The Ides of NaNo (This one's for the writers out there.)

Here we are, November the 15th.

If you payed attention to my NaNoWriMo post you would know that that means I should be at approximately 25000 words.

So how much have I actually gotten written? 

21887.

That's right, I'm behind! Unlike this blog, however, I'm not going to just forget about it. With half a month left to go, I have faith that I'll be able to pick up the pace and get my 50000 written on time.

The question which plagues me is this. What if I'm not finished the book? What if I complete my fifty thousand words and I'm not quite at the climax, or maybe nowhere even close to it?

I keep going of course, but I mean according to the rules. Can you still win if you're not finished? Can you just fake it and call the rest editing? Is that really the point?

Of course not.

The point is to write, and that I have been doing. For any of you other NaNoers out there, keep it up! You can do it. Even if you don't have your full 50k by month's end, you'll still have a heck of a lot more than you did before you started.

Remember, it takes ten thousand hours of doing something until you begin to be good at it. Every word you write brings you closer to that ten thousand hours.

Keep writing!

Thanks for reading,

-Step.

P.S. If you need more inspiration, check out I Should Be Writing. You'll see that the professionals have troubles to work through, and also gain some interesting insights into the nature of writing and procrastination.

NaNoWriMo

I have no idea how often I'll be posting during this month of November, but I've decided that something's better than nothing, and nothing's what I've been putting up for the last six months.

We're already two days into NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I've just decided to throw up some blog posts on the fly. Tomorrow is also my only day off until the middle of the month. Call me crazy.

For those of you who aren't familiar with NaNoWriMo, here's a little introduction. November is National Novel Writing Month. For those literary types out there, the goal is to write 50 000 words on a single project between November First and November Thirtieth. That works out to roughly 1670 words per day. I managed to do just that yesterday, and it looks like I'll accomplish a similar amount this evening. My personal goal is 2000 words per day, but I think I'll have to work up to that. I'm feeling a little rusty.

I'm also putting this blog post up without editing, so forgive me if it doesn't have the polish that you've come to know and love.

Anyway, this is just a brief note to say I'm back, I'm sorry it's been a while, and it feels good to write again.

If anyone actually is out there reading, feel free to drop me a line at blog.nextstep@gmail.com I always welcome feedback and suggestions.

Thanks for reading,


-Step.