Don’t Edit ~ Just Write will be my mantra during the thirty days in November called, NaNoWriMo. I know the only reason I met my first NaNoWriMo challenge in 2010 was that I didn’t try to edit as I wrote. I knew if I did, I wouldn’t reach my 1667 word count each day and when that happens, I would be trying to play catch-up and the white flag would be waved.
For myself, when I edit as I write, I begin to question my abilities, which is equivalent to turning off the faucet and stopping the story flow. My mind fills with self-doubt: “This story will never get published.” Then criticism, “This story line is going nowhere fast.” When these thoughts fill my mind, creativity comes to a screeching halt, as well as my motivation. Losing motivation during NaNoWriMo is like driving with your parking brake on, you might move, but not at a pace to reach your destination on time.
With that said, I have a difficult time leaving a trail of red squiggles underneath typos and other errors that Word is dying to bring to my attention. Simple typos I can fix during NaNoWriMo, but if I find a problem that requires major work, I might not know how to fix it and this will eat up time, so I need to ignore it for now. In order to meet this 50,000 word challenge, I must allow my creative brain to overpower my critical brain, at least for the month of November.