Does this happen to anyone else?

[ecosopher]

Now that I've got my plot and outline worked out, I keep thinking of awesome sentences I would use in the story.  Not just sentences by themselves, but whole paragraphs that kind of just evolve... and I want to write them down, but I feel like it would be cheating.  And I'm scared if I don't write them down, I'll lose them forever!*

Is it just me?!!

Comments

[alphasunrise]

Write them, by all means. Just don't include them in your NaNo wordcount.

[elbereth]

This. Don't risk losing ideas that you love.

[alphasunrise]

Yes!

NaNo is a tool. A game, an exercise, a challenge.

But the writing and the story should never be sacrificed to the rules of the game.

[i_lovedyoufirst]

I think that a few words or a sentence here and there as part of your outline won't kill anybody.

Unless, of course, that's the plot point you're working on. (;

[belleweather]

I write them down, but I make myself do it by hand. I've got a whole pad of stuff that I've written -- dialogue snippets, the starts of scenes, notes about stuff that I want to include later, song lyrics, whatever -- just a big random file of stuff that gives me inspiration. Some of it might end up going word-for-word into my nano, but I'll probably end up re-writing most of it and adding context and description as I go. So I don't consider it cheating.

Plus, while it IS a contest, it's a contest with yourself, you know? It's not like you're going to get disqualified by the regulating body or something.

[ecosopher]

I'm writing a few sentences here and there. It's not like everything I think of right now will be gold, and I might not even use it, but as some of you mentioned, it's a competition with myself... I'm just a bit of a goody-goody and don't like to do the wrong thing ;) With any luck I'll write over the 50K so won't have to 'count' them anyway. Thanks for the input, everyone :)

[marycatelli]

I'd call it notes