We have a winner of the “No Plot? No Problem!” novel-writing kit: Scott Cowley
Scott says he is working on his first NaNoWriMo novel, and we can hope this kit will help him in his high-speed creation of novelistic wonder.
How is my own NaNo novel coming? Here’s what I’ve learned in the past week: The minute I announced that I would be posting my novel to the web in draft form on the day I wrote it, in that minute I damned myself to being unable to write a single word.
The knowledge that my craptastic, awful, reaching, super-drafty first draft sentences would be exposed to the glaring light of day — and to the eyeballs of readers — was enough to quash my writing completely. I’ve barely been able to write semi-factual blog posts all week, such was the reaction of my inner editors to my plan.
So this morning I decided I would do as I’ve always done and write my terrible first drafts for myself only. I started writing.
Sixteen minutes later, I had written 519 words and had at last truly begun my NaNoWriMo 2009 adventure.
Others can write their novels with people reading over the shoulder; I admire their confidence and wish them well. Myself, I’ll be writing my terrible prose more privately.
