Progress not Perfection

I know for many people that blank page can be daunting. It looms before you begging the question - Are my words going to be good enough? Can I tell the story I want to tell?

There is only one piece of advice I can give you - Don’t even worry about it.

An adage in the writing world applies very much to NaNoWriMo. You can’t edit what you haven’t written.What you are starting today isn’t a first draft. Nope. It’s Draft 0. This is where, good or bad, all you are obligated to do is get the story out of your head and onto the paper (or screen).

Bulky prose. Awkward dialogue. Passive voice.

All those things that you want to avoid writing? Write them. This is not about perfection. This isn’t about telling your story in the best way you can. This is just about telling the story in any way you can.

When it’s all said and done, you can go back and edit to your hearts content. Refine the prose, smooth out the dialogue and make the voice active! But that, as I said, is for later. When you are finished and well recovered from the rush of NaNoWriMo..

Sometimes, you may find that you need to make notes to yourself like [technical word for X] or [research this later] and that is fine! Don’t worry about it. These things happen. Make a note, move on. You can research those things later.

There will be times when you just do not have the words to write the scene you want to write You’re stuck. What now? Once again this is about progress, not perfection. No first draft is ever that good and draft 0 is going to be worse than that. So feel free to write. [I am having a hard time writing this scene. I will come back to it later. Here is what happens in this scene].

Do what it takes to keep moving forward. One of the biggest keys to success at this point is to keep moving forward. Keep the words flowing. Just keep writing.

And, never fear, you can fix that later.