11/9/10

LaLaLa I Can't Hear You!

My inner editor (who needs a gender...and a name) and I have always been rather telepathic, sort of like how my Dad and I can silently communicate when he's playing guitar and I'm singing. My inner editor just has to nudge me, and her (her?) nudges are usually very gentle because I'm very responsive. "Hey, maybe you should change that there..." "Okay. No problem. Good idea."

She currently hates me. On November 1, she tried the little whisper and found that it didn't work. A bit louder. A poke. Then an elbow to the ribs.

I think she's resorted to hitting me over the head with whatever she can get her hands on (frying pans, anyone?), but I'm not really sure. Because I'm at the plugged-my-fingers-in-my-ear-can't-hear-you-LALALALALA! (Even as I suddenly change from past tense to present tense, back to past tense in a last ditch effort to save my sanity, and then seamlessly back into present tense without any hope of return.)

Dear NaNoWriMo, you are breaking my inner editor's heart. And if she dies from said broken heart, I'm going to be really, really, really mad come December 1. Because I'm going to need her. A lot.

*sigh* I've been writing faster than I ever thought possible. Writingwritingwriting with no thought for plot or backstory or what's been done before and what hasn't and what needs to make sense and that was spelled wrong oh well and who needs proper grammar anyway and I know they've sighed a dozen times but I can't think of anything else when I'm in a word war and only have 4:23 left to write and I'm trying to get my word count up and trying to win...

I'm not dissing NaNo. I love it. It's so much fun and so different from what I'm used to. A great change.

All the same, I'm really, really worried that my inner editor won't come back on December 1. I picture her out somewhere, sitting with her knees hunched up to her chest, tears tracing her ways down her cheeks as she swears to herself that she'll never, ever come back to someone who doesn't appreciate her.

Please, anyone who's done NaNoWriMo before, please tell me she'll come back!

1 comment:

Anne Gallagher said...

Let me tell you right now, she'll come back and she'll be pissed.

You did all that work without her and she thought you NEEDED her.

All is not lost however, here's a tried and true trick.

On December 1, set up your writing area like you always do, put on some nice music, (her favorite) get a nice big mug of hot chocolate and sit. Don't do anything for 5 minutes. Just sit and wait. Take a sip of the hot chocolate. Then put your fingers to the keyboard.

Heave a sigh, and then say out loud, "Gee, I wish I hadn't been so crazy during NaNo. I sure could use some help now."

Guaranteed, your muse will whack you upside the head and say, "See, I told you you needed me."

And there you go.