NaNos -- your first draft (with footnotes!)

Dear NaNos (and other readers):

The first draft is not the time to polish your manuscript, or second-guess your ideas or get judgy* about your writing. You can do that later, after you've gotten 50,000 or so words on the page**. The first draft is the place to get your ideas on the page -- whether that is fleshing out an outline (planner) or channeling creative spirit without constraint (pantser***).

You will be tempted to thoroughly read what you write. Don't do so -- keep writing the words. Keep letting the ideas flow. Don't censor yourself when you write at first draft point -- welcome the plot absurdities and scenery-chewing, the mystical subways and talking trees****. You have plenty of time later to decide whether to keep them or not*****.

The 50,000 word first draft is not to make you a novelist. It's to make your future as a novelist possible through helping you break through the psychological barrier that makes you think you're not a novelist******.

So go for it! It might change your life!*******

**********************
Footnotes:

* although colloquial, I like this word better than "judgmental" simply because of the sound of it.

** this is not actually the length most novels should be for the market. It is, however, the winning number of words for NaNoWriMo.

*** as in "flying by the seat of your pants".

**** oops, I'm the one with the mystical subways, not you. You know what I mean, though.

***** hint: If they detract from the plot and character, get rid of them.

****** NaNoWriMo has loopholes one can exploit if one doesn't want to write a novel. There's all sorts of other projects one can undertake -- a script, an autobiography, historical fiction ...

******* or maybe not. But it's worth trying.