Dawn Groves Land

I often use two-word comebacks against the nasty commentary that my Inner Critic hurls at me. If I say more than two words, I’m validating the comment with too much attention. Better to just slap it away.

IC: You can’t write.
ME: Big Deal.
IC: You need an outline.
ME: So What.
IC: This book idea sucks.
ME: Who Cares?

Those are three of my most common two-word responses. I have a few others that I use less often when the Inner Critic is more ….uh… unpleasant.

Regarding NaNoWriMo, after a very slow start I’m finally catching up. I need to get ahead of the game because of weekend travel plans. I”m going to Fargo. Yes, Fargo. As in North Dakota.

IC: You’ll never catch up.
ME: Your Mother.

Dawn

I’m writing with a great concept and little else. When I started, I felt completely lost. You’re an idiot, said my Inner Critic. Structure a decent outline. Write from your plot points. Like you did last year.

Did my book sell last year? No. Did the agents and publishers swoon over my pitch? No. So why should I do what I did?

Thus, I have made the decision to plunge into the void. What the heck, it’s month out of my life. If it doesn’t work, I haven’t lost much.

NO OUTLINE NO PROBLEM.

Gulp.

Good morning. Are you prepared to write? I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed but that’s nothing new.

The plan today is to ready the battle field by clearing my desk. That’ll take about five hours. My tendonitis is already kicking in so I’ll prep the Dragon Voice Active software as well. Last year i had to do it in the middle of the month. Ugly. This year I’ll face reality and plan for it. Lord, sometimes being human is a big pain.

Tomorrow I get the microphone repaired and develop the next Write Now podcast. The podcasts help me focus so it’s a labor of love. It’s also a great distraction from writing… ha.

Two days to go.

Dawn

I started the outline of my NaNoWriMo project. OHMYGODITISSOBADITWILLNEVERSELLIMGOINGTODIEPENNILESS.

Got that out of my system.

Think about yourself for a minute. (Not difficult for most of us…) Every experience in life combines to create who you are today: your pain, your sins, weight gain, acne, that time you vomited on your date. Everything. Not just the pretty stuff.

Same with your novel. Everything you write — even the overwrought purple prose — puts you this much closer to the ultimate goal.

Glory comes to those who dare. But sometimes you have to dare many times before the glory can happen.

NaNo starts in a week. Do you dare?

-dawn

So I contacted Lorna and we have resumed our text message meetings. We write for 1/2 hour and then share word counts. It’s silly but the meetings keep me honest.

Our first was yesterday. And OUCH, I remembered why I’ve been avoiding this for a few months. Writing SUCKS.

I’ve written several books. I’m a pretty fair writer. I know what it takes to get something produced and published. You’d think that I could flush out some copy without feeling like a big fake.

Not so. Oh well.

At one point in my life, I decided that my purpose on this Earth was to be an example of someone who feels all the fear, insecurity, dorkiness, and ambivalence that everyone else feels, but who goes for it anyway.

So what if writing is hard? Everything easy was once hard. I can do hard.

Next week I’ll slap out a rough outline for my upcoming NaNo 50K push.

Onward. -Dawn