On Friday, hundreds of thousands of writers opened their laptops and began page one of a new novel in celebration of National Novel Writing Month, more commonly known as NaNoWriMo. These writers will create at least 50,000 new words between November 1st and November 30th. 

Many writers view NaNoWriMo as an exercise in discipline and commitment. These dedicated novelists will pen the words rain or shine, headaches or clear brains, writer’s block or free-flowing ideas. They are in it to reach their goal of 1,666 words per day No. Matter. What. And for that, this writer salutes you.

Am I going to be one of the many committing to such a feat? To quote the hilarious Jody Wallace who will be featured on this blog next week – NaNoHellNo.

For me, I believe there are three sixes in that daily word count for good reason. See, there are days that I am on fire and can spew out 5,000 or even 10,000 words (once, okay? it happened one time – I’m counting it). But those are the days when the sun, moon, stars and planets all line up perfectly; I have a kid-free day off of work; and okay, I admit it, a few cocktails. Not promising what those 10,000 words consist of, or whether or not they make it into my final draft, but on extremely rare occasions, they happen.

Then, there are MOST days, which look more like me sitting in front of the computer staring at the same paragraph for two hours straight, my fingers laced through my knotted hair, permanent frown lines creasing my forehead, and a kid tugging on my shirt wanting to know when it’s time to work on the devil-cursed rainbow loom again. These are the kind of days that would instill panic in my NaNoWriMo committed brain and ultimately cause heart failure…or a flying laptop through a window at the very least.

But what I WILL do this month, is commit my time. I will turn off the television – don’t ask me if I’ve seen the latest Blacklist – pry my eyelids apart, and commit to two hours per day of SOMETHING to do with writing, whether it be edits on an already written book (my current project), new words on my WIP, or even reading what I know to be a well-written novel for “homework” purposes. Yes, this is one career that has fabulous homework assignments!

But to all of those forging forward with your 50,000 new words – much respect my friends…much respect.

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring