A day of Firsts

Well, this is my very first blog, so picture me awkwardly shuffling in and waving while imagining you in your underwear (Wait, that came out wrong! I'm trying to get rid of nerves, nothing dirty... Unless you're cute. In which case, Rawr.)

I had said I would start this thing on the summer, and here I am! The reason I waited for summer? So I have something to blog about! Which brings me to the day's other First...

First day of my first time participating in the National Novel Writing Month! And I have successfully passed through it without needing a diaper change!

The challenge? A 50, 000 word story written in one month. Hello, June!


After weeks of preparation (consisting mostly of last-minute character interviews and multiple pep-talks in front of the mirror), June finally arrived. It came faster than I ever expected.

 I would have thought at least Winter would arrive first. 

But it’s here, slapping me in the face saying that ‘holy shit it’s time to write a novel’!

Now, I won’t lie and say I was unprepared. I had been preparing myself for this. I had my main characters set, and a basic outline of the plot… And that all went to hell within the first 24 hours! (Somebody! Check if that’s a record!) Let’s not be so drastic and say it all went to hell, but something pretty darn significant changed. I don’t want to spoil anything, but one of my MCs may or may not be breathing from chapter 2 onwards.

You know it’s a heck of a plot twist when the author doesn’t see it coming.

So that’s an interesting way to start off. Of course, I realize what brought this twist on and I must admit that it is for the simple fact that my own story was boring me to tears. I understand it’s only the first ten pages I have so far, but good Lord I would have dropped this back into its shelf after the second page. Realizing this was very frustrating, but after going through the stages (anger, frustration, denial, fear) I remembered all the little writing tips I had seen not too long ago. And I realized that they all basically told me to come to terms with the fact that I would suck. But in the wise words of Jake from Adventure Time: “Sucking is the first step to becoming sorta good at something.”

Guess what? I may be about to write the most boring story since Kirsten Stewart’s facial expressions, but damn it all I WILL WRITE IT! I shall have 50,000 glorious words describing my characters eating toast for all I care, but I will have them!

Which brings me to another important point of today…

Reverse Psychology for a lazy brain.

Before starting this whole NaNoWriMo journey, I had set myself a goal for each day: 1,700 to 2,000 words every day, so that I could complete the 50,000 in time. On my first day, however, I exceeded expectations by completing over 4,000.

I understand that this is only the beginning and it will only get harder from here on out, not to mention that my level of inspiration will be inversely proportional to how many days have passed, and so this is not an achievement I will be likely to repeat very often. This is where the psychology comes in. I know I’m too lazy and irresponsible to follow a schedule as well as I have today, and doing this for a whole month is basically impossible. So my solution is, I have one part of my brain telling me this all day long, while the other says:

CHALLENGE: ACCEPTED.

So while Brain Side A drowns in the rain of its own misery, Brain Side B is doing push-ups and running 5 miles to the sounds of Eye of the Tiger as it says I will fucking do this.

During this whole complex process, I stand in front of the mirror and practice my smile for when July 1st comes and I am able to say: I WON, BITCHES.