Excuses-Smoches

In five days, people just like you and me will crack open their laptops and binders and will begin writing their next novel. Yes, we have less than five days before NaNoWriMo officially kicks off! For some of you that date can’t come soon enough, others are pulling out your hair in despair. Regardless, it is never too late to start writing your next great novel. You have no reason not to try. Here’s why!

I don’t have the time. Have you noticed how most of us have time to pursue our other passions. How many of you have already set aside time to watch Gilmore Girls on Netflix? Doctor Strange like seven times? Many of us have time to stay up to date on our favorite sports teams and TV shows but our dreams can just wait it seems. NaNoWriMo is a short term commitment, one month. You can do anything for a month! You can eat salads every day, go to the gym, both at the same time even! You can write, every day, for a month even if its in short little bursts. It adds up, trust me.

I don’t have the skills to write a good book. Many of the writers you read today did not fall out of the womb with a scrap of paper and a pencil in their hands. Everyone has had to write their very first novel. Sometimes a genius comes along and writes something publishable on her very first try. Most of us have to just keep writing. I never understood what it took to write a novel until I did it. I learned from that experience and the next book I wrote was actually readable. The third one even more so. I enjoy stretching my imagination and skills with my writing, but I can’t do that unless I write. Write your story, the best you know how. That is what every author ever aspires to do.

I haven’t planned anything at all! There are many writers, like you, who prefer to have a strict guideline for each chapter. Each plot point meticulously planned down to the smallest detail. Other writers start off with little more than an idea and a blank page, writing by the seat of their pants. Planners and Pantsers alike have found great success with NaNoWriMo.  All types of writers are welcome on the writing floor! There is more than one way to write a book, so don’t sell yourself short just because you don’t have a ten page outline of chapter one. I am something of both a planner and a pantser myself usually choosing to have only a beginning, a middle and an end. However that is not always the case, this year I will be pantsing it. The trick is to keep moving forward.

Listen, if you are thinking about doing your first NaNoWriMo don’t listen to all those voices telling you no. You do have the time. You are talented enough. You don’t need a plan. Writing is very much like the dream itself, a journey. But you can’t just sit there and watch, you have to participate. You have to try. Some of you might not make it to the final word count, so? I failed my second NaNoWriMo. No one is going to take away your writer card from you for that.  Don’t let a little bit of fear stop you from trying something that you might just love. Don’t let the world tell you that your dreams aren’t big enough. That your aren’t good enough. Because your dreams, your stories are good enough! Do you have a story to tell? Then you can do this. Don’t let anyone, especially that little voice inside your head, tell you otherwise.