Road Trip to NaNo: Writing Requires Committment Without Excuses

NaNoWriMo is an international event, and the stories being written every year reflect our hundreds of participating regions. We’re taking a Road Trip to NaNo to hear from our amazing volunteers and writers all around the world. Today, Alyssa, one of our Municipal Liaisons in the South Africa :: Pretoria region shares why writing requires committment:

Come closer to the heart and rhythm of Africa. You are welcome here for we are a rainbow nation brought together by a dream of freedom and equality for all. Being at the southernmost tip of Africa, we carry the continent on our shoulders and we do not shrug under its weight. This is South Africa and you are welcome. Here you will find ferocious writers and dancing women. You will find humour and comradeship. This is the spirit of not just my region, but of my country as well…
It is NaNoWriMo that drives us to reconnect with our fellow writers year in and year out. This group has grown from handful of people to a storm I need to rent a venue for. And they do not simply close the door on each other when November ends. Instead they strive to connect throughout the year, supporting and encouraging each other in their writing. NaNoWriMo might be doable on your own, but it is most memorable if you do it with others.

We can all write any day of the year, but it is only in November that we can do it with the support of a community both nationwide and international (a wave to Brantford-Norfolk Canada, because you were simply the best word war buddies ever). 

That support is needed. I’ve had the privilege of meeting a lot of writers in my time as ML and even the pleasure of seeing some of them publish. A lesson I have learned and keep on wishing to teach my writers is the following:

Write.

It seems silly for me to say so given the company, but I’ll say it again.

Write. Just write.

I’ve met many people who want to be writers, and come across even more excuses for why they don’t write. They talk about a lack of inspiration, about a lack of time, energy and even a lack of planning. The excuses for their lack of productivity pile up into a mountain that seems impossible to climb.

Sometimes it’s because they try and do it all at once and fail horribly. You see, writing isn’t a sprint. NaNoWriMo is, yes. It’s a mad month of dashing forward and achieving the impossible. But creating a lifestyle of writing should be a marathon. It should be a long-term commitment that begins this November.

Let go of your excuses, set aside some time as a permanent appointment in your calendar, roll up your sleeves, and write. Don’t stop because you think you’re not good enough, because you are and will get even better with practice.

Eat. Write. Sleep. Write. Live. Write.

Alyssa has something of a reputation for never quite letting a NaNoWriMo slide without a word war. This is her fifth consecutive year as ML for Pretoria, South Africa. Writing has always been a necessary passion, a tool with which to enrich herself and others. A proud writer of novel-length fanfiction, and occasionally crowning herself Supreme Ruler of the Universe, she’s not as interesting in real life as she is on paper.

Top photo by Flickr user Swiv.