NaNoWriMo Week 1: You Don’t Need My Motivational Speech

It is November. Or as we say in Writer-ville: NaNoWriMo! This is the month when we forsake our friends and relations to write for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Many of us dedicate ourselves to that elusive goal of 50k words in 30 days. 1600 words per day. This is for my fellow writers. Those who have sat up writing well past when they should have their ass in bed so they can tolerate their day job in the morning. Those who write for a living so they do it on the 9-5. Those who are responsible people and go to bed every night at 9:30pm. And for you freelancers who write when you want to, where you want to, wearing yoga pants and workout tank-tops, half drunk on freedom, stale coffee, and scotch — You’re the real MVPs (Most Valued Profession). In other words, this is for people who write, regardless of when/where you do it, for the Iditarod of writing — an ultimately pointless activity that doesn’t save a damn soul except your own. I’ve been there a few times myself, not this year though, which means I have the time to talk y’all through it from the sidelines. Some years I’ve finished. Most years I haven’t. Some of you will finish. Many of you won’t. I don’t say that to discourage you, if anything I have to say can discourage you, you should just pack it up now and go back to watching television. I hear there are some good series out right now. The motivation for NaNoWriMo comes from you, and the demotivation too. We are our own greatest demotivators.

At this poi…