I am up late waiting for nanowrimo to start  so I can write the first chapter of my book.   They had this great pep talk by James Patterson on the nanowrimo page that I thought I’d share with all of you.  It is so true for life and writing.  Enjoy

So Writer, you’re trying to write a novel in 30 days. Has anyone told you you’re crazy yet?

You’re not crazy. I promise. I know because I’ve written a novel in a couple of months. And yes, I’m a human being (just ask my editor, or my wife) and I do sleep. The book even got published. So anyone who tells you it’s impossible is wrong and you should probably stop taking their advice. Unless it’s your mom. Then just stop taking her advice about writing (you should still floss once a day).

There’s no getting around the fact that it’s hard, though, is there? By now you know that better than anyone. Maybe you should give up on this whole novel business and go relax. Or work at a paying job. But I say, keep at it. Because, like I said, it’s possible. And as you must suspect, it’s a pretty fantastic feeling to have written a book.

So how do you do it? Here are some tips on making it to December 1 without going crazy or giving up. (Though if you have to do one of them, I’ve always found sanity overrated.)

Outline. If you already have: gold star; proceed to the next piece of advice. If you didn’t, don’t worry, because it’s never too late to go back and make an outline. An outline isn’t something to be scared of, it’s just a chapter-by-chapter description of the scenes that, lined-up together, make your book. On the count of three, tell me the story that unfolds in your novel. All the way to the last chapter. Now write that down. There’s your outline. Easy, right?

Lie to yourself. Honesty is a great quality, but we’re writing fiction here, so you’d better get used to a little light lying. Tell yourself you can do this. Tell yourself your book will be great. The world will love it and you’ll be the next J.K. Rowling, J.D. Salinger, Art Spiegelman, or whatever flavor of author you hope to become.

Get into a writing routine. Think it’s hard to write every day during NaNo? Most professional writers keep this kind of pace all year round. Holidays, birthdays, vacations—you name it, we’re writing. The trick is making writing into a daily habit. Same time. Same place. Same hot beverage of choice. Every. Single. Day. Again. And. Again.

Don’t do it alone. If you live with somebody, tell them to be unpleasant to you if they see you doing anything else during your writing time. Buy them a water gun. If you live alone, have friends call and check on you. And if you have no friends, you will have no trouble writing a book in 30 days. What else do you have to do? (I’m not knocking friendless people. We’ve all been there.)

Don’t stress. I don’t mean to undermine the above, but remember this is one month, not your entire writing career. Try hard, learn from it, and if you don’t get to 50,000 words, figure out what you did wrong so you can get there next time.

Stop reading this. Start writing. Now. (Or at midnight your time.)

James

So I got the first 2478 words done (about 3 chapters and I’m really excited about it).  Here is my first paragraphs:

Trading Christmas:

“Mr Kringle the alarm is going off again” Spencer yells across.

Elf’s you see are worriers.  It could be something as seemingly small as a gear on a truck that isn’t quite right or a color of hair on a doll that seems slightly off but it will capture their attention for weeks and weeks.  You will literally see them pacing the halls of the Kringle castle muttering to themselves

“What to do?  What to do?”

A few top level worrier Elf’s are given the special assignment as high human concern liaison.   This is an elite team that watches the human need switchboards and reports to me, Santa Claus when things are looking bad.  There is a large switchboard that monitors human activity, gauging present wish lists, childhood belief levels and human crisis intervention needs.  When a man or woman, boy or girl, calls out to Santa or makes  a wish they are notified  by a blinking light, quickly a team interviews and assess the situation and then notifies me of the best course of action.

On this particular Sunday Spencer found me at the North Pole fitness center getting my pre-cookie body into shape.  You see I can’t fit down all those chimneys singing Christmas carols and you try eating  6 billion cookies in one night and see how rosy and trim your figure is?  It’s a busy time as you might expect and sometimes the gym is the one moment of peace I have for months.  Sadly today was not going to be such a day