I decided to try something different this year by not having an outline. Instead, I have a theme, which is “normalcy,” and then I try to think about something in my freakish, bohemian, shenanigan filled lifestyle that fits the bill.
It’s working so far. I’ve been averaging around 2,000 words a night, which is “ahead” of pace if you want to finish in thirty days. A lot of the novel seems to be a series of interconnected stories loosely based on events and people in my life.
I’m also breaking another habit I have which is editing while I’m writing. I’m ignoring typos, spellcheck, and instead of rewriting sentences on the fly, I’m writing that sentence again. It doesn’t happen all that often, but sometimes I wonder how many good ideas I’ve lost to the delete key if I was too hasty.
Basically, I’m using this as an exercise to try to get to creation without judgment getting in the way.
It’s pretty refreshing to go back and read what I’ve written, especially since sometimes four or five pages will be written and I barely recognize my style. Then I will see that I’ve remembered or added details that might have been lost if I slowed down to edit.
Tonight will mark a third of the way through this competition and I plan on uploading the word count to the robotic overlords counters for an update on my progress.