Day 3 was not nearly as productive as I’d have liked. I got a little ahead in terms of posts and support, but I’ve fallen behind in word count. Today promises to be rather unproductive as well. In a certain sense, anyway. I’ve got a couple of events throughout the day and some travel to do, but I’ll have my laptop and I’ll try to get some writing done in what spare time I have. Tomorrow, though, I’ll have all day and should be able to get some real progress made. It all remains to be seen, of course.

“Writing every day is the real goal of NaNoWriMo.” I’m pretty sure that, for every day of NaNoWriMo, I can come up with a different thing to say is the real goal of the month. Really, though, there are a lot of goals. There are a lot of reasons to do NaNoWriMo. Right now, as I’m trying to pick my writing back up after way too long away from it, I think my reasons for doing it are going to be all of them.

Daily Prompt

Your character obviously has more going on than the story can tell. There must have been some formative experience in their past that pushed them to become the person they are today. What was their most important moment in their life, that led them up to the story? Write a scene as a flashback, where they reflect on that moment and how it has influenced the decision they’re about to make.

Sharing Inspiration

In a year where I’ve struggled to do any kind of writing, one book was enough to reach into my heart and stir my desire to create again. “Creativity, Inc” by Ed Catmull (that tells the story of Pixar and its journey from a hardware developer to the movie maker we know today) was a constant reminder of the lessons I’d learned during college about creativity and how to harness it. It also provided me with a useful reflection on how I thought about my own creativity, pushing me to reexamine my old ideations and produce new ones that better reflected my more experience look on life and more difficult creative process. If you’ve got some time to read this month, I recommend picking up a copy. If you don’t have time this month but still want to examine how you create, I suggest reading it next month or early next year.

Helpful Tips

Don’t forget to take breaks. Trying to cram now and get as much done as possible has value as long as you can maintain the enthusiasm, but don’t burn yourself out. Take time for something fun and don’t sweat it if you don’t do all of your day’s writing on one day. That’s why we have 30 of them. It’s okay to have a make-up day.