It’s just about National Novel Writing Month go-time! Though for NaNoWriMo 2017, this writer has an editor’s goal instead.

I know that National Novel Writing Month doesn’t have “editor” or “editing” anywhere in it. There’s no clever way around that fact. NaNoWriMo is a writer’s time to write. It’s not traditionally an editor’s time to edit.

But you know what? I’ve already written. I have two completed manuscripts sitting on my computer that I really thought I’d have published by now. They’ve been tucked away inside my “Stories” folder since before 2017 even existed!

At least I think they have. And I’m way too busy to go back and check.

I’ve also been way too busy to get either manuscript properly edited. Which means I’ve been way too busy to publish them. Which means that I really actually am too busy to start writing a whole new novel just yet.

First things first, people.

I know I’m the one who’s constantly telling everyone else that they can find time to work on their story manuscripts if they just try. (Almost) no excuses!

And I’ll accept my own criticism that I haven’t put my writing money where my editorial mouth is. There definitely have been times over the last nine months when I could have set aside Words With Friends on Facebook or decided that my reading goals needed to take a backseat to my editorial goals. And perhaps I’ve seen my adorable not-quite-two-year-old niece a few more times than I strictly needed to.

She’s just too cute for words though!

With that said, it’s mainly been my business goals that have gotten in the way of my writing, editing and publishing aspirations.

Figuring out how to properly and smoothly run one’s own business has been quite the adventure these last nine months. I’ve been hoodwinked by a marketing company to the tune of thousands of dollars, gone to writers’ conferences (the subject of this week’s writing Definition, Challenge and Rule, by the way), networked, gotten clients, lost clients, and even talked to the IRS.

Incidentally, the representative I spoke with was very sweet, even if it did take a little bit of time to get through to an actual human being.

And that’s my main point right there. It takes time. All of it takes time. Time that I could otherwise be writing. Or be making some much-needed editorial changes to my manuscripts. Or be pressing the “publish” button at CreateSpace.

Now, I absolutely love what I’ve been doing here at Innovative Editing. The people I’ve been meeting and the content I’ve been editing have been so much fun to work with. However, it’s high time I started to figure out ways to properly incorporate my own story manuscript goals back into my schedule… in the same way that I help others do.

So that’s what this November is going to be for me. Instead of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, I’ve dubbed it National Novel Editing Month, or NaNoEdMo.

I’ve already gotten both my I-thought-they’d-be-published-by-now manuscripts to the solid second-draft stage. So I’m going to pick one of them and turn it into a solid third draft. In one month.

Either choice means I’ll be giving my editorial attention to more than 100,000 words, which isn’t necessarily going to be easy.

But I do think it’s going to be doable. In fact, I’m really excited to see how this NaNoWriMo rebellion works out.

So, editors? On your marks… Get set…