Has Heather disappeared off the face of the earth? No, it's just NaNoWriMo time again

 

    For a week or so there I was blogging every day again. Really just getting back into the swing of things like a champ. Most of my posts were random, which is the way I like it. Although I did try to make them fairly "author-y".

    Then poof. No more blogs. What happened? First Halloween happened, but then November 1st hit and now it's time for NaNoWriMo. 

    What is NaNoWriMo? It stands for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). And the idea is that starting on November 1st through November 30th, writers of all types (amateurs to NY Times bestsellers), sit down every day and write. The goal is to write 50,000 words in that month. It seems daunting to those who don't write daily or are slow writers, but it's not a competition. It's motivation to help you get your writing done. There are many people that are in the same boat as you who need that extra nudge to get shit done. Some people write more, some write less. Sometimes you hit your goal and sometimes you don't. 

    I have an author friend that regularly publishes multiple books a year. She writes fast and she writes all the time. She still does NaNo because it help re motivate her. I also know others who use it for it's community. At Nano you can buddy up with friends, join local groups and do "write ins" and "Sprints" and you can read pep talks from some of your favorite authors. It helps you feel more connected. It shows you that these authors are just regular people, like you , that had an idea and wrote it down.  They all started at the beginning, just like you.

    And here's a bonus. It's not about how great your first draft is. Generally the first draft is filled with grammatical errors. Or as I read one time; You're first draft is a pile of shit, that's why we edit and do revisions. But you can't clean it up if you don't get it on paper. NanoWrimo doesn't care about how pretty it is. It just wants you to vomit words on paper. That's it. Get the words in. Get your butt in a chair. Noone sees your work but you. All Nano cares about it word count.

    So, yeah, you probably won't see me much. I will try to blog from time to time if I remember something other than my novel over this next month. I will try. But my main focus right now is getting that word count. Reaching 50k by the end of November and finishing this novel. And if I can finish this one. If I can sit and write every day and it becomes a habit, then I can finish all my other poor stories that have been in a coma for years. And maybe even barf out some of the stories that have been trapped in my head as well.

    Have you tried NaNo? If you're an aspiring writer, I recommend you check it out.

See you on the other side. And good luck if you're doing it. :D

https://nanowrimo.org