Anma Natsu asked Marilyn Vix:

What drew you to participate in NaNoWriMo? How would you respond to criticisms that the event encourages "bad" writing?

Marilyn Vix From what I've seen on my writing boards, everyone is trying to get their word count speed up. That sells books better than not writing them. There is a demand right now to write and publish quickly. NaNo encourages the process of getting the work done. It's a good motivator. And it has word count as a goal. There is also a lot of prep. that should be done before NaNo, like character development or outlining. I usually participate with a work in progress. It helps finish the project.

Everything can be rewritten, but it has to be done as a first draft first. I don't think there is ever any bad writing, just not "revised" writing. You improve if you write. So, NaNo helps get people to sit down and do it. That's powerful. Writing can only be learned by doing more writing. So, no matter what, if you write you will only get better.

NaNo has also help me set a writing routine. This is important to get any kind of real writing done. One hour a day, twice a day, is my current routine. This gets me 500-1500 words done a day. I've actually gotten faster now that my routine is down.

And I've almost made my word count with my project on NaNo. It won't finish the novel, but it will get it on the road to almost completed. I'm hoping that by July, I'll be able to finish. Than, I can go into revision. But you can't do anything without a rough draft. A lot of writers say, just write the first draft. Don't worry about anything until it's done. And that's what you're supposed to do. Revision will make any writing better, and of course, working with an editor polishes it.

I'd recommend NaNo for the writing step of working on the initial first draft. It really helps to get it done. All writers usually have at least one project that is at this point in the process. For other things like revision, editors and beta readers are good for that.

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