You’ve spotted a scene at the beginning of the story that you are dying to change. You notice some things that you didn’t include that need to be in there that will enhance the view the readers get of your character and you may have even seen a couple of unnecessary things that you need to take out. As tempting as it is for you to go back and edit that scene (or those couple of scenes), DON’T DO IT!
NaNoWriMo is a month for the first draft, the first imperfect draft. There is no editing in this month. If you start editing things now, you won’t be able to stop and you will end up losing momentum and falling behind in your word count. I know what you’re thinking. “Wouldn’t that add more words to my word count overall?”
Yes, true enough it would do that, but it would also throw your word count off. Suddenly you would have to figure out what words you counted are now deleted and what words you added should now be counted towards your overall word count tally. I know that in your mind you see all kinds of improvements that need to be made already but resist the urge. Trust me, you will have plenty of time to edit later. That’s what December is for!
Jimmetta Carpenter
Writer/Editor
The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)
Writing as “Jaycee Durant”
http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310
Write 2 Be 