For those who would like to know how I made it through eight NaNoWriMos successfully, I have this bit of advice. What worked for me DETERMINATION. If you have the desire to write a novel in November, you have to be really, really sure you want it.

You will set aside enough time each day or night to write a good sized chunk of your novel. The first year I did this, I was determined to write 2500 words every evening. I knew I’d be distracted by one out-of-town trip early in the month. Also at that time I had young children still at home, and what’s more distracting than that? So I figured if I totally blew it and couldn’t get my work done some days, this would at least give me more than the daily minimum of 1667 words. As it turned out, though I did have to take one day off, I finished the novel in only seventeen days. You know how I did that? DETERMINATION.

This fierce quality, also known as WILL-POWER, is the hard outer-covering of an intense need to succeed. If you are one of those that needs to write a novel, I’m sure you won’t have any problem drumming up enough DETERMINATION to make that happen. You and many others will meet in the winner’s forum shouting out about your success and celebrating with your writerly joy.

If you are one of those who is slowing down, doubting your ability to go on, first examine your motivation. Why do you want to write a novel? How important is it to you? Whose idea was it, anyway? How much will it embarrass you to say, “I failed”? I suppose not everyone is meant to write a novel. Not everyone can do it every year. Not everyone really wants to. Either buckle down and pack on some DETERMINATION or instead, write a list of twenty things you learned by attempting NaNoWriMo this year, and post it to your blog.

Those with DETERMINATION: Buddy up to your characters, and write on!

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