“Write it. Just write it. Write it on receipts in the car while you wait for your kid to finish their piano lessons, scribble on napkins at lunch with friends. Type on crappy typewriters or borrow computers if you have to. Fill notebooks with ink. Write inside your head while you’re in traffic and when you’re sitting in the doctor’s office. Write the truth, write lies. Write the perfect spouse. Write your dreams. Write your nightmares. Write while you cry about what you’re writing, write while you laugh out loud at your own words. Write until your fingers hurt, then keep writing more. Don’t ever stop writing. Don’t ever give up on your story, no matter what “they” say. Don’t ever let anybody take away your voice. You have something to say, your soul has a story to tell. Write it. There is never any reason to be afraid. Just write it and then put it out there for the world. Shove it up a flag pole and see who salutes it. Somebody will say it’s crap. So what? Somebody else will love it. And that’s what writing’s about. Love. Love of the art, love of the story, and love for and from the people who really understand your work. Nobody else matters. Love yourself. Love your work. Be brave. Just write.”
~ Melodie Ramone
I know there are more than a few of you here who have been meaning to write a book for a long time now…
Go on. Admit it.
I don’t care if it’s fantasy, sci-fi, romance, memoir, a cookbook or a how-to. That book needs to come out. And the truth is, it’s gonna come out messy. That’s what a first draft is for. Then the real work begins as you shape and craft all those messy words into something good and beautiful.
But first you need that messy pile of words on the page, right?
Right!
So, I have a challenge for you. Join me for NaNoWriMo in 2014.
NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. In November each year, you commit to writing a rough first draft of fifty thousand words. A bunch of crazy Americans imagined it into being, and now it has become a global phenomenon. Hundreds of thousands of writers across the world, slaving away through November to get fifty thousand words down. Right in the middle of their already crazy lives. You write around your day job, the kids, the housework, your study, or whatever else is happening in your life in November. But above all, you write.
Insane, yes? But do-able, if taken day by day.
Which is why I love it. Fifty thousand words means you don’t have time to agonize or perfect. You just have to let the words pour, glump, drip and spill.
Many of my writerly friends have written a shitty first draft in November which has become the foundation for a published book. That could be YOUR story too.
So, are you in?
You can sign up here: NaNoWriMo 2014
And when you have done that, go find me under ‘buddies’ so I can be your writing buddy. You’ll see me listed as ‘ncwriter’ with a groovy cow photo. Then we’ll be able to encourage each other, and help each other along.
Now is as good a time as any to change your life. You can do this!!!
Let’s embrace the madness together. 😀 Much love, Nicole xx
