Discipline

I've suggested you need to be selfish. Alas, there is more to it than that. You need discipline. After all, if you don't write 50,000 words, you'll have alienated you family and friends, neglected you pets and jeopardized your health for nothing.

The image of writers as louche dandies who spend their time making witty retorts and sleeping with attractive members of the opposite sex is a myth. When I'm not writing, my time is spent talking to a three year old who thinks singing "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes ... and poo!" is witty. The only person I get to sleep with is my wife and she's generally asleep, as in actually asleep, by the time I've finished writing for the night.

Writing is a skill and you needs to practise regularly to develop it. Some atheletes might be born with stupendous ability, but won't achieve their full potential without training. Thus it is with writers. Damn few get published without slogging through mundane, fustrating, demoralising and often seemingly pointless tasks. Nanowrimo will probably turn out to be one of these training exercises.

What sort of habits do you need to develop? I think the most important is regularity. Make sure you write same time, same place. This will train your creative imagination to 'turn on' at the right time. Ever had a great idea at 3am and not been able to remember it in the morning? That's creativity running amok. Often, I might have only a vague idea of what I'll going to write. After a hundred words or so, something comes to me, apparently out of nowhere, and it's great. That's because my creativity knows not to waste its time giving me dazzling insights at 3am - it knows that it will have an opportunity to reveal them later on. I've also found that regualr writing means my writing time is used efficiently - on a very good night, I can hammer out 2,000 words in an hour. Again, this because my creativity knows when to move from neutral to high gear.

I recommend you make a point of setting aside your writing time now, though nano is three weeks away. Get into the habit of sitting down and writing something - even if it is just a journal, a short story, or planning for nano - to get your creativity trained. This will also help you physically accustom to a writing routine - nowadays I skip lunch and have a big supper to give me the late evening energy burst I need. It will also allow those around you to get used to the idea that you'll be hogging the computer and really want to be left alone at certain times.

Another discipline issue - ration your time on the Nanowrimo forum. It is addictive. It is easy to squander an entire month procrastinating with other procrastinators, telling each other that you can do it and you'll start soon and your ideas are all good. They might be, but if they don't get written down, they're worthless. Don't spend your precious time telling other people how hard it is. Complaining and commiserating won't make writing easier or your word count bigger. If you are hooked, use it as a reward for hitting a goal: "1,000 words by 9 o'clock, then half an hour on the website." But stick to that, otherwise you'll find you've lost a whole day without writing anything.