putting off the major restructuring I knew I wanted to do, I began it yesterday and got right into it!

Maybe I should be putting all that creative energy into the new novel, but here's the reasoning behind my way of working. The tween novel is being published in March which is why it's going through edits just now, and I enjoy those since I'm learning and improving all the time with a professional editor. The current new novel will need redrafting and editing after NaNo before I can even think of submitting it. But the completed mainstream novel has already been through the NWS (with a good report) and was already at one agent. I've never been happy with the first two chapters and now I know why - already I can see a huge improvement in the pace of the novel after changing it and I'll enjoy editing the remainder of it in light of my own further experience (she hopes). Then I'll start submitting it again, while I work on the new novel. Are you still with me!

Hopefully, I can keep all this up over the rest of the month! Meanwhile, if anyone needs an incentive to get a novel finished, you might be interested in the call for submissions from Carina Press. Good luck to all fellow NaNo writers!

Rsoemary