Back in June, I decided to try the NaNoWriMo - first draft in 30 days. The goal was 50,000 words in 30 days and I was able to push myself to get it done. November is the official NaNoWriMo month and so I thought I'd try to do the re-write of the June draft now. It is now the 15th and I should be somewhere around 25,000 words by the end of business today. However, I am not even close. I am at 7,500 of fresh text and 5,000 of scenes lifted from the June draft, so about 12,500 total.

When I wrote the first draft in June, my personal goal was to prove that I could churn out that quantity in the alloted time frame. This time my goal is to turn out a coherent story that flows nicely from beginning to end. I am having a hard time making the daily word count because I am getting bogged down in the quality of the words on the page vs. the quantity.

My point is that NaNoWriMo is a good tool for generating a first draft, because you are forced to forge ahead to get the words on the page. I am not so sure that it is a good tool for revision. Or maybe that is just my excuse for being 12,000 words behind schedule....Thoughts?