NaNoWriMo Prep, Part Nine: Remember to Enjoy It!

I haven't done much writing recently. It's hard to admit to that, because I actually have the time and tools to do so much more of it now than I used to. But it's the truth.

But I didn't realize why until not that long ago.

I found a site on Twitter. This site is called Scriggler, and it's basically a place to publish your writing for free. I'd been considering posting some of my work for free for a while before I found it, and decided to take the opportunity Scriggler presented. I had a partial manuscript saved, one that my husband made me promise I'd finish. So I started posting it in chunks.

I got a surprising number of views on my first piece. And my second. In fact, I got all the way to part fourteen before I figured out that I was probably going to get a similar number for each piece. This, of course, encouraged me to continue publishing what I'd already written.

And then I ran out.

And that's when I started writing every evening.

I'd been trying for weeks to get myself to write every morning before I checked Twitter, Facebook, and all of the other sites I use for various aspects of my writing career. I had failed miserably. But then one day, I needed a new piece for The Wish Cycle. But I'd had a headache all day, and hadn't done any writing that morning or afternoon. That evening, I had finally started to feel better, so I turned on my epic soundtracks Pandora station, and I wrote.

The next day, I did the same thing.

It worked for me. But it was only after almost a week of it that I realized what had really been keeping me from writing.

I hated editing. I hated it with a passion. And I thought, for some probably absurd reason, that if I sat down to write and had projects that needed editing, then I needed to edit those instead of working on something else. That sucked all the joy out of writing for me. I had stopped enjoying it, because I would feel guilty for not editing something I'd already written, and because I knew I'd have to edit what I was currently working on.

Writing in the evening worked out well for me because that time was different. It wasn't editing time, it was rough draft time. Time specifically for rough drafts, nothing else.

And I found that I looked forward to that time. Rather than putting it off and cruising Facebook (for dessert recipes or fun baking tools) to avoid it, I would decide "I'm not writing tonight" and the night would end with me turning on my music and writing for a while anyway.

So here's my final advice for NaNoWriMo: Remember to enjoy your writing. Yes, it's work. Yes, you have a word count goal, and you'll probably have to write every day (or cram a bunch in at a time when you really don't feel like it). You'll even have to edit all of that at some point. But don't let that take away the enjoyment you get from writing. Remember why you're writing in the first place, and remember what you enjoy about it. One of the benefits of NaNoWriMo is the goal is just to get the words down, no matter how badly you may do it. So sit down, crack your knuckles, forget about the next step of the process for a month, and write your story.

...also, epic soundtracks. If you can handle listening to music while you write, I highly recommend it.