Temporary Writing Insanity by Maureen Hovermale

(Source: LOLcats)

I sat in front of the confirmation email wondering if my sinus medication was out-of-date. What would make me want to sign up for this 50,000 word-count one-month torture gig? This is my first year at Nanowrimo and I’m not prone to masochistic behavior yet here I am: Gearing up for the write of my life.

There it was in my inbox in black and white with a cheerful little message telling me the ins and outs of what I could expect with links to help pages and encouragement. The prevailing thought in my head at the time was that I’ve done a lot of things for a t-shirt better left in my past, but I’d thought I’d grown out of that phase.

I started ticking off excuses: I’m not particularly technologically adept; the Internet and I often having a wary stand-off with my keyboard left punch-drunk from my forceful reattempts at entering something I just know should work. I don’t even know the program. Looking further into it, I realized the ‘program’ was a straight-forward editor that looked and felt like using any other of the sort, so that argument was lost.

My work as a writer is more than often solitary. What in the world would make me go full-out and enter a massive project with countless strangers like this? I’ve collaborated before and really, if I didn’t want to this time, I didn’t have to. Sure there were groups in my area that had help if I needed it, but if I didn’t want to, nobody was forcing me.

Strike that excuse.

I bit my nails and tried another tack. Well there’s the time element. Thanksgiving is in November and I’ve tons to do for the holidays and…

I really want to do this. I want to prove to myself, more than anybody else, that I can take this head-on and accomplish it. A sort of Mt. Everest writer-style high-fiving bragging right. Well, there went that. I was committed or should be committed, and exactly which one of the two, I wasn’t quite sure.

I’m determined to take it from the blank page onwards and not have one single word written for this before the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. November first. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it right. Would Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Sherpa have hopped on a helicopter to scale the mountain? No, it would have defeated the purpose.

While I’m still uncertain as to what my particular purpose in all of this is, I do know that I feel strongly about starting and finishing right, no matter the time obstacles or hair-pulling that will more than likely occur. Still, I can’t help but feel that perhaps I’m not up to the task and know that the way my schedule has been lately, that I’m really asking quite a bit of everyone around me to even consider doing this.

So many reasons that ultimately come down to the fact that I’m just getting the jitters. I know though, if I don’t do NaNoWriMo, I’m going to pay for it later in the woulda, coulda, shoulda department and I’ve learned a long time ago, that it just won’t do.

Here I go then. It’s decided and heaven help me, I’m going to reach that peak, snow-covered or not. Wish me luck and more back at you, if you’ve signed up too. We’re compatriots now and we’ll conquer this mountain come what may. If you need help, I’ll untangle my fingers from the keyboard and send you a line. 

Hopefully you can do the same for me if I get stuck on a ledge.


WHO'S WITH ME? Strike those excuses and hop on the NaNo train of fun. WriMos FTW!

(bad hair day for our lovely newbie)

Here’s what Maureen Hovermale (@zenchery) tells us about herself: I'm a writer and reviewer who tries to put everything I’ve got into everything I do, which means I fall from exhaustion with a book on my face quite often. I tried to keep this part of me a secret, but was exposed quickly by the tell-tale crease down the left side of my face after waking. I have a perpetual extra bump on my middle finger from writing and have discovered that a thesaurus is not a dinosaur. (I looked it up.) My OCDs are entering writing contests and folding sheets precisely into the ball they were meant to be.

Not Afraid to Fail by Tami Veldura

(source: everything technology marketing)

I have participated in the beast that is NaNoWriMo for six years straight. 

I haven't won even once.

I make a one month commitment every year for six years and I can't even say I've stuck to it for 30 days. I've either got the world's worst fear of commitment or I'm nuts, but either way I'm trying this thing again, and by Grabthor's Hammar, it will work this time. Right up until a friend of mine wants to hang out for an afternoon; then all bets are off.

When Chris Batty decided to get some friends together and write a stupid number of words in a stupidly short amount of time, he didn't actually think anyone would do it. He didn't really expect anyone to hit 50k. He thought he'd picked a number so unfathomably astronomical that the very thought of it would kick the inner editor out of the picture and allow creativity and progress to flow unimpeded. 

Then this thing took off like a pumpkin from a slingshot and thousands of people hit 50k words for years in a row. They developed techniques for hitting 50k (no contractions!) and debated the merits of pantsing vs. plotting. They built wordcount trackers and winners got digital badges of triumph. And somewhere along the way NaNoWriMo became about hitting 50k words in 30 days no matter what or you didn't win.

I've done NaNo for six years in a row, and I haven't won once.

But I have done NaNo for six years in a row and I have made life-long friends who are just as crazy about writing and character and grammar as I am.

I have done NaNo for six years and I have learned more about time management than any public school press of homework could ever hope to teach me.

I have done NaNo for six years and I have screamed myself so silly I've cried in a public coffee house with nine other WriMo’s during write-ins.

I have done NaNo for six years and I have found hidden depths of genuine emotion in paragraphs of otherwise bland exposition. It takes 10 thousand hours of practice, 10 thousand paintings, and 10 thousand words before the real writing shines.

I've done NaNo for six years and I have seen communities spring up (#1k1hr, #writeordie) with the single purpose of driving this creative force within us to show what we're made of.

I've done NaNo for six years and I've grown as a writer in leaps that my school teachers would be pressed to explain.

I've done NaNo for six years and I have broken every rule they've set down and I still haven't managed to win even once, but NaNoWriMo isn't about writing 50k words in 30 days. 

Not really. 

It's about coming together and celebrating the arts. It's about taking a challenge and running with it with all your heart, even when the world says no. It's about proving that the impossible can happen every single day. It's about not having to prove anything to anyone. It's about expanding your horizons, taking leaps of faith, trusting your gut, stepping out of the comfort zone, rushing headlong into battle, and never settling for less.

It's about Butt In Chair, Words On Paper.

It's about producing.

It's for the love of craft.

Happy writing!

What has NaNoWriMo taught YOU so far? Are you in it to win it or just to have fun?

Tami Veldura is a 24yr-old fresh from college with a BA in long form creative fiction. Her first short story: Closer Than Touch is coming out in January 2012. You can find her on twitter @tamiveldura and her website. And finally, you can also find her as tamiveldura on the NaNoWriMo site. 

Welcome to the WriMos FTW Site!

(image source: workitmom)

It’s finally October, which means National Novel Writing Month is just round the corner! And how could I resist the temptation of starting a new site solely on the topic of NaNoWriMo? I mean to resist this urge, I’d have to be:

a) the non-obsessive type;

b) the annoying gal who only blogs about NaNo for 3 months;

c) the sane person, who doesn’t start a site during the busiest time of year;

And since I am none of the above, there it is –finally—a magical place where all your NaNoWriMo cravings (and mine) can be satiated in blog form. So when you’re not raving on the forums or blogging at the comfort of your own blog (or actually writing your novel), come and join the NaNoWriMo guest-blogging hoopla here!

(Say this 100 times faster, then backwards, and finish with a cartwheel. I dare you!)

Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the concept of NaNoWriMo, it’s something a guy named Chris Baty started back in 1999. Basically, it’s about writing 50,000 words in 30 days. If you’re a writer in a rut, or if you want to use this time to set an even higher goal, OR if you just feel like there’s a story somewhere inside of you, then you should DEFINITELY sign up. Why? Because in my humble opinion, there is nothing quite as challenging and exhilarating as NaNo.

The thrill of joining a writing marathon and competing with fellow wordsmiths is fantastic! Whether you’ve outlined your story or you’re winging it, the thought of crossing that finish line is mighty tempting, is it not? And not only do you have a clear goal in mind, but you also have a large community of like-crazed lunatics who are willing to cheer you on, help you out, and support you throughout the whole of November, AND BEYOND.

Whenever does that happen? You see, this is why I cannot wait for it to start again!

As for this site, it’s merely another place where you can go as crazy as you’d like because we all know what you’re on about. What is more, you won’t get kicked out of here or called crazy or antisocial and obsessive. You’d be just like everyone else.

But before we kick-start this, I was hoping that you’d read the Guidelines page up there and see if you’d like to share anything on the given themes. Right now, we’re starting off with pep talks, past successes, and overall pre-nano jitters as it is fitting to this time.

The beauty of this site is: anyone can post! Yes, you too!

One post a day, six days a week, for as long as you guys can take it. And apart from the daily posts by uber-talented bloggers/writers (yes, you again), there will also be fun contests in November! But don’t worry… I wouldn’t dare make them long and tiresome. After all, we all have a frigging novel to write!

So after you’ve done reading the Guidelines, you can hop on the Buddy Up express, where all you have to do is leave a link to your NaNo profile, so we can check you out and, well, buddy up! (I’m Lyn Midnight over there if you want to add me.)

And finally, stick around for tomorrow’s wonderfully inspiring post by my dear friend Alivia Anders, who never fails to amuse me with her quick mind and crazy wordsmith-ing skills.

BUT WAIT! Don’t go, I’m obviously not finished. DUH!

Now it’s your turn to step up! Don’t be creepy lurkers, tells us about you, your novel, and your plans for November. And don’t forget to spread the love!