Between November 1st and 30th I took part in NaNoWriMo, the annual National Novel Writing Month, and completed the first draft of a 50,000 word novel in those 30 days. This was only the second time I’ve taken part, but it is a valuable reminder of what we can achieve when we let go of perfectionism and ‘just do it’.
In the past, when I’ve embarked on writing fiction, I would get so far, and give up, overwhelmed by my inner critic. The critic subpersonality is satisfied with nothing less than perfection – which, is, of course, impossible. The critic has me read over what I’ve written so far, editing and tinkering with it, and putting off continuing the story. Perfectionism leads to procrastination. The critic is convinced that whatever I write next will not be perfect – so what’s the point of doing it. Or, in a more positive mood, research some minor aspect to be sure to get it right, write three sentences, then procrastinate by checking for internal consistency, wondering if this character is a caricature, debating whether to write in the first person or third person ….. and so on and so on.
The joy of NaNoWriMo is that the critic HAS to be switched off, or you won’t have any chance of completing the fifty thousand words. I might procrastinate for ten minutes by looking at the online weather forecast, but the pull to complete today’s target of 1667 words drags me out of procrastination. Because the stated aim is to complete a first draft, it’s OK for it to be ‘not perfect’. Editing, and looking at what has been written as a critical reader, is a separate activity – the task is simply to complete 50 thousand words. There were days that I would be writing for an hour, convinced that what I had produced was complete rubbish – but the trick is to keep writing regardless, and eventually I would become inspired by one of my characters, or the landscape, and the fingers started dancing over the keyboard.
I know, from running training courses, that it’s important in a brainstorming session not to start analysing and critiquing – creativity is interrupted by criticism. Anything that allows us to put the inner critic on hold will help our creativity to flow more freely.
And the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment makes it more likely that I will continue writing.