I finished 50k words tonight. There were a lot of reasons why I didn’t think I was going to make it. I had been traveling (3 trips in November!), I had family obligations, I had a day job that I needed in order to pay the bills.
But overall, I made a big push for it and these are the things that let me get past the 50k mark in time:
- Family support
- Writing Advocates/Participants
- Personal Stake
When I said I needed to do my writing, my spouse and my children understood. I got up extra early some days, or stayed up late other days. But they all knew what I meant when I told them they needed to carry on without me because I had X number of words to write.
I talked two of my dear friends into doing NaNoWriMo. There is nothing quite like a shared hallucination to keep one going.
Actually, so many of us have a story within us, or many. We can say no to it for only so long, but we aren’t getting any younger.
At a certain point, we reach agreement with ourselves and our dear friends that we are ready to give fiction writing a chance and to do it in a brutally efficient fashion.
And lastly, when we share this goal with others, and take other steps to make it real, we create a personal stake in the outcome. Call it ego, if you like, but whatever it takes, sometimes we need extra incentive to push on. I bought a cover from an artist to make it more real. I told those close to me about my commitment to NaNoWriMo for one month. Those things made it more real for me, and I believe increased my chances for success.
Other things that helped. Many walks and a Bintiva balance disc
A wiggle pad really helps.
