CornerScribe

Dust off those novels!

It’s that time of year again, and to be honest, I almost FORGOT. That tells you just how busy (and preoccupied) I’ve been.

March is NaNoEdMo. That’s National Novel Editing Month.

If you participated in NaNoWriMo in November or just have a novel in a drawer that needs work, then consider signing up. The rules are pretty simple: spend 50 hours in March editing your novel. If you have more questions, then go here.

I think editing is much more difficult than writing the rough draft, and having some motivation to put butt in chair and pen in hand every day is a good thing. I’ll be participating this year, and we’ll see what we get by the end of March.

If anyone else is interested, post a comment here. My username is jkay on the site, so look me up!

Edited to add:

Here are a few tips to get started…

• If you like to work from paper, then print your novel now.
• Buy whatever pens, sticky-notes or other supplies you’ll need.
• Clean off your desk or work-space.
• If the novel is unfinished, spend the next couple weeks writing. If you can’t finish it, at least jot down some scene ideas so you know where things are going and how it will end.
• Make a list of your characters with name, age, description and a few crucial notes. This is especially helpful if the novel has sat untouched for a while.
• Make a one page outline of major scenes so you can see where the plot is going and decide what needs to be changed.
• Talk to your family about delegating some work next month. You’ll need almost 2 hours a day to make the goal, so think where you can get that time now.
• Practice getting up earlier if you plan to do that to get more writing time.
• Consider having lunch at your desk and getting some editing time there if that’s do-able where you work.
• Have fun with it! Spend some time socializing with your fellow writers as well; don’t forget that this is meant to be enjoyable.