When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. When life gives you a ridiculous deadline to write a novel, you take on that challenge with a smile on your face and very big cup of coffee.
According to my history on
nanowrimo.org, this is my ninth year doing the event. Every year, I fail to reach the 50,000 word mark that tells you that you are a champion, at least in your own eyes and that of your writer friends. Usually it's around day fifteen when I haven't worked on the novel in a week that I tend to give up. Although the novel ideas usually still have plenty of plot twists available, I stop seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
But not this year. I can't quit. I need a win.
The need isn't purely about writing a novel. It's more like a need a win in any part of my life right now. Working outside of my cramped little home office didn't work out. Finding writing jobs that pay a decent amount of money is hard; finding that same work between November and mid-January is nearly impossible. Life outside of work isn't much better. Certain family members will be holiday zombies for the next eight weeks with marathon sessions of watching sappy Hallmark Channel Christmas movies. And to top off this lovely day, I found out someone ate all of my mozzarella cheese (okay... that one could have been me). That is why I'm not giving up this year.
Life can throw a lot at you all at once. When that happens, any glimmer of hope is better than nothing. That's why I'm throwing all my effort into winning. On December 1st I will look at my 50,000+ words and pat myself on the back. Then, reality will set in, and the fear of revision will start creeping up. The fact that I haven't been searching for enough work for the past 30 days will also rear its ugly head. But I'll have a full first draft of a novel. And everything else will work itself out.
