Living the Dream - Part 2

If you are just joining us for the second part of Living the Dream, I invite you to go read Living the Dream - Part 1 so you don't miss out on anything.

"The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster than for you to cast off your own limitations than for you to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have, and do."
~ Brian Tracy

So we were talking about my dream of being a world-famous author with several published works and the challenge of staying motivated enough to complete a writing project. I mentioned a website that I came across three years ago that helps people get the bulk of their novel written in 30 days. Only 30 days!!! It is a tremendous achievement for anyone who does it. After all, how many people do you know that can say that they started and completed a major life goal in only 30 days? Not many.

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."
~ E.L. Doctorow

Well back in July, 1999 in the San Francisco Bay area, a guy named Chris Baty and 20 of his friends got together to see if they could each write a novel in 30 days. The funny thing is that none of them really aspire to be a novelist - they just didn't have anything better to do (that and they thought that they might have a much better chance at getting dates as novelists than as non-novelists). Out of those 21 participants, six completed the required 50,000 words and they all had a lot of fun doing it. They dubbed it National Novel Writing Month and agreed to do it again the next year.

"Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say."
~ Sharon O'Brien

As they were gearing up to do it again in 2000, a friend of Chris's volunteered to do a website for the event. Since he was offering to do it for free, Chris let him go with it and he had it done before the start of the event, which had been moved back to the month of November. Thus Nanowrimo.org (I know. It sounds like something Mork from Ork would say ... Nanu! Nanu!) was born and 140 people signed up for the event - over half of which Chris didn't even know. Each year the event grew, as did the organization of people who put it on. In 2007, 101,510 people participated and 15,333 completed the required 50,000 words to win. The participants logged a total of 1,187,931,929 words written as they attempted to write their 30-day novels. A number of Nanowrimo participants have gone on to have their 30-day novels published! Not bad for something that was born out of boredom and lack of dating opportunities.

You may be wondering why anybody would want to even try to write so many words in such a short amount of time. The reason why this event is so great is because it forces you to get disciplined to achieve your goal. You have a very definite goal (50,000 words) to achieve in a very limited amount of time (30 days). You have to sit your behind in a chair and get to work nearly every day or you will never ever come close.

"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
~ Toni Morrison

The other advantage of trying to write so much in so little time is that it forces you to shut off your inner editor. So many people, myself included, don't get very far on major writing projects because they are constantly editing and changing what they have already written in an attempt to make it good. You can't do this in Nanowrimo. You learn to just write and get it all out there. By doing so, your analytical mind shuts down and your creative one takes over - which is really what you want when you are writing. You get into a creative flow and your story takes you places you never dreamed of going. Besides, many writers have said that a novel is born when you write it, but a really good novel is born when you rewrite it. So write first, edit later.

"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter."
~ James Michener

Even though I found out about Nanowrimo three years ago, this will be my first year participating in it. The year I found out about the event, my third son was born on Halloween morning. So, I couldn't spare the time to do the event when my wife needed my help with the new baby, his two older brothers and keeping up on things around the house as she recovered and adjusted to having a newborn. Last year, I was simply too busy getting settled into and adjusting to a new job. This year, however, I am making time.

I signed up under the author name NiceGuy and declared my intention to be a Nanowrimo novelist by November 30th. It isn't going to be easy with the hours that I already keep, but my wife has said she will support me as I embark on this crazy and insane adventure. How many of you out there want to get crazy with me? Go to Nanowrimo.org and sign up! Even if you don't reach the 50,000 word mark, you will at least have a really good start on your novel if you give it a decent effort.

If you don't want to do it with me, you can still look up my author name at the website and see how I am progressing. Anybody out there that wants to cheer me on would be much appreciated. It helps keep me accountable to my goals when I know that someone is watching.

While I wait for the whole event to kick off, I am jotting down plot notes as they come to me but I am not sure if that will make the event easier to complete or simply make it pure torture to not start writing right now. I am working another story in an attempt to establish a daily writing habit early and to gauge how long it takes me to write between 1,600 to 2,000 words a day. I have also joined some writing groups at Writing.com that have set up some writing activities and challenges that are focused on helping people get prepped for Nanowrimo as they participate.

As you can see, I have started living my dream of being a writer and my life is better for it. For the first time in a long time, I am really excited about what I am doing and having lots of fun.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
~ Mark Twain

So what are you going to do today to start living your dream?