Fear and loving on those pages

I'm pretty sure I won't be doing a tip every single day during NaNoWriMo, mostly becasue "NaNoWriMo" is such a pain to type, with all that mixed-case stuff, but also because I don't have all that many tips. I should emphasize that any tips I give are not really tied to the whole concept of writing a novel in a month. I'm pretty much neutral on that whole subject.

Anyhow, fear. Fear is good, if it is of the "I'm not sure I can do this," sort. Fear is bad if it paralyzes you. Anything that makes an artist edgy -- and, like it or not, a novelist is an artist -- is a good thing. When I got the idea for Dunk, I was afraid to write the book. All my previous books had been fantasy or science fiction. I had a growing readership, and Hidden Talents had started to establish itself in summer reading programs, Battle of the Books, and other places. So I was a genre guy. I was afraid to tackle a book that lacked a speculative element. But I really wanted to tell the story, and I loved the concept. So I pushed past my fears, and found a different sort of magic in the world of that book. I can cite plenty of other instances where a project scared me, but you get the idea. Feast on your fear. Adrenaline isn't just for downhill racers and bull fighters.