Dear November,

Are you getting nervous yet, because I'm getting nervous!! In a way, the start of NaNoWriMo feels like Christmas Eve. Chris Baty is Santa and the novel you will start - and hopefully finish - is the best present that you can ever get yourself. Except maybe the over bath tray from Butlers with two wine glass holders: that would be pretty amazing, too. It even holds your book up while you're... No, your novel is the best gift because you can point at it whenever somebody else or even that horrible little voice inside your head tries to tell you that there's something you can't do. You can quite literally turn around to it and say, I wrote a NOVEL, that's 50 THOUSAND WORDS in A SINGLE MONTH, come at me bro. 

Anyway, we're not there yet are we. There are no words on the page yet - or there shouldn't be unless you live in one of the time zones where it's already Friday - there may be ideas in your head, there may not, there may be characters, but perhaps you have not a clue. Here's the thing, IT DOESN'T MATTER. 

From my own experience, I know writing a load of crap is better than not writing, because you read it and you know why it's crap. The first few days of NaNo2010 I had no idea what I wanted to write, the results of which (my beloved Fairies) is now available on Kindle worldwide. My entire novel for NaNo2011 was eventually deleted because I became bored with the idea, but I proved to myself that I could sit down and write it. I have also contemplated using the characters for other things because I loved them so much by the end. NaNo 2012 I started with a vague sense of a sort of idea and the novel that came out was completely different, but I think it was my best work to date and I love that. All you need to remember is that if NaNoWriMo is providing the pressure that it takes you to work, it's doing something right. 

Saying that, sometimes you need to remember that not making 50'000 words does not make you a failure. In 2009, I wrote 22'000 words. It was the most I had ever written on one idea, it was the shortest time I had taken to write anything, but I was blinded by these neon lights someone installed into my brain telling me I had failed. I kicked myself for the whole year until I had another chance. Last year, I finished NaNo in 20 days, but not having a day where I wrote 10'000 words left me kicking myself once more. I wrote between 6-8k and it still wasn't enough. If you are like me in that you see the failures more than you see the achievements, please do something for me when crossing the finish line. Don't look at the buddies charts, don't look at the graph showing how you measure up to your original goal - instead cast your eyes to the top of the website and look at your word count. 

What your word count is, what it stands for, is all the work you have put in during November, when the world has been throwing homework, colds, kids, jobs, life, trees in your path right in the way. It stands for all the things you have fought against to get what you have there and what you didn't have before November. No matter what November brings, if you take on the NaNo beast you definitely deserve a medal and a cup of tea at the end. 

So get your freezer stocked with pizza, pack up your biscuit tin with goodies, hang the do not disturb sign, stretch your fingers and finally, put the kettle on. 

NaNoWriMo is one of the only marathons where you don't have balloons and crowds cheering you on by the side lines. Six and a half hours to go Europe. London, are you ready? Manchester, are you ready? Everybody else, are you ready? 

COME ON YOU WRIMOS!! 

As a side note, if you're not a participant and you happen to see a writer huddled over their laptop in the corner of the room, get them a pack of biscuits; they'll appreciate it. Well, they will after November.

From October,

I do realise that's been almost an entire month since I've posted anything on here and for that, you all have my apologies. I've been having some pretty awesome adventures, been spending some quality time with the loved ones and have also encountered a couple of health problems, but I'm now on the mend, and just in time, as NaNoWriMo2013 starts at midnight tonight. Are you excited? 

I KNOW I AM!! 

I'm also petrified. For those of you who don't remember, I was a stroppy little sod last year after not achieving my favourite 'I have no life' goal of completing a 10k day. It is quite literally as the name suggests, a day where you write 10,000 words. I took three days off last year and finished on the 20th of November - definitely an 'I have no life outside of NaNo' achievement, but I couldn't quite feel satisfied. This year my goal is to have that 10k day. Maybe even have two, one for this year and one to heal my wounded pride from last year....I'm kidding. I think....

I've already had one of those nutty 'OHMYGOD IT'S NEARLY NANO; IMMA DIE!' moments yesterday, so it's probably a good thing that my housemates are in Portsmouth and there's possibly a strike of our uni lecturers, because I don't cope with people very well the day NaNo starts and I get the same sort of look as a piece of flat pack furniture with no instructions. (The best description of it is, I don't know what it is, and I have less idea of what to do with it. That kind of a face.)

On the plus side, I have an idea, a vague form of a plan, and a freezer drawer full of homemade ready meals, so that I don't just resort to pizza and coffee. I am also, because of my recent health blip, required to eat at least once a day so I can take my medication. It also requires me to consume vast amounts of orange juice, so maybe I won't end up with too dreadful of a NaNoFlu this year - trust me, it's a thing - but then again, who can know what November will bring? 

I have two gigs planned, can hopefully throw in a trip back home to see Jamie, Dean and their lovely cohort of Manchester WriMos, a rugby game this weekend (no, I'm not playing, look at the size of me for Pete's sake. :')) lectures, assignments, my family, my friends, my job, my amazing boyfriend :), and the general things of life like cooking, cleaning and the wonders of the ASDA weekly shop. There's Christmas shopping, sending Christmas cards and all manner of stupid things to think about, but they can wait, because it's coming, it's starting. 

REAL LIFE ENDS TONIGHT, 

Welcome to NaNoWriMo2013

Welcome Back to the World,

I got back from Greece on Sunday to something amazing. 

God knows I have complained enough times about the state of my laptop - teetering on the edge of existence ready to fall off. I'm not sure if I actually informed you all that a week before I went away, it fell rather violently. The hard drive stopped playing dead and instead was dying rather rapidly, and there was seemingly nothing I could do about it. Admittedly, that is partly because I'm not an IT genius, but thankfully, I know someone who is. :)  

Not only did he stop the hard drive dying before the only existing copy of the novel I was trying to write to NaNo targets was destroyed - it was the only thing which wasn't on the back up drive, since I forgot to turn the computer on to do it's scheduled back up - he also got me a new hard drive that will probably outlive the rest of the laptop by a couple of years, which is pretty awesome. 

Not only does this mean the Craptop is back in action; it also means that it's not acting like a craptop. It's running faster, it hasn't crashed since Sunday and it almost looks prettier, too. Probably because I'm not directing my hatred at it anymore.

Admittedly, this means I no longer have the excuse of "the Craptop" as to why I'm not getting things done towards publishing the next novel, but I have the excuse of uni has started up again and I'm in lectures for a while SIX HOURS A WEEK (that was sarcasm by the way, but uni does take up more time than just the lectures) and I also have a new job, which will be keeping me pretty busy. 

It is however, only 27 days until my favourite day of the year - the wonderful launch day of National Novel Writing Month - and as usual, nothing will get in my way of celebrating that joyous event, so at some point during the time between now and then, Yours, needs to be edited and emailed to the two lovely people who have agreed to read it, and tell me how much they either love or hate it. It's a pretty scary moment when that happens. After that, it's ready to go into print and a touch of reformatting will make it ready for being an e-book.