Thank goodness NaNoWriMo is over for 2009… for most of us. I know there are some out there still madly pounding away at their keyboards hoping to get to 50K before midnight. I know because I’ve done it myself, once or twice. But most of us have walked away already secure in the knowledge that if we can write 50,000 words on a novel in less than thirty days, we can do almost anything.

I still can’t do calculus or trigonometry and I’m not all that great at chemistry though I did take and pass an organic chemistry class in college. No matter… I can WRITE and that’s what makes me happy.

My novel this year is about a Bigfoot named Oja. Oja is a lovable but challenging character because I perceive her as having a huge brain capacity with special gifts we humans don’t have, therefore it was hard to describe her perceptions and to imagine her abilities. Nevertheless, the story took form and she became a fascinating personality to explore. I’m still not done with it… but I’m fairly close to the end.

My future novels will be written with a whole lot more pre-planning. I recently purchased the Snowflake Pro software and am using it to develop another novel, one I wrote back in 2002, but never revised. This novel, The Alyssa Project, was one I wrote without the help of NaNoWriMo. It is a YA story of about 58,000 words. I’ve changed a lot as a writer since 2002 and that means I’ve got a lot of work to do in bringing the manuscript up to my new standards.

During November I also purchased the Write or Die Desktop Edition … a great ten dollar investment. It made me write without thinking too much about which way the plot was going, and that brought up some great ideas for the story. I recommend it highly!

Inspiration hit today when I suddenly had to write a lens titled Christmas on a Tight Budget. The ideas kept coming and I finished the project in just a few hours. I’m sure there won’t be a lot of sales from the lens - after all, it is speaking to people with little money - but if anything does get sold it will benefit my favorite charity, Covenant House. This charity helps get homeless teenagers off the streets.

A lot of the teenagers helped by Covenant House were released from foster care with no family and no place to go. I recently made another lens, Drugging Foster Children, which included videos of teenagers telling about how they’d been given multiple psychotropic drugs while in state custody. In one video a teenager stated that when his brother had his eighteenth birthday his foster parent woke him up in the middle of the night, just past midnight, and told him he was eighteen and to get out. This boy didn’t even know his real family. He was sent to the streets. Covenant House helps children in this predicament every day.

Many families are low on funds now, with the recession taking jobs and homes. We need to remember that there are many ways to celebrate Christmas, and that money is not the reason for the season.

Is it hard to write one hundred words? I think most of us wouldn’t have any trouble with that. One hundred words - that’s an easy task.

What does one hundred words look like?

Here’s a snippet from my work in progress. It has exactly one hundred words:

That was easy to write. It took me all of one or two minutes to put that into my manuscript.

The funny thing is, my daily goal of 2500 words is the same as writing one hundred words twenty-five times.

What’s so hard about that?

Nothing.

A NaNoWriMo novel is created simply by writing one hundred words five thousand times.

Can you do that? There’s nothing hard about it… it is just repetitive and time consuming.

Let your imagination flow; let it take you places you’ve never gone before.

I’ve never hiked in the Colorado mountains before - but did so today with Oja and Ken. We’re having a lot of fun. I’d better get back to it. I have to write one hundred words thirteen more times before I can go to sleep.

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
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Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

A lot has been written about how difficult and tedious writing can be. But what of love? If you sit in your chair thinking negative thoughts about how hard it is to get any words on the page, is that going to be better than actually enjoying your writing process?

We all know the fast writers on the NaNoWriMo site are a bit obsessive - but I’ll bet they also love their characters and get joy out of bringing their stories to the page. I find that when I get emotionally involved with my characters the story goes deeper and has richer description and philosophical underpinnings.

A bit of character love resolves flat-character syndrome. After all, if you approach the page in boredom and/or fear, that will probably carry over into the story. However if you sit before the computer and feel some genuine joy and excitement about the writing of your novel, that too will be reflected in the pages of your manuscript.

If you’re not feeling the love, try this. Sit in front of your opened manuscript page and say this affirmation ten times: “I love my characters and they love me because I give them life.” Ten times…. and then check to see if your attitude has changed. If it hasn’t changed sufficiently, say this ten times: “I love writing this novel and bringing life and excitement into my characters.”

If you still think you’re unhappy with your writing progress, just write anyway. You may find that subconsciously your attitude made a subtle shift and that you’re happier than you think.

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
NaNoWriMo Notations
Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

If you don’t have a goal you can’t reach for it. I’m sure most of you have decided to write a certain number of words daily. If not, you might want to give that a try.

Are you reaching your goals? Do you have what it takes? Sometimes other things in life interfere with a goal-maker’s resolve. If you need sleep so you can get up for work or school in the morning, then that must be your priority. So be it. We cannot let novel writing interfere with reality.

Still, we’ve got that 50,000-word goal to think about during NaNoWriMo…

Cut that into bite sized pieces and it isn’t so hard to reach. So how many days can you definitely devote to writing this month? Days with only one available hour count, though ideally three or four hours would be preferable.

If you can write on at least twenty-five days this month, you’re in luck. 50K divided by 25 equals 2000 words daily MINIMUM. Promise yourself at least that many before you hang it up for the day.

If you have only fifteen days to write this month, let’s hope you’ve got more than one hour on each of those days. 50K divided by 15 equals 3333.33 words daily. Do not settle for less, or you’re in danger (BIG danger) of falling behind.

Every year there are NaNoWriMo participants that wait until the last few days of the month, then R-U-S-H to finish. Do you want to be one of them? I certainly don’t so I pace myself with a daily goal. I like writing 2500 words daily. Sometimes it is really hard for me to reach that goal, but other days I’ll speed ahead with 5000 or more words. Still, the goal is to reach the MINIMUM for the day and under no circumstances to stop writing and fall asleep before that minimum number of words is reached.

With a goal of 2500 words daily I can finish this novel in just twenty days! (Usually it takes less.)

YOU can do that! It just takes that magical word, DETERMINATION. Hug that word. That word is your friend.

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
NaNoWriMo Notations
Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

So, did you think it was going to be easy? I expect by now you’ve had time to sit down at your keyboard and type out a few lines. Go-getters are already 10,000 words into this. Many others have made it to 2000 words. Others are self-flagellating and wondering why it is so hard to reach even 200 words!

Welcome to NaNoWriMo! This is a place where the veils all come off. If you thought being a writer would be easy, you may already be seeing some of the problems involved, and why that word, determination, is so important! I won’t insult ditch diggers by saying writing is hard work, but I will say it is very challenging!

If you’re already confused about where your novel is going, whether it is any good, or if you’ve got any chance at all to finish, please review yesterday’s post about things to do to prepare for NaNoWriMo and also, take a look at this: Get Ready for NaNoWriMo. You might get some cool ideas that will help you write a little bit more, with direction and enthusiasm!

When the veils of illusion are removed you can see exactly what needs to be improved regarding your approach to this writing project. Perhaps by now you realize that you need a smidgen of a plot. You could do what I did - I sat down and wrote a paragraph for each of the next ten chapters. Next I discussed this with my very imaginative significant other. He came up with some good ideas for me, and nixed some of my ideas as “too controversial.” What came out of this brainstorming session was a clear idea of where the plot is going, and how to enhance it in ways that may eventually make some movie producer sit up and take note. (Or even better, take contract in hand!)

Another thing you might be noticing is that keeping up the momentum of writing isn’t easy for all of us. Some of us write in spurts and need frequent breaks. If you find your mental energy lagging, get up, walk around, refill your coffee mug, and if possible, get some exercise.

Are you already feeling like quitting? You might get a lot of mileage from the Word Wars, Prompts, and Sprints section of the NaNoWriMo forum. Usually I leave that section of the site for later in the project, around 30,000 words, when I’m really dragging… but many of you might appreciate word wars earlier in the game. If you’re having any trouble getting started or keeping up, please try this. I really truly hate to see people quit, and this is something that really helps.

Okay, enough for today. I’m sure by tomorrow I’ll be inspired with more to write about, but for now, we’re all anxious to get back to our novels to write, write, write. Right?

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
NaNoWriMo Notations
Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)