Get me Re-Write!

I came *this* close to skipping NaNoWriMo this year.

Many problems, as I outlined in another post.

But I'm still doing it, though coming at it in a different way.

One of the reasons I gave for not participating this year was because I'd already started a novel I wanted to work on. At the last minute, however, I decided -- after reading the opening chapters of that novel -- that I loved it enough I wanted to save it, and that meant an extensive re-write. And I mean extensive -- so far, I've ditched at least half of the novel's first 8,000 words, replacing them with new ones that tie in later bits of the book better with the first.

Is that cheating?

Maybe in a way it is. But in a way, it's not. This will be a new novel once the end of November rolls around. There's a lot of potential in this book, but a lot that's buried under a bad beginning that's actually a beginning to a different book than the one that's coming out towards the end. So to re-write a novel, I think, is kosher, as there are many who go into NaNoWriMo with extensive outlines and such, which I do not have. I have a pile of lumber out of which I hope to construct a novel by the time the month is out.

I'm glad I'm doing it this way.