The goal of #Nanowrimo is, basically, to barf out an entire book in 30 days.
Nanowrimo forces you to push your literary muscles to their breaking point.
The goal is to FINISH, to untrain yourself of delay, obfuscations, and so-called #writer’s block.
The goal is to write the book you always said you would.
ACK!
All Those Reasons to Stop
This is my third year (read, attempt) at National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo 2014).
The first time out of the gate, I set down 1890 words in the first week or so– then fizzled out. Apparently, Thanksgiving and all of the shopping days between by son’s birthday and my twins’ birthday and Facebook fall in November. Excuses.
The second time I signed up, I was “prepared. I has a #writing buddy. I had  a really good grasp of the novel I wanted to write. I outlined. I thought about the story a long time in advance. I bought software. I set down 11,000 words.
But then there was this strange Nano writing date at Panera in a mall. Something happened. Â I fizzled again.
Excuses.
Year 3: The year of the calamity.Â
I consider my previous experiences to be great warm-up  to all the excuses any one person can handle.
I feel good about 2014. Why?
I’ve exercised my writing muscle a lot more this year (writing regular pieces for the newspaper). There’s a lot less lag time between impulse to write and word count for the day.
But there’s always that nagging fear. What I’m concerned about?
The usual things, plus one. I have a life, work and a family, demands on my time and attention. Facebook. The usual. Nanowrimo is a pleasantly encouraging bedfellow, but doesn’t seem to give a flip about gymnastics and hockey and carpools.
The plus one is my mom’s leukemia and her terminal diagnosis. If there ever was a good excuses to hide in a hole and eat donuts, it’d be that.
But, I am taking the chance that writing “into” that space is the way to go. To not just try to avoid the obstacles… to write through them.
So, hello last day of October. Happy Halloween. Welcome and bring on November.