NaNo Day Twenty-Five -- ACK!

Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek. — Mario Andretti

We're coming up to the end of the NaNo challenge and it's been interesting to see what other folks have been saying. Two of my writing friends did NaNo for the first time this year. They both finished their 50,000+ words before Thanksgiving. One of them hadn't finished a first draft before. She commented that she never thought she had enough time to write... but found that she could write for fifteen minutes at a time several times a day.

Folks... this is a lady who works full time and has a baby who is only a few months old.

Another person commented on how freeing it is to tell your inner editor to take a hike and just write -- without having a complete plan of what's going to happen from beginning to end. To be willing to write a bare bones first draft and know that it'll need editing (but even good first drafts need some editing).

The thing is to get it down. And that's what NaNo is good for. It's good to help folks know that they can write a first draft and write "THE END", many of them for the first time. It's a rush and a confidence builder and an eye opener.

When you have a goal to keep your eyes firmly fixed upon, it's amazing what you can do.

I've commented that I'm struggling. I am. BUT, I'm still moving forward and still making enough words to meet my goal. It may not be met until midnight of November 30th, but by golly, I'll get there.

I've learned a lot this NaNo, just as I did last NaNo -- different things, but wonderful things. And I know that I can do whatever I set my mind to do, even when it's hard.

The story this year is crap. I won't even work to edit it. Was it a waste of time? Absolutely not. I have three characters that I really, really like. Unfortunately, one of them is not my heroine. The other characters, though, deserve a good story and I imagine that they'll get one. Maybe even next NaNo.

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Today we are going to the National Forest to kill a tree. DD is so excited -- last night after she went to bed I heard her singing Christmas carols for a really, really long time. And, as a good night story, I had to recite "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" (or whatever it's called) because we can't find the book and I happen to know it all by heart (I had to learn it in grammar school, and it stuck).

My in-laws aren't coming with us on our Christmas tree hunt this year. They've decided we get our tree too early. They're going in a couple of weeks... and, see, that's what I think is weird. In my mind, the Christmas season begins the day after Thanksgiving (NOT in freakin' August you stupid stores). You get a month. Of course, the rest of the family keeps their trees up until Epiphany, and we don't, so maybe that's why.

Whatever.

We're getting a Christmas tree, with or without them.

Side note: I love that I can say "Christmas" on my blog. Christmas. Christmas. Christmas.

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I wrote 1,890 words this morning -- probably all I'll do today -- so my grand total is:

42,010 / 50,000