NaNoWriMo Day 12: A Report From the Trenches

I took about three days off from NaNoWriMo to do self-publishing business stuff - those things you do to generate or try to generate income while trying really hard not to feel inferior to those authors who seem to have their shit way together than you do because they’re not doing NaNoWriMo.

You know the ones. They’re the ones who have their book release dates and activities lined up, from the giveaways to the ARCs meant to generate reviews on the first day of release to blog tours and peppy tweets.

Unfortunately I’m not one of them, at least not yet. Instead of getting the final draft of the novel that’s scheduled for release in a month, here I am, still grappling with my word count and buried in Adele-worthy angst, given that her latest release, “Hello,” is my hero’s theme song.

By all accounts, I shouldn’t be doing NaNoWriMo. I should be acting like the author/business person instead, drafting witty tweets and posts, or combing through companies that handle blog tours and book release events, writing blog posts that only highlight the positive — and always the positive for I’m building my brand after all.

Instead, I’m writing, trying to capture the pain and hurt that comes with an unexpected reunion between characters and working out the deeper meaning behind why the hell I am writing such dreary stuff in the first place.

But it’s NaNoWriMo, I tell myself, so stop worrying too much. As writers, we just write really, even if the world around us is slowly crumbling and the To-Do list keeps getting longer even after you took three days off from writing down the words to supposedly do “work.”

For just because you didn’t put the muses’ words down on paper doesn’t mean they didn’t haunt you all that time.