Another NaNoWriMo bites the dust...

How did you do? Did you hit your target?

I'm afraid I got so caught up in the business side of writing this month with the 12 Days series, that I didn't get much new written. I edited, I formatted, I blogged, I did all sorts of things connected with writing, but I didn't actually write much in the way of new material on a story. Lots of starts, though (which I'll talk about in a future post).

For today though, if you wrote every day, no matter if you hit your target or not, you deserve congratulations because that's what makes you a real writer. Real writers write. Its their job. The creation of stories is what they do. They make up whole worlds out of nothing more than their imagination. And then they write them down.

Good writers, however, don't stop there. Once its down on paper (or a computer screen), then they finesse it. Their wordsmithing skills come to bear and they turn that bare story into a work of art.

You know.

Editing.

For some, this is the "work" of writing. It's the attention to details (is the hero's hair color the same throughout? Did I put the part of her hair on the right or left side? What color are the walls of the hobbit hole?). It's more than just checking for grammar (although that part is important, too). It's looking at word flow, transitions, story and character arcs. And yes, sometimes it means re-writing entire scenes to make them tighter/longer/sharper/better.

So your work is not done, even if you finished your story. Set it aside this week. Congratulate yourself and remind yourself that you have friends and family who care about you. Let the world of your NaNoWriMo novel slip away and enter RL as we say in Second Life (RL =Real Life).

Next week we'll start that editing process with a fresh and rested mind. In the meantime, go read a book (Like 12 Days!).

Enjoy,
Diana