Over the shoulder readers

I was discussing the upcoming nano madness with Paul, and he mentioned he's likely to post his work as he writes it. I thought I'd list the reasons I'm opposed to posting more than the occasional excerpt.

First, Nano month is not all about quality, its about quantity. A deadline without hope of publishing lets a writer let go and write whatever comes to mind without hindrances to the muse like spellcheck and content editing. The story may come out in disjointed chunks with thin characters and a thinner plotline. I can almost guarantee there will be plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. The end result is a story in place, if lacking elegance and cohesion. There's a finished project in place of the all too common "someday."

That's great, but its not the way I want people to remember my writing. Most of the people reading the chunks will never see the finished product, which will bear little resemblance to what I turn out during Nano week.

Reason number two. Though I love feedback, this month I'm basically blocking. The ideas are not fully formed. If I receive too much feedback while writing, it will effect my story, no matter how hard I try to avoid this. Its like a hairdresser showing off half a haircut. It looks pretty nasty and may lose the hairdresser business. An artist starts fixing the pieces before the total idea is blocked and becomes bogged down.

Last, I'm a little vain. If my husband sees the stray hairs I missed shaving and even helps clean them up, its all to the good, promoting togetherness and keeping us both humble. Let a stranger or someone used to seeing only my fully clothed and unrumpled self have a look at my unkempt curly locks, and that look on their face is more likely to be disgust or amusement than loving tolerance and understanding.

All this says is you're likely to have a lot more fun reading Paul's posts than my own. I'll discuss what I'm doing and post the occasional excerpt...I may even request feedback. But show off my inept and incomplete grooming??? I think not ;-).