NaNo Day 1 by Tommia Wright

So it begins – NaNoWriMo 2012. Or for those in our little region – NaNoRhiMo.

The kick-off celebration at a local cafe kind enough to host our large group (and offering the best homemade ice cream ever to go with devilishly good chocolate cake) began with a bang! About two dozen writers gathering to support one another, raise funds for the Office of Letters and Light and ‘charge’ ahead with this month long (in)sanity sprint/stroll/strive of 50,000 words in 30 days. The average would be 1,667 words daily – or simplicity sake, about 2K.

Day one’s tally wasn’t too bad, with some characters surprising me still (never knew Jared drank wine only during communion, anniversaries and when stressed or that Rita had an inhaler) and details I hadn’t thought about creeping in, charging past the internal critic that dared to mutter ‘delete! delete! rewrite! rewrite!’

Will tomorrow be better? Depends on the discipline (a.k.a. getting up earlier than usual, which would mean getting up earlier than the always missed/often ignored alarm clock for ‘on-time.’).

Strategies were shared for motivation, reckless abandonment and rewards. Dangerously thought of one month-ending/goal-reached reward. What to do about the weekly ones now…

What propels you to go forward with a story? How often do you communicate with other writers and artists – in person, via blog or email or (gasp) traditional phone call or letter?