Nano-ing

Ish... 

It's November, a time of rain for Seattle. Leaves and turkey and holiday shopping. Oh, and this little thing called NanoWriMo. Some of you may have heard of it (who am I kidding, this is G+ I'm mainly working with) but for those of you who haven't, in the nicest words I can muster, it is a month of pure insanity. The goal is 50,000 words in 30 days. It's meant to get authors going with the support of an entire world of other writers to keep you accountable. I can't knock it, in fact, I highly endorse it. My first novel Red came out of it and I couldn't be happier with the push (OK, shove) NanoWriMo gave me. 

But this year, oh yeah, this year is different. Nano and I are fighting. It is day four. Last year at day four, I was bright eyed and optimistic. I was writing like a hound, barely able to keep away from my binder (yes, I used a freaking binder). My husband thought I was a drone, only a shadow of his formerly talkative wife, as I 'uh-huh'd' my way through our daily conversations. I couldn't fail. Neigh, I wouldn't fail. 

I would love to say this year I am on top of it. I am at the helm of my novel's ship and I'm ready to sail onto another immediate publication. But I've never been good at lying. I am miserably behind. Hardly enough words written to even count and as much as I am excited to see other people's success, I can't help but feel like I want to slap them with my 9 million tons of stress. Over and over again. Then laugh. 

Sure, I know that isn't very nice. Do they deserve it? No. Would it make me feel better? I wish I could be the bigger person and tell you it wouldn't, but oh the relief to not be the only one. 

I'm being melodramatic and I'm sorry. I shouldn't be. I actually have things going pretty well, it's just taking a lot of my time and mind power to keep everything going at the pace it is demanding from me. It makes my creativity flounder. I am so excited for the novel I doing for NanoWriMo and I really would love to start it sooner, there are just a million other things to do. Like this blog, that didn't really need to be done, but I seriously needed a real life outlet to consume my thoughts for 15 minutes before I go back to the ups and downs of marketing a self published book. I am preparing for my novel's launch and it is a lot of research, since I've never done it before. 

So for all you amazing Nano-er's out there: I am proud of you! Sincerely, no matter how much I am feeling in the gutter, I do want you to succeed. And I hope that I can catch up and succeed with you! You are all amazing and writing a book is no joke. Don't let anyone let you feel like you shouldn't be doing what you're doing. Take it from me, it's worth it in the end!

Off to go get that book launch ready... The Nano-book that started me on this insane path. 

Ciao.