Nanowrimo 2013 was the 8th Nano novel (novelette?) I've written and only one of those novels did I ever attempt to edit. It was during the year I convinced myself to sign up for an online class with Holly Lisle, How to Revise a Novel.
I'm not an affiliate of Holly, nor perhaps would she want me to be because I really sucked at her class. I managed to keep focus on the class for a few months and then allowed myself to be distracted yet again by all the glories and distractions of the web.
You would have thought I'd learned from my previous online class (the year before?) which was Holly's, How to Think Sideways. By the way I do think both classes are very good (if you actually follow through) and have great forums that I still visit when I'm being all writer-like, which I admit is not often these days.
Self confidence is what it boils down to for me. I was not confident in sharing the stories I had written but I did learn how to churn them out. I think I was scared, and am scared, to succeed.
There are lots of comments out there about how horrid Nanowrimo is but to get you to do something you've always wanted (like write a novel) it worked for me but my follow through, editing my novels, has not happened quite yet. Fine I did partially edit the one novel and maybe it's time I got back to it.
To succeed in writing you have to spit out your story and then edit it and that's the way it works. You must get something on paper/online first so you have something to mold into shape. I will see none of my stories be the way I want them to be if I do not edit and mold them.
So I've got my free winner code from Nanowrimo again and I wonder will I get yet another free printed book, unedited, as I have before? Last year I gave my free code away because I wasn't willing to inflict that kind of torture on my bookshelf yet again.
Besides Holly's class there are some good books out there too.
Self Editing for Fiction Writers would probably be even better if one did the exercises in it. Right? What's stopping you?
Have you trained yourself to edit? Do you bother to edit? Are you one of those who have trained themselves to spit out a perfect story/post without nary an edit?
Don't lose focus, edit, and if you don't know how read up on it or join a class. Let yourself succeed and maybe I'll follow through too.
