Words Written: 10,000 / 50,000
Day: 7
Since I began NaNo I've been hemming and hawing over whether to talk about it here. Then I saw that Casey and some others have been doing status updates and so I'm going to chime in as well.
This is my first year doing NaNo, and really, my first year seriously writing. While writing (fiction) in some form or another is something that I've been doing for as long as I can remember I never really had any one thing that I wanted to sincerely share with people. But last year I was struck with an idea and immediately took heaps of notes; most of them were recorded as I had so many ideas in my head that my hand couldn't keep up with everything I wanted to get out before it slipped away. And that was it. My idea floundered between the pages of my notebook and that was it.
Until a friend of mine mentioned that she was gearing up again for NaNo and I promptly marched to Barnes & Noble, bought a moleskine. I was prepared. Spotify on, notebook open... I wrote and wrote.
I've seen posts where people have battled internally over how terrible their writing is or that their story idea is crap. I have those moments, too - the other day in particular it was quite bad. And then I remember that Stephanie Perkins and Erin Morgenstern both had their stories born from plugging along during NaNo. Every time I think of that it gives me hope, that I have a goal, and that I can achieve it.
And so I write. I don't write equal amounts every day due to coursework or what have you but I make sure I get something out, just to keep going. It's hard. But everything is, and, for me, it's worth the effort.
To everyone that's doing NaNo (and equally to those who aren't but are still writing in earnest):
You are amazing. You were amazing beforehand and you are undertaking something crazy and wonderful and we can only be better for it. I wish you much luck, and feel free to talk to me on Twitter/e-mail/here somewhere about anything because we're all in a fun, rocky boat together. And we'll make it through.
