Failing is not trying something and not succeeding. Failing is trying something and not succeeding and then ceasing to try again.
I mentioned on my NaNo profile page that this is year #8 for me. I’ve taken a needed break for a couple of years but I’ve decided to dip into the digital inkwell once again and pen another novel this year. I just typed the mash up of National Novel Writing Month– NaNoWriMo– into the search field on Google+ to find some motivation. What I found instead is a case of the sleepies.
I definitely remember that feeling from Novembers past. I know that feeling will pass once I get into the habit of writing through that feeling of wanting to turn off the computer and go to sleep earlier and earlier each night, though my word count for the day might be laughably low. I have to find a way to channel that energy that often shows up the last couple of weekends and instead use it to front load the story’s word count early in the month lest I plunge me into a writing debt that I’ll have to make up all through Thanksgiving– which is no fun– and leave my wrists as sore as if I’d partaken in a bowling marathon challenge.
I’m looking forward to checking out the kick-off in Pasadena next weekend as well as going to some mid-morning write-ins on the weekends.
This year I’m going to focus on finishing the story I start and writing the story I’d want to finish. Now, if I only had a plot. And maybe some of that motivation… Just like the Great Pumpkin, I know it’s out there somewhere and it will show itself eventually.
It’s still early.
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A Mad Notepad 
October 21st, 2011 at 2:13 am
I’m attempting this for the first year and I’m a little scared! I don’t even know where to start! Great little post 🙂
October 21st, 2011 at 10:34 pm
It is a daunting concept but you can do it as long as you keep writing! Word wars, or word sprints on IM or LiveJournal’s NaNoWriMo community have helped me a lot in the past.