Day 1 - National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

If you have been following the author/writer/book blogs, tweets and Facebook pages as of late, you know that yesterday was the first day of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

For those who have never heard of it, NaNoWriMo is basically a competition to write a novel in the month of November.  Not that you would have a complete novel written in a month, but a good first draft to be edited at a later time. (At least, that is what I hope to have at the end of November).

This is the first NaNoWriMo that I am participating in and I was not really sure how to go about it.  So, I did what I normally do before undertaking any new endeavor or assignment - I panicked. Yes, it does seem silly to panic about a purely optional writing assignment, but let me explain why this was my first reaction in preparing for NaNoWriMo.

You see, I have a history of panicking at the first thought of trying anything new and outside my normal routine or comfort zone.  I know, I need to get over this, but the "deer in the highlights" reaction seems to be a genetic trait that is deeply engrained in my psyche and has been a life-long struggle to shake off.  It is no longer a debilitating reaction like it once was decades ago, it is now just a momentary pause where my subconscious mind screams, "No way!  You have got to be f'ing kidding me!"  To which I console my inner child with loving thoughts and calming words ... err, that sounds good on paper, but I  more often than not have to tell my inner child to "f'ng get over it" and move on.  Hey, whatever works, right?

So, once I was past  this initial "pause" in acting on my intent to dive into NaNoWriMo, the planning began in earnest.  Every spare moment, for weeks prior to the beginning of November, I would think about what I would be writing come November 1st - to the point of almost giving up before I even started.  But, alas, my inner child was placed in the corner for a time-out and not allowed to have a temper tantrum on the first day of NaNoWriMo.

Once my inner brat was safely placed (rather bound and gagged) in the corner of my subconscious, a wonderful thing happened - my writing muse appeared in a rather dramatic entrance.  She spewed forth sentence after sentence of well formed thoughts and ideas that had me breathless trying to catch up and record everything.  By the end of day one, she left me with 3,237 words - not a bad start to an endeavor I almost talked myself out of before it ever began.

Here's to a successful first day of NaNo and may the next twenty-nine days be as fruitful as the first one.

Good luck to everyone participating and may your writing muse continue to keep your inner child at bay for the next few weeks.