NaNoWriMo.3

(the above image is an art card I bought from
OhMandie to keep me motivated to write
during NaNoWriMo '08.
It still sits on my desk and I look at it every day!)

It's that time again.

What time? you may be asking yourself.

Why it's NaNo-time, of course! Well, NaNo-prep-time, at least. Because in a little less than 2 months (beginning Nov. 1st), National Novel Writing Month will commence!

A whole slew of you readers have seen my posts in which I've said, "Hey! I'm writing a book!" and a lot of you have whispered in my comments, "I'm jealous. I've always wanted to write a book..."

Well, guess what? I CHALLENGE YOU!

Yeah, that's right, I challenge you. To pull out a sheet of paper and mash some ideas between pink margins and blue lines, no matter how fantastic or how dumb you think they might sound.

I challenge you to sign up for National Novel Writing Month, even if you only think you'll hit 5 thousand typed words instead of the required 50 thousand it takes to print up a winner certificate.

I challenge you to stop thinking about what you'd like to achieve "someday" and start thinking about what you'd like to achieve "now" because really, you're not getting any younger, and the days are slipping by one by one and in ten years from now, when you look back, would you rather say "I spent the last ten years writing novels and LOVING IT" or would you rather say, "I spent the last ten years thinking about how I'll write novels some day."

Because time will pass no matter what.

This will be my 4th year doing NaNoWriMo. The first year, in 2005, I didn't remember to sign up, but I did type a whole 15k out of 50k. In 2008, I tried again. Actually hit my 50k, but didn't sign up to get my certificate (the accomplishment mattered more to me than the certificate). Last year... I hit 16k out of 50k. But after NaNo ended, I kept writing and now my book is almost done.

This year - um... maybe I'll hit 50k? That is my goal at least. After being all gung-ho-NaNo, it might be nice to actually get that certificate...

So, WHO IS WITH ME? Go on - shout it loud and shout it proud!

And also, be my NaNoBFF! - you can find me HERE!

No excuses, those of you who have always wanted to be writers but haven't allowed yourself the chance. Not a single person other than yourself even has to see your writing. And if you think you probably suck too much to consider being a writer, me too!! We can suck together!

And if you think you don't have time, tell me this: is there twenty minutes you can find each day where you can scribble words on paper or type them out? Because after 30 days, those twenty minutes a day will magically turn into TEN HOURS of writing time.

You can accomplish a lot in ten hours. And if you give yourself forty minutes a day, that's TWENTY HOURS. You can handle it. Really. I'm not saying it's easy, especially if you work or have kids or work AND have kids... but it is possible.

So I ask again, WHO IS WITH ME!?

And if being a writer "someday" is your secret (or not-so-secret) dream, I really hope YOU ARE!

xoxo,