Pack your suitcases. You are moving into your NaNoWriMo story!

 

 

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be…Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you’ll live as you’ve never lived before.”                – Erich Fromm

NaNoWriMo is just a day and a few hours away or two days away, depending where on the globe you happen to be.

So tell me, how are you feeling? Are you panicking with nerves? Are you wondering if your plot idea stacks up? Do you know enough about your MCs (main characters)? Have you set up a writing schedule? You only have a couple of days to sort out any plot holes you may have. Hopefully you have been using the month of October to prepare to succeed in NaNoWriMo.

This weekend is not the time to panic! If you start a race thinking you are going to fail or that you are unfit, you will not succeed. You will instead be setting yourself up to fail.

Instead, take a step back from all your preparation. Give yourself a breather. This is the weekend that you need to relax and get yourself in the right frame of mind. You want to enter Monday filled with enthusiasm and the power of positive thinking. Take a book and a pen and do this for yourself. Turn to a blank page in your book and in the boldest letters you can form, write:

I AM A WRITER.

Now tear that page out of your book, place it in a frame or a mount and put it in a place where you will see it every time you sit down in November to write your story. You ARE a Writer. You ARE a Storyteller. You already have the story you want to write within you, whether you have prepared for it or not. It is time to face this fact. You are going to start writing on the 1st of November and the writing will just flow. You will tap into your most creative part of your soul and mind and the story will take you on a magic carpet ride. Feel the story. These last few days before Monday, don’t do any more preparation. Instead immerse yourself into your story. Look out at the world through the eyes of your protagonist. For the next couple of days immigrate to the world of your story. Talk to your characters. Tell your characters you believe in their story and more importantly you will tell their story to the best of your ability.

Spend the next couple of days spending time with your family and your friends. Make it quality time. Tell them your story. Make them believe in your story. Introduce them to your characters. Let them fall in love with your characters just like you have. Do something you truly love to do that fills you with joy. Have a picnic. Treat yourself to a movie. Buy something luxurious for yourself. Buy something totally frivolous and beautiful. Have a wonderful meal. Have ice-cream for breakfast. Laugh. Play with your animals. Play with your children. Do only positive and happy things this weekend! Believe me, it will pay off for you. Give yourself the weekend off plotting. Don’t put your story aside. Live it, breathe it, play in your world. You will be surprised how valuable this sort of world-immersion into your story will be.

It is time to pack your suitcases. Pack in your positive thoughts. Pack in your inspirations. Pack in your “Writer”. Pack in your “Muse”. Pack in your passport of creativity. Pack in your visas of Character and Plot arcs. Pack in your ideas. You are now ready. Your flight leaves in a couple of days. You are booked into a window seat. Your window looks out onto your imagined world. Your muse is your pilot. Your characters are your flight attendants. They will look after every one of your needs for this month-long journey. They will also be your tour-guides. Listen to them. You will be travelling first class with the exclusive opportunity to go into the flight deck and to see where your Muse, the pilot, is flying you.

Now sit back. Say goodbye to your loved ones. Tell them you will see them again in a month’s time. Promise them you will take pictures of your journey. You are set to fly Midnight, 1st November, 2010. You have been waiting for this journey for a long time. At the end of this journey you will have a novel that you have written in your hands. That is the prize. That is the golden egg. Now fly and go get it Writer!

“Never ask whether you can do something. Say instead that you are going to do it, then fasten your
seat belt.” – Julia Cameron (The Artist’s Way)

My NaNoWriMo user name is: last_lines

If you are on Facebook, join this great group: NaNoWriMo Warriors

© All rights reserved Kim Koning.

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