This November I’m planning on re-writing last year’s NaNoWriMo novel. I am amazed and terrified to see how many things have changed for this story over the course of a year. I know this is a good thing, because first drafts usually are full of cliches and bad ideas, with a few hidden gems. But it’s hard not to second guess the decision to make these changes.
I used to write a first draft and consider the story almost done. I cringe to remember how proud I was of some of those first drafts. But they were important stepping stones and there were some great ideas, but I now see that all those stories would need serious reworking before they saw the light of day. I’ve learned that editing is more than proofreading and re-writing a scene here and there. You have to be willing to rework characters, plot arcs, and concepts which seemed essential in the first draft. The truth is that nothing is sacred in a first draft. Everything is subject to change.
Hopefully these changes will strengthen my novel and move me closer to publishing.
I wish all the NaNoWriMo participants the best of luck. I’ll see you at the finish line!
Now it’s time to stop procrastinating and get back to planning for November.
~~Lady of the Pen~~
Sarah Sanborn 
Good luck! I like that quote about editing.
Thanks a lot! Same to you, are you participating in NaNo?
I did it last year. Might go for 50k words worth of short stories this time around. It sparked my writing path!
Awesome! I thought about going the short stories route, but decided it was more important to rewrite this novel. What genre do you write in?
Sci fi and fantasy mostly. Experimenting in different genres still. Exciting journey!
Nice! I tend to write in those genres as well, though I like bringing in elements of steam and diesel punk ^^
Love the quote. Your willingness to shoulder the pain and go the distance in spite of it is inspirational. Fearless leader – lead on! See you in NaNo-Land.
i love that i’m not the only one to use NaNo to try motivate myself into editing
I’d much rather work on a new story, but this thing isn’t going to edit itself. What’s your novel about?
yes the writing of a novel is the real job for me but as you say it wont edit itself 🙂 Mine is a fantasy novel not sure i can describe it very easily just yet (one of my first task after re-reading it) for now i will say its about how we choose those we become close to and that even those without biological family can have a family that they build around themselves. The main character finds she can influence peoples perception of herself and this ultimately leads her into the court of the king.
But as a huge conflict that i really need to pull out more in the writing, any with magical abilities must announce themselves as having such and are used as key members within the army so her secret is a death penalty if the king were to find out