[gurgeh]

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Why would anyone want to put so much effort into writing an awful novel? Wouldn't it be better to take six months or a year, work less hard, and write better?

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In my experience, no. And if you read On Writing, I believe Stephen King doesn't believe that writing a novel should take more than a few months, ever.

The idea is (and my experience reinforces it) that you need to get your stuff down instead of sitting there moping that you can't think of how to continue. The limited time frame and required volume force you to churn out text that, while it might be choppy, inarticulate, or even totally lame, still contains your basic ideas about what it needs to be. It's easier to edit than it is to create from scratch, so getting all this stuff down and then honing it later if by far preferable to sitting there, making sure every sentence is right before moving on.