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NaNoWriMo & Editing

If you haven't gone to the Young Writers NaNoWriMo site I would suggest you go and look around.  They have a fun countdown clock counting the days until NaNoWriMo. Eek! Just 10 more days to get ready for NaNoWriMo. Deep breath, it will be okay.

I found the workbooks under resources to be a fun way to prepare for NaNoWriMo. I have not done the whole workbook but I did do activities with my kids last year.  I really had fun with the inner editor page in the elementary workbook.  They have three workbooks elementary, middle and high school.

In the elementary workbook is an inner editor worksheet. It was a fun way to write all your fears down and lock our inner editor away. My son had a little lock box and we put our inner editors in the box and locked them up the the month.  Plus you can color your editor it is always fun to color and therapeutic. I hear adult coloring is all the rage lately so don't look at this as a childish activity.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to get your idea down. Not to go back and edit or fix the red lines under misspelled words. It is hard to not click on misspelling words but going back wastes time and interrupts the flow of writing. This can wait until January when you can go back and reread your story.  Just write, don't edit.

30 days of writing is not enough time to edit. I have to admit I have gone back and started to edit in November, it is hard to overlook.  It is like Pinterest, a blackhole and a waste of  writing time.

NaNoWriMo is all about writing, not editing. Get your story down and dissect it later. Write something worthy of editing.  Don't try to prefect the story as you write. Don't be to hard on yourself.  Let the red lines of misspelled words decorate your page and let the green lines of grammar join them, they can sing Kumbaya together for a while.  There will be time later to fix the mistakes.  For now just write.

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