Yeah, okay, it's Halloween, but at midnight, it becomes All Souls day and every word I write in my work in progress counts towards the fifty thousand word goal of writers around the nation and around the world participating in NaNoWriMo. If you're reading this and thinking 50,000 words in a single month seems like a whole lot to write, well, you're right. But, there is something about the challenge and company of other writers of all levels pushing toward the same goal. It makes the often solitary task of writing a novel a group activity where no one bugs you while you're writing.
Another reason I look forward to this time every year is that push I get to write without thinking about the draft I'm putting out. I've said it before and I'll say it again, first drafts are supposed to suck. And as a writer, I know that it will always bother me when my words suck. There are two ways to deal with that, edit as you go, or write and forgive the sucky parts knowing the editing will come in it's time. When the subject matter of the book is personal and, well, the kind of book that gives me nightmares as I live it out through my characters, the push of Nano is exactly what I need to keep from editing as I go and really using that as an excuse to avoid writing the next scene or the one after that I am really dreading.
Nano helped me get through a book that took seven years to get written right. I really don't think it's any coincidence that that novel is the one that hooked my agent after I did serious editing and got it as ready as I could with the help of critique partners and a lot of revision.
So, the beautiful thing that starts at midnight tonight is the freedom to fill the blank pages with words and it doesn't matter what they look like as long as they all get down on the page and total fifty thousand before midnight of November 30th.
Come back next Monday and every Monday in November for more NaNoWriMo encouragement, and go get signed up so we can all win together! And don't forget, candy goes on sale tomorrow.