Thread: A few words of encouragement.

Hey everyone!

Just felt the need to give a word or two of encouragement to all my fellow NaNos. November 1 is tomorrow, and I'm sure we're all excited/dreading the start of a month-long journey of uncertainty, rambling prose, and unexpected plot twists.

If you've tried NaNo and won already, then you know what to expect in the next four weeks. If you haven't tried, or haven't won, then I've got a few words of advice for you: Don't stop writing.

Don't stop writing to edit. Don't stop writing to work out just which word will sound perfect. Don't stop writing because you're not sure what's coming next. Don't stop writing because you're not liking the way the story's going. Don't stop because you were writing a nice, happy fantasy novel, and now it looks like you're working on a gothic horror story with a mix of pirate drama.

Just keep putting one word down after the next, building on idea after idea, and eventually you will have a plot. Things will start to happen in the story, and your characters will get wherever they need to go.

Don't get discouraged if what you're writing isn't coming out exactly as you thought it might - or even if it's nothing like what you thought you were writing. NaNo isn't about making a perfect novel in a month, it's about writing a novel in a month. Later, in December, you can go back and fix all the little mistakes and logical errors, but for now, for the month of November, you'll work around them, and overlook them so they don't stop you from writing.

Most of all, try to remember that NaNo is a lot of work, but it's also supposed to be a lot of fun. We're all in this together, and we all understand what we're going through.

Good luck to everyone, and remember, don't stop writing.

Huh. Is it odd that I'm purposely messing up my sleep cycle so that I'm fully awake at midnight tonight?

Not at all. I intend to write from midnight till 1000 words. Which is kinda a funny way to tell time.

Yes. It is a bit.

I intend to write from midnight to about 5000 words if I can manage it. I need to a healthy start to make up for the lack of time I'll have later.

I've work in the morning... 1000 words will be about as much as I can do before being too tired to go on.