Today is December's contribution to Alex Cavanaugh's Insecure Writers Support Group.
Whew! I almost missed writing this month’s Insecure Writer post.
I suppose I could blame NaNo and the holidays for this lapse, but I think the real reason is that I don’t feel all that insecure this December. This might sound a bit surprising considering I only managed 25K words during NaNo, but I learned a lot about my writing methods in the last month and I’m feeling much better about this whole writing thing.
Of course, next month I’ll probably be insecure again, but that’s the life of a writer, isn’t it?
Here’s what I learned from NaNo.
1. I’m a slow writer. (LOL, I’ve known that for years) But I also learned I can write quickly as long as I have a good grasp of what a scene is about and where it’s headed. The scene will need massive revisions before anyone can see it, but my scenes always need massive revisions -- even when I write slowly.
2. I discovered I’m a plotser. No matter how much I plot beforehand, until I start putting the words down on paper I have no idea what the real plot will be until I finish the first draft. Angela Quarles apparently has the same problem.
3. As a result of all this re-plotting, my NaNo story is now far stronger than it was before. Yay!
4. Staying away from my original WIP for the last month has made me even more eager to get it finished.
That's all for now. I promise to be more insecure next month – assuming we all survive the 21st of December, that is.
That's great! I still haven't written one ten page chapter, not even half. But I didn't have writer's block once I figured out the midpoint reversal. Instead, I had writer's don't want to for my book. I read and edited another writer's entire new release book. I blogged. I read a couple of picture books and wrote reviews and started reading two novels. I wrote a ton of emails. But my wip sat like a lazy cat. At least I enjoyed visiting my family.
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