Quick Tip: Write from Beginning to End

There are four types of writers, I think.

1. Dash Drafter dashes off a first draft of a novel in 30 days (You knew there'd be a NaNoWriMo reference in here, didn't you?), checks it over for typos, and considers it done. It's painful to read.
   
2. E.D. Itor is at the other end of the spectrum. This one writes the first scene in 30 days, stopping and rewriting till every freaking word is absolutely perfect. It's painful to watch.
   
3. Author Interruptus never makes it to the finish line. Maybe he starts off like Dash but runs out of steam, or edits himself to death and never makes it past the first scene.
4. The fourth writer, we'll call the Published Author, and that's who we all aspire to be. This author is part Dash and Part E.D. Itor--he gets to the finish line, but then realizes the work has only begun.

I was inspired a couple years ago by a blog post I read on Murderati, written by Tess Gerritsen. A smart person would have bookmarked that post; unfortunately, I did not and now I can't find it despite my strong Google skills. She wrote about how she writes: from beginning to end, no matter what changes in the storyline. If she decided to change a character's name, she made a note of it and moved on. If she decided to get rid of a character, she made a note of it and moved on. When she edited her first draft, then she worried about all those pesky details.

I'm using her technique to get to the finish line of NaNoWriMo. I'm hoping that with my natural E.D. Itor tendencies, I'll eventually be able to chisel a finished novel out of the process.

Joely Sue Burhart has some other great tips for hitting the NaNoWriMo finish line--and, of course, like Tess Gerritsen's method of writing, these tips can help you get to the end of your novel whether you're doing NaNoWriMo or not.

So what type of writer are you?