Conquer Your NaNoWriMo Goals! Let Creativity Reign! by Beth Barany
I love what Joie Seldon says here in her five minute video on Joy.
Her short video is about emotional resilience and commitment.
Two ingredients we need to write novels and be successful fiction writers.
When I was 30 years old and despondent because I didn’t get into graduate school for journalism, I felt like a failure. I felt like I had no direction in my life. And that in itself was upsetting.
When I finally looked at my graduate school application, I saw that I had declared in the essay that what I really wanted to do was be a novelist, and thought being a journalist would help me along that path.
I had written the truth to strangers but hadn’t admitted the truth to myself until now.
I’d wanted to be a novelist for over a decade. The closest I had come was dabbling — little starter paragraphs, and that was it.
After this big rejection of not getting into graduate school, I knew the time had come.
It was time for me to decide to commit to being a novelist or give up the dream and focus on something else.
- Is the time now for you to be committed to being a novelist?
- Are you ready to jump in with both feet and be committed to the process even if you don’t know exactly what will happen?
For me, one of the reasons I did not start writing fiction seriously until I was 30 years old was that I was scared.
I was afraid of something, something nameless. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until years later.
For me it was a fear of going crazy. When I say it out loud it sounds strange, but there was an intensity about letting all the voices of my characters free rein. It was the intensity of going into the creative space and leaving behind the practical world I was afraid of — without knowing why.
Now many years later and 16 novels written (11 are published), I can acknowledge that I do step away from the practical world and go into this very creative space where I unmoor myself from this tangible world and step into a new world, the story world.
One thing I didn’t know then but I know now is that going into the story world that I create is so empowering. When I come back into the practical normal world, I feel strong, I feel invigorated, I feel eager to go back into my story.
All of these feelings reinforce the work I do as a novelist. And make it easier to set aside the time, and make the commitment on a daily basis, to work on my book.
Somehow I knew when I was just starting out and committing to being a fiction writer that I needed that daily courage to dive into the creative story space. I knew I needed to set aside time and let my imagination start to take shape on the page.
I didn’t know what would take shape. I didn’t know where my imagination would take me. But I finally had the courage to step into the unknown.
And I didn’t do it alone. I did it with help.
In fact I knew from my years and years of education that I function well in group learning settings.
I needed the encouragement and accountability of the group. I needed to learn from those who had walked the path before me.
I needed to know that the pathway forward wasn’t completely unknown.
Other writers had sat down and faced that unknown and come out on the other side with pages, completed manuscripts, even published books.
Learning in a group has the added advantage of tapping into the collective wisdom, being able to ask questions and to have them them answered in a timely basis. In group, you also get the opportunity to be inspired by other peoples’ inspiration. We are social creatures.
If you find you learn well in a group, and you’re curious about moving forward with writing your novel, or you’ve never written a novel and you want support and guidance, come and get a taste in our upcoming free webinar.
Learn some things, do a little bit of writing, and see if our upcoming 60-day novel course is right for you.
More details below…
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is the month where you challenge yourself to write 50,000 words during the month of November.
Yes—50,000 words!
What?!
“I could never do that.”
We hear this all the time. We are here to tell you YOU CAN! And we can show you how.
The three hardest parts of writing 50,000 words are the first 20,000, the second 10,000 and the last 20,000. Ha!
It’s hard, but it’s fun, exciting, and scary, like all good adventures are.
We know. We’ve done it.
Your instructors for this webinar have written and published many novels. Beth has written 16 novels and published 11; Ezra has written 20, and published 10.
And Ann has written 8 novels averaging 50,000 words in the last 6 years, and published 1.
You can too, because we are going to show you how to do the hardest of the hard parts — getting started.
During our “You Can Write A Novel: Tips on How to Get Started” webinar you will learn 2 vital skills that will prepare you to win the NaNoWriMo challenge.
- How to generate story ideas to start building the novel you’ll write in November,
AND
- How your character’s goal, motivation, and conflict tell your story for you.
Join us here:
https://writersfunzone.com/
Want more?
The webinar is only the beginning…
For an in-depth dive so you can start your novel prepared, consider joining us for the 60-Day Plan and Write Your Novel Like a Pro live class that starts Oct. 1st.
This 60-day class is designed to help you plan and write your novel — based on the book, Plan Your Novel Like a Pro and Have Fun Doing It by Beth and Ezra Barany.
This upcoming free webinar is the perfect place to start planning and writing your novel.span>See you soon!Have a happy and creative week!
All my best,Beth
Recent Posts of the Writer’s Fun Zone blog
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- Going Pro: The Journey Using a Blog to Make a Bestseller by Marilyn Flower
- Add a Goblin: A Writing Exercise by LA Bourgeois
- Seasons of Change by Nevada McPherson
- Descriptive Writing: Painting with Words by Keri Kruspe
