M. Lori Motley

During NaNoWriMo, the most popular refrain is “Kill the Inner Editor!” Now, I refuse to kill my inner editor, since I’m not completely convinced in the resurection of life. I need my editor, see, since I play on actually submitting my novel to publishers.

But I don’t want to get bogged down in editing during NaNoWriMo. Who does? So I have to just tie my inner editor up for a while. (I think she likes it, quite frankly.)

Here is the problem.

I begin to consider NaNoWriMo to be not sanctified enough to honor completely. “It’s the spirit of the thing. Just one month of doing things differently,” I say, but don’t quite believe it.

I write to get published, and enjoy the whole process, no matter how painful the creation, destruction and recreation might be. Is NaNo not right for me? Maybe not.

It’s not about getting 50,000 words done in a month. I know I can do that. I write up to 15,000 words a day for various fiction and business purposes. I could write a first draft in a week if I needed to (You know, like if someone chained me to the chair and whipped me.)

So, why not edit now? I’m not quite sure.