This is a picture of me at midnight, getting ready to start NaNoWriMo. Did I mention I am NOT a night owl? I actually took a nap and then set an alarm to wake up at 11:50. My brain was a pile of sleepy mush.
But I wrote anyway!
For all the the excitement I've built up around this year, when I actually stared at that blank page, it was extrememly difficult to get something down on paper. I was surprised at how loudly the voices in my head were screaming, "This is awful!" I mean, I've been doing this for seven years, you would think that I wouldn't have a panic attack on day one. You would be wrong.
Luckily, I had my good friend Renee on a video call writing with me in solidarity from the West Coast. She kept me going with the sound of her clicking on her own keyboard and random stories about her pets.
The NaNoWrMo twitter account was doing some A game coaching as well.
Here's a quick screen shot of what I wrote last night. A little more than 1,000 words, mostly rambling, and lots of red squiggles. My spell check hates me right now.
So, I may have fallen victim to setting up too high expectations for that first page. It never comes out as perfectly onto the page as it is in your head, and hey, maybe I'm a little rusty after not writing any long form fiction since last year. Write anyway. That's what I did, and will keep doing. Getting off to a slow start, but I'm starting!
I'm about to make myself a cup of tea, turn off my internet, and get back to work on those last 667 words for the day.
Good luck to all my fellow wrimos and to anyone anywhere who is undertaking something new, scary, or overwhelming. You can do this! Keep going!
Day 1, out.