NaNoWriMo Week 2: Never Give Up!

This is a great sentiment for Week 2 of NaNoWriMo, but honestly…we all know why I wanted to write this.

YOU ARE OUR LAST HOPE — Any excuse to put this into a blog post. ANY EXCUSE.

Capt. Taggart has the right idea. Notoriously, Week 2 is the hardest week of NaNoWriMo. All your great ideas from Week 1 are gone, you hate your novel, you’re positive that every word you’ve written is junk that you’ll never be able to salvage.

Don’t worry. I’ve been there. Heck, I’m almost there now!

The number one key to Week 2 is to hold on and hang in. Besides, for anyone who’s seen Galaxy Quest, what do the Thermians tell Taggart?

…

No one? Oh come on, this is a great movie. I demand you all watch this immediately. (It’ll be a great confidence booster, I’m tellin’ ya.)

Don't let the aliens down! — YOU ARE OUR LAST HOPE!

You are the last hope of your novel. No one else can write it except for you. Those characters have chosen you for their outlet into our world, and there’s no other way for them to express themselves. They trust you, those fragile words. Don’t let them down!

Just keep writing. (Channel Dori if you want!) Don’t worry about how good the words are. Just write them. There was something back at the beginning of September that pushed you to write this, that made you excited about this world. Find it again! Don’t edit, but go back and look at your beginning. What’s there that you really loved?

Is a side character stealing the spotlight? LET THEM! Maybe they’re really the star of the show, and the person you thought was your main character is actually the sidekick! You’ll never know until you try, and that’s what NaNoWriMo is all about. Trying, and pushing, and succeeding. Because like I’ve always said, as long as you write in November, you’re a winner, because you’ll have more words at the beginning than you did at the end.

Well and truly stuck? Don’t know where to turn? There’s so many amazing places you can find support and encouragement. Go back and read pep talks from earlier authors. Go on the forums and find others who are stuck. Find your region and appeal to your regional ML for help. See if there are any write-ins near you. (If not? Friend TwilightPrelude on Skype and join me and my write-ins on there!) Check out the Adoption Society and pick up a lonely plot or character or idea that needs a home. Try the Procrastination Forums if you really just need a break from it all. (Just don’t stay there all month!) Need some help in your genre? They’ve got a whole bunch of forums just to individual genres! Know what you need to write, just are having trouble putting pen to page? Join in on Twitter with @NaNoWordSprints for short bursts of writing–we try to run as much around the clock as we can!

So go out there, valiant writers. See to the worlds that only you know. Take that trail that only you can blaze, and let it bring you somewhere amazing.

Because the only thing scarier than Sarris is leaving your world–your characters–lost in the aether.