This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
You can listen to Anna’s podcasted novel over on her websitewww.annabellwrites.com and follow her on twitter @annabell_writesLiterary agent, Kate Nash tweeted last week, ‘NaNoWriMo places too much emphasis on quantity over quality’ and I was nodding my head in agreement as I was inclined to agree. But then it suddenly dawned on me that although I don't do NaNo (let's just say I'm a tad over competitive and it brings out my worst side), my entire writing style is reminiscent of NaNo. I plan the novel out, and then I write it. And I write it furiously.
I remember tweeting one Saturday that I was hoping to bang out 6,000 words and someone asked me whether I meant in one go. Now I know 6,000 words sounds ambitious, but because of my novel structure my chapters are only 2,000 words each which meant that I was only going to write 3 chapters. And because I’ve planned my novel in detail, chapter by chapter, I already knew the start middle and end to the chapter. Which means when it comes to writing I could write each chapter fairly quickly. I’ve written just 50,000 words of my novel which I started mid September – 7 weeks ago. I’m hoping that I’ll finish the 30,000 words needed to complete it before January. Which would be about three and half months, not bad going when you consider I work full time!
When I say finish the novel, essentially what it means as I have finished the first very rough draft. I write novels like I write exhibition panels in the museum where I work. I write what I essentially want to say in the first draft. From there I edit. I re-jig the information turning it into (hopefully) an engaging piece of text, hooking the reader and sustaining their interest right the way down to the bottom of the panel. All in the smallest amount of words possible, as museum visitors hate to read a book on a wall.
Although novel writing is very different to exhibition panels I find I use the same process. That 80,000 words that I wrote in the first draft is painstakingly read through and rewritten. Language tightened up, speech read out loud to make sure it flows and adding that all important sparkle to the writing. Then it is re-edited in terms of continuity errors and typos, etc.
Now I know I’m not a published writer, so I’m not writing this to say this is the way a book must be written. I’m merely saying, this is how I approach it. It may be a very wrong way – and maybe why I’m not published 😉 But I do find it interesting that I sort of disagree with the idea that it is wrong to put emphasis on quantity. For me it is all about getting the ideas down, and the quality and finesse I can add later.
I would love to know what everyone else thinks, are you all about the quantity or the quality – or can you do both?!