NaNoWriMo Pep Talk for the Virtual Writers, Inc.

Milk Wood

Harriet Gausman asked me to write a short pep talk at the end of week 3 of the NaNoWriMo. This pep talk was to be published at the Virtual Writers website. Unfortunately, technology got the best of everyone's plans and the pep talk ended up being posted at the Virtual Writers Facebook page instead.

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"Why, sometimes I've believed

as many as six impossible things

before breakfast"

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

You’ve made it this far! I bet you’re happy!

You are also exhausted, perhaps even a bit cranky. The end of week 3 crept up on you. Deprived of sleep, over-caffeinated and inadequately fed, you now have serious doubts about your novel, because it resembles a perplexing turmoil of random ideas, hanging by a thread.

You feel a major plot makeover coming and you dread the nightmare of reorganizing a story you put your heart and soul into. Plus, your characters decided to conspire against you and are now out in the streets, doing whatever they want, aren’t they? I think I hear some of mine chanting and laughing out there too.

How about your word count?

Are you ahead? Congratulations! You’re doing great.

Are you keeping up? Good job! No one can ask you for more.

Are you struggling to hold on? Well, if life decided to pull the rug from under you and you are tempted to drop this crazy idea of writing a book in a month, set your own goal and go for it.

Whichever the case, don’t read what you have written so far. Oh, no. Don’t! Just push forward.

We are about a week away from reaching the finish line. Now more than ever, it’s important to stick to a writing routine and to rely on the support of your fellow writers. Giving up is not an option.

And believe me, impossible things do happen!

Lizzie

As soon as the page started working again, it was published at the Virtual Writers.