Dear Journal: A Novel Idea

Dear Journal,

I’m writing again. And I know what you’re going to say. I write all the time, and you’d be right in saying that. But this is different because this is November, which means National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This is the third straight year I am attempting this after so many chances that I turned down before that. I’m not even sure what made me finally buckle down and do it, but this year I’m even more excited for the chance to turn one month into a novel.

It’s crazy too, if you honestly consider it, to write a full-length, 50,000 word novel in 30 days, which is probably why it took me so long to finally get off my duff and DO IT. And do it I did, completing the feat in 2012 on my first try. The key was setting  a minimum word count limit (like 1700 words a day) and being disciplined enough to hit that number every single day. That meant no matter how I was feeling, no matter what else was going on in my day, I had to carve out time to hit that 1700 word mark consistently. Which I did, and by the end of the 30 days I had over 60,000 words in the bank.

Then I tried it on for size again last November. I guess it was like exercise. At first it’s really hard because your mind’s not used to the concept, not used to stretching to accommodate the experience, but once you’ve done it once it’s so much easier to buckle down and do it again. In fact, for the whole month of October I was raring to go, counting down the days, and now it’s here, the month to write something larger than the sum of its parts.

It’s two days in, and I’m keeping up with my discipline. My aim this time is to write 2000 words a day, and I’m over 4000 for the two days combined. Now, if I could only write a feel-good story with a happy ending…

Sam