Plot, Or Lack of One, Is Becoming a Problem

I'm up to 20,000 words, ahead of schedule but way behind on plot, thrills and character development. Missing these three things in a thriller novel is not good.

I find I have to continually remind myself that I'm not trying to produce a finished product. The first year I did NaNoWriMo the writing was so bad I don't think I've looked at it or even tried to edit it since I wrote it. Second year, also stank, but I've now edited that sucker to a point that I'm happy with it. If I look back at that rough draft and then the finished product there are very few similarities. The third year, same as the second. I'm in the process of editing it and I'm finding the same is true for this story as the other, the NaNoWriMo draft serves as a basis for the story but very little of what I actually wrote in NaNoWriMo is still in that sucker.

So what's the take-away? Keep writing I suppose. Even if it sucks I'll fix it in the editing process. I've done it before, I'll do it again. As so many people like to say, it's not writing that's hard, it's rewriting.