Words

One of the most fun things about my writing, as well as most frustrating, is that I no longer self edit when I first draft anything. Which means words just go spewing on a page and I don't re-read them until I need a refresher for the next chapter. Even then I don't touch them. This is awesome for my inner editing demon that wants everything perfect, but bad for delusional perfectionist that thinks everything I write is automatically brilliant and that I should never change or part with a single word. Thank god I have people help me with critiques, otherwise nothing would ever get done except a slew of unsellable novels.

Right now I'm grappling with this decision after putting my first big book to rest. I can't touch it for at least two weeks before I start hacking away edits. But I feel like it's not my best work, I know it's not, and I have a hopeless feeling of doom that no matter how many times I hack at it I'll never be happy with the end result. So, going on to this second book which is moving along at lightening speed for Nano means I have to hold on tight with my outline and keep writing until my fingers fall off. More of my first book method. But I don't know if that's right anymore. But if it isn't, what is? I've done a balance of re-write and edit then get fresh pages but that never works. I wind up re-working so much I procrastinate on page count, but I can still lie to myself that I got a lot of work done for the day. Hmm....what should I do?

Nano count: 2,345 words