The Middle of NaNoWriMo: Halfway point pep talk

My fellow novelists, we need to take a moment. It’s November 15th which is, of course, the exact middle of National Novel Writing Month.

I want to take a moment to personally congratulate each and every one of you for making it this far. Remember the curse of Week Two I talked about last week? It really separates out the people who are serious about this promise they’ve made to themselves to write a novel in a month and those that aren’t. Week Two eats the weak.

I’m not going to sugar coat it, people have quit. They’ve realized they don’t have the dedication to see this through and they’ve slunk off to the real world. But you haven’t. Maybe you’re behind. Maybe you’re so far ahead you’ve made up a new goal to challenge yourself. Either way you’re still here, your butt is still in the chair (to paraphrase the famous writing advice) and you’re still committed to writing as much as you can in the month of November and for that you deserve to be very proud of yourself.

Where do we go from here? Well, if you aren’t at 25,000 words by the end of tonight (and I, personally, am not) then make it a goal to get there before bedtime tonight. If you are already past the midway point, keep pushing forward. There’s a holiday coming up which can mean time off from work to write or time spent distracted from writing by family so plan accordingly. If you are so insanely behind you were secretly thinking of giving up, DON’T! It is entirely possible to win NaNoWriMo in a week (I have a friend who does it every year) and there’s still 15 whole days left in this month. A few word heavy days and you’ll be right back on pace.

And the phrase it’s all downhill from here really applies once you hit 25,000 words. You’ll start approaching the climax of your story and you’ll discover that, from this point on, the words will start to come faster and easier until you get to the end. Once you read the midway point, get out your sled and enjoy the wild ride down the mountain.