Open Wardrobes

As I've been working on my own projects both as an actor and a writer I've also been of course watching the progess of both Kelly and our friend Tim on National Novel Writing Month (affectionately referred to as NaNoWriMo). Last night Kelly crossed the 23,000 word threshold, which puts her several thousand words ahead and is an average of just over 2000 words a day. (Tim is already over 30,000, but he's something of an over-achiever so that's hardly typical ) I think this is a very impressive achievement, it takes a lot to keep up that sort of pace, especially when you have to work a full-time job on top of it. It's also a great exercise in not self-editing too much on the first draft. It's easy to get bogged down on the little parts at the expense of actually getting out a complete draft. There's something psychological about that achievement, however much work the piece might need. You've made it to a very definite goalpost, and once you have that first draft I find that there's more motivation to take it and turn it into a finished work. After all, you've made it that far, why not go the rest of the way and make all that effort really count? A half-finished draft, on the other hand, never seems to carry with it that same sense of obligation, especially if it doesn't yet feel like it's going anywhere.


So I find the whole NaNoWriMo concept very inspring, and it makes me want to sit down and start another book (shameless plug: my first book is on sale here). The idea that you can start at zero and in a month have a draft... well, it makes it all feel more doable. So perhaps when The Hanging of the Greens is over and I have a draft of the one-man show that needs to sit for a bit, maybe the time will be right.