nanowrimo

Today is day number fourteen in the NaNoWriMo calendar for 2014, and this morning I reached my first 50,000 words for the month of November.

I’m excited! Partly because I won NaNoWriMo, but mostly due to the fact that I made it halfway to my overall goal for November before the actual middle of the month. I set myself up to write at least 100,000 words because that’s just a little less than I like my short, quirky novels to be, and it felt like a reasonable goal to get the majority of the project I’m working on, Promises, Promises, as close to first draft fabulous possible before the end of November. 100,000 words would give me time to work on other things, like editing for clients, blogging, and promotion on my other books, while still granting me plenty of wiggle room to write all the words I wanted to write.

Because despite the chaotic, hectic spiral of my schedule sometimes, I have to write every single day.

Cover of She-Hulk (vol. 1) #1, textless variant. Art by Adi Granov. (From Wikipedia)

I set really high writing goals for myself every month because I go a little mad if I don’t put words to the page and give the voices in my head a trampoline to bounce around on. I feel edgy and raw, stir crazy and anxious. It starts to feel crowded inside my mind, and when it gets crowded in there, I get really stressed out. Getting stressed out means I don’t sleep, and not sleeping pretty much ensures grouchiness. Grouchiness leads to a really bad attitude that more or less turns me into She-Hulk, and people don’t like me very much when I get angry. They start shoving Snickers bars at me, which just makes me grumpier, and that’s no good.

This month feels really good. I feel like I have a good handle on my project, (though if you read through my daily NaNoWriMo blogs, it looks like I nearly threw the manuscript out the window.) The story feels strong to me, the characters compelling and I’m still super excited about it after more than 50,000 words. Huge bonus!

Do you write every single day? If so, what keeps you motivated? If not, is it because you don’t have time? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Hey everybody! I’m Jennifer Melzer. This is my first blog here at The Write Stuff, and since we’re about 1/3 of the way through the month of November, I want to talk about a topic near and dear to my heart: National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNoWriMo.

I have a non-writer friend who rolls his eyes at me every October and asks, “Why do you do this ridiculous NaNoBlahBlah thing? It drives you crazy, stresses you out and makes you super grouchy. I think you should stop doing it, and just do the same thing you do every other month… Write.”

Maybe he has a really good point. I spend the other eleven months of the year writing until my keyboard smokes like it’s no big thing. Then November starts to draw near. I get a little itchy under the skin and start plotting mayhem because despite my ability to write like mad every other month, for some reason November is pure madness. I don’t know if it’s because of the impending holidays, maybe Daylight Savings Time, or some other rare cosmic alignment I’m completely unaware of, but it is really difficult to finish a short novel for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

I know this, but every year I open up the site, start filling in the details about the novel I’m going to write and boom! It’s on like Donkey Kong. There’s hair pulling, tons of whining, flailing and even a few tantrums that are downright childish, but I almost always manage to push through it ahead of the game. In 2013, I changed novels midway through the month, throwing my entire word count out the window and starting from scratch. It was absolute madness, but in the last two weeks of November, I wrote just over 50,000 words. In 2012 I wrote the first 60,ooo words on my epic fantasy novel, Edgelanders, and shared it chapter by chapter while I was writing it. It was chaos, pure insanity every single day, but there was something about it that sang to my soul.

I love writing under pressure. I love the weight of a deadline pressing down upon my shoulders while the muse yaps incessantly in my ear. This year it’s extra chaotic. I have editing clients I’m working with, I’m in the middle of promoting my upcoming novel, Siren (which is now available for pre-order on Amazon!), there’s a game I’m really looking forward to playing coming out next week, I am in serious need of a haircut and it’s darn near time to cook a turkey, but I’m ahead of schedule on my NaNoWriMo novel. I’m moving right along, and I know I’m going to finish the requirements, and the first draft of my urban fantasy novel, Promises, Promises.

And THAT is why I do NaNoWriMo every year. Because I love, love, love the pressure and the chaos.

I blog about NaNoWriMo every single day in November! Drop by my site, subscribe to the feed and feel free to join in the conversation! I’d love to have you there.