Oct 25th Letter to self

Sunday, Oct. 25
CONTEST ROUND: Write a commitment letter to yourself, promising to do your best during the month of November, and vowing to not allow distractions or procrastination to keep you from your goal. Explain in the letter why you are awesome, how you plan to complete NaNo 2009, and what you will do to celebrate when you win



Dear Alan,

Well its that time again. Don’t be coy, you know what I’m talking about. After you’ve blithely promised yourself that you’ll do NaNo again and have managed to drag a few nebulous ideas into a viable plot, this is when you stop and think, “Am I nuts? What have I let myself in for?”.

The memory of scribbling frantically away until the wee hours of the morning suddenly rears its little ugly head. Proof reading what could only be described as the incoherent ramblings of a madman, makes you recoil in despair from the task ahead.

And yet, you finished Nano last year with a 50K word total logged 36 hours before the deadline. Do you remember what got you through that? Was it the steely-eyed determination, the competitive spirit, the well prepared plot outline, or even a mixture of all of all three. Looking back however, I find myself wondering about that. I think, despite all the cries of, “It’s too much,” and “I have a real life to lead here,” one thing above all others got you through this difficult task. It was your characters.

When you felt is was all too much, they begged to be heard. When you slammed down the pen, saying “that’s it,” they crawled into your arms, whispering and cajoling. I know you won’t be able to ignore them, you’re not that sort of person. Having drawn them living and breathing in your mind’s eye, you only have to put your fingers onto the keyboard for them to step down onto the page and inhabit the world you’ve created.

So, sharpen those pencils, pour the coffee, and find yourself a really comfy chair. For the next 30 days you and your characters are going on an adventure of a lifetime. They will be doing all the hard work, so you only have write what you see. Forget food, forget showering, just stay with your heroes until the end. They deserve to have their story told, and you’re the only one who can tell it.

And when its all over, what then? A box of chocolates or a huge pail of ice-cream to celebrate? No. Several hours of mindless television is all you’ll need to recharge those creative batteries. That, and a few hours of restorative retail therapy. What about shopping in London, New York or Milan, or perhaps you’ll just settle for a quick splurge in your local town? Whatever you decide, you’ll deserve it.

So gird up them loins Alan, let’s do this thing!!