Confession-spewing time: I haven’t blogged in a while. I haven’t kept up with my goal of posting every Friday. I have not kept up with my writing, haven’t made it a priority. I’ve allowed everything and anything else to take precedence.
Performing a little totally amateur psychoanalysis on my own self, I’d say that the reason I haven’t been writing is because I’ve felt discouraged. I don’t write because I’m afraid of failing, of never getting anywhere with my writing.
I’m not writing because I’m afraid of not writing. I’m a freakin’ genius.
So I’m going to bite the bullet and participate in National Novel Writing Month. Check it out at www.nanowrimo.org
I signed up this morning. I’m starting out a day behind. This feels fitting, somehow. I don’t know if I’ll be able to complete 50,000 words in one month, but I’m going to try. Because I need to do this. I need to carve out a space for writing. My head is full of stories and characters, but if I’m not writing them down, then I’m just a crazy chick who hears voices in her head.
In a dark night of the soul last night, I realized that I’ve never attempted NaNoWriMo because I’m afraid of failing. I’m afraid I can’t do it. But I’ll never know if I don’t try. So here I go.
Is there anything you’ve wanted to do that you haven’t attempted out of fear or insecurity? I’d love to hear about it. I need some moral support, peeps!
For me, with fear, it’s best if I just stop thinking. Um, yea. Not so much possible.
But I can be distracted by shiny things–which CAN be good in this case.
Try a reward system.
With writing– just gettin’ the words out of my head– I loved using the website 750words.com. You get little badges for silly things. I am apparently highly motivate by tiny digital illustrated ephemera. http://750words.com/badges
Sometimes “new things” can kick start me. Extra points for things that aren’t really actual things. Double extra when things are free. I don’t know what you write in, but Scrivener (http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php) is intuitive and clean. It’s not free, but there is a trial. 🙂
Score. Scrivener trial is 30 days. Perfect for Nanowrimo . . . and if you complete the word count you get a 50% discount to buy the program. http://www.literatureandlatte.com/nanowrimo.php
Thanks, Heidi! I’m learning about all kinds of fun writerly stuff!