Putting Yourself in the Right Mindset

Camp NaNoWriMo has officially begun! Today, NaNoWriMo YWP participant Elysia Lopez offers the inspiration to rise to the occasion and meet your writing goals this month:

NaNoWriMo is hard. 

There, I said it. I don’t think anything could be so bluntly understated than the words in that sentence. NaNoWriMo is hard, it’s stressful, and it never ever goes exactly as planned. There are countless things you could do to prepare for NaNoWriMo—outline stories, prepare a survival kit, block out time in your daily schedule for writing—but ultimately, all of these fall short of the most vital method of preparation: Putting yourself in the right mindset for NaNoWriMo.

This mindset consists of understanding that although the goal of preparing for NaNoWriMo is to alleviate the stress as much as possible, that doesn’t mean that the stress is going to disappear. You will still have days where your growing list of tasks just seems too overwhelming. You might get sick, your schedule might fill up, or you might have to deal with your German-only-speaking, capricious cousin who seems to have hidden all the wires on your beet farm again so you have no power. Regardless of the specificities, the point remains that things will never go as planned. Once again: NaNoWriMo. Is. Hard.

But here’s the thing: You want it to be hard. Without challenges testing your patience and your dedication toward writing, you would never grow as a writer. NaNoWriMo might seem like an insurmountable challenge. However, if you manage to soldier through the month and accomplish your goal, now you know you can do it, and you could do it again. Your expectations for yourself increase. You grow. And you feel proud of yourself. Just imagine, waking up the day after NaNoWriMo ends and knowing that you did it. You accomplished the goal you’d thought was impossible. Doesn’t that seem like a dream?

“Without challenges testing your patience and your dedication toward writing, you would never grow as a writer.”

If writing novels were easy, everyone would do it. Who wouldn’t want to create worlds out of words? Some people daydream about writing books about things that matter to them, but never get around to actually writing it. The fact that you did decide to sit down and start weaving together the fibers of your imagination shows that writing is important to you. You are a writer.

And if you’re willing to undergo an entire month of intense dedication and hard work, there must be something significant that you’re aiming to get out of this experience. So, what is that something? What do you hope to gain? It could be the first draft of a novel you’ve always wanted to write, but never thought you had the time to do it. It could be an attempt at recovering from a writing slump. It could be the desire to just have a fun time writing. If you haven’t fully decided what your reason is yet, now is a good time to figure it out. I promise you there will always be a reason why you should write.

Whatever your reason is, take note of it. Write it on a sticky note and post it on the wall behind your desk so that it will be a constant reminder throughout the month. This ultimate, overarching goal is what’s going to anchor you to your commitment. And with so many things going on in your life, pulling at you like currents in all different directions, an anchor is vital.

Let’s recap: Know that NaNoWriMo will inevitably be hard. However, from this difficulty rises growth. So, you’ll have to endure the harsh winter storms before reaching the blossoming of spring. You decided at some point to join Camp NaNoWriMo to reach a goal, and you owe it to yourself to follow through with that commitment. Take note of why you joined, and remind yourself of it throughout the month. I promise that your goal is worth it.

So, prepare for a month of diligence, dedication, and discipline. Most importantly, prepare yourself to grow.

I wish you the best on your writing journey! See you on the other side.

Elysia Lopez is a high school freshman and lives in sunny Southern California. She likes writing stories, mainly contemporary and fantasy, as well as poetry. Besides writing, she enjoys watching Youtube, doing karate, and building and programming robots for her robotics team.

Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash