It’s November. For many writers, that means NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The goal is to write of novel of at least 50K words beginning at the midnight between October 31 and November 1 and ending at midnight on November 30. I can usually count on NaNo to jump-start my writing. In a year where very few words have been written, I’m currently at approximately 34K words. Sadly, only 22K of them are on my deadline project. There were days when the words wouldn’t come for it but I had words in other open projects. New words are new words, write? Right! 😏

Sometimes, when I’m fighting to find the words–or more often, the motivation to search for them, I need to remember this message from the Universe.

If you frequently give yourself permission to doodle, wander, and be totally unproductive, Silver, and you actually relish such interludes, I can guarantee that your genius, creativity, and productivity will increase exponentially.

I’ve seen it happen a billion times.

Through the roof,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

Operative words, Silver, were “frequently,” “permission,” and “relish”; does not work with “stingily,” “regret,” and “guilt.”

I really need to lose those last three words from my vocabulary, especially that last one. I’m from from a genius but I can be creative–writer, d’uh!–even though I’ve been an unproductive one. That generates a lot of guilt. Being unproductive. And yeah, the regrets pile up. So yeah, more doodling, wandering (and wondering) will help my productivity. And when those odd moments hit when I want to do anything–and I meand ANYthing other than sit in my desk chair and write (that includes laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, and running the vacuum), I need to give myself the emotional slack to work those issues. And hey, 34K words with more coming. Plot twists are turning. Action is happening and before I’m done, I’m going to make myself cry because the fine folks at NaNoWriMo have a badge for that. So that’s my plan. What’s yours?