The disapproving llama

You know those "you should be writing" memes with the scowling celebrities? As wonderful as those are, it occurred to me that they're not as effective as they're meant to be. When I first started writing I definitely needed the encouragement of others. That's why I asked Brandon Sanderson to sign my writing folder. Every time I opened it I would see this and be reminded that I really could do it.

I still need the occasional encouragement of others (one can never get enough) but since I don't use that folder anymore, I've switched to another method. The disapproving llama. You see, I know that I can finish writing a novel, I just need a reminder to actually sit down and do it. The llama's glare reminds me that I can't sell it if I don't finish it. In short, that I should be writing. This brings us back to the memes. It occurred to me that if a picture of a Hollywood celebrity can motivate people to write, why not one of their favorite authors? 

With that in mind, I took pictures of a few of my well known friends and favorites, looking disapprovingly, in the hope that others can find the motivation that they need to keep going -- especially since it's NaNoWriMo. And because I also have faith in you, I've included the disapproving llama in each shot. Feel free save these to your computer, send them to your writing group, tape a copy to your writing desk, or wherever it needs to be to remind you. I'll continue to take these pictures as I travel about and post them but this is the first set.

                                                    John A. Pitts says you should be writing.

                                                 Ken Scholes says you should be writing.

                                                    Jay Lake says you should be writing.

                                                Brent Weeks says you should be writing.

                                         Diana Pharoah Francis says you should be writing.

                                            David D. Levine says you should be writing.

                                               Devon Monk says you should be writing.

                                      Bryan Thomas Schmidt says you should be writing.

                                                Irene Radford says you should be writing.

The coming storm

Get your survival gear and batten down the hatches because it's...

        NaNoWriMo!                   (Dun dun dun)


What? Did you think I was talking about Hurricane Sandy?

We inturrupt your regularly scheduled blog for a message from our socially conscious host:

My thoughts and prayers are with those on the East Coast. Stay safe and for heaven's sake, stay home! I know it's not every day a hurricane knocks on your door, but seriously people, don't become victims of storm stupidity. I know the monster waves are cool and you want to witness them first hand, but do you really need to risk getting washed out to sea or impaled by a golf club? God gave us Hi-def TV for a reason. I'm just sayin'.

Now back to the program.

November is nigh and even though there are natural storms and political storms brewing, don't forget to prepare for the annual writing flurry that is NaNoWriMo. Get your personal affairs in order, clean the house (because let's face it, you're not going to be vacuuming when you could be writing instead), stock up on your favorite writing snacks (hopefully healthy ones) and caffeinated beverages, and set the  DVR to record the football games and TV shows.

What's that? You're not doing NaNo this year? Why the hell not?! Just because you don't think you can write 50,000 words in a month doesn't mean that you shouldn't try. I've never written that much in a month and aren't likely to until I can afford to write full-time but I still do NaNo...in a fashion. Rather than a true NaNoWriMo novel, I work on my WIP and set a word count goal that I normally wouldn't reach before the end of the month. In a normal month I write about 500 words a day, six days a week. That's about 13,000 words before edits (because I can't resist the urge to edit). During NaNo I push that daily goal to 1,000 so my monthly goal is only 30,000 words. It never gets me anywhere near the end of my novel, but I'm a lot closer at the end of November than I normally would be. Plus, since it's not a throwaway project that I'm doing just for the sake of NaNo, they're all productive words and I don't have to transition back into the WIP in December either.

If you're not doing NaNo because it conflicts with the holidays or some other activity, don't let that hold you back either. Last year, I started three days late because of my sister's wedding. When Thanksgiving day rolled around, I rose early so I could go for my morning walk and still get some writing in before the baking and festivities began. I even took a night off to go watch The Muppet Movie with Mary Robinette Kowal, Lee Moyer, and Brent Weeks because not even NaNoWriMo was going to make me pass up an opportunity like that. I didn't meet my word goal last year. I was about 8,000 words shy if I recall, but I don't count last year or any year as a failure. The whole point behind NaNo is to get people to stop aspiring of being a writer by being a writer. If I wrote more than my normal word count in November, I count that as a successful NaNo. If I learned how to manage my time better or how to ignore distractions better, than I also count that as a NaNo success.

When it comes to giving gifts, everyone says that it's the thought that matters. I believe that when it comes to NaNoWriMo, it's the intent of NaNo and what you intend to get out of it that matters. Keep that in mind and there's no way you can fail. With that in mind, Happy NaNo everyone!

If you want to keep tabs on how my NaNo is going, I'll be posting regular updates on my G+ and Facebook pages.