Survival Mode

When I was walking outside in the cold winter’s night—bundled up pretty much from head to toe—my hand around the leash that kept my dog from getting too far ahead. It started off as nothing, but the mores steps I took—the more I thought about how it would be to sleep outside, and how long one could be out there before one froze.

In my mind, I added in a blow up mattress, a cabin or tree house and best of all—ten layers of blankets. Somehow, I didn’t think that I would ever be able to do that. So the next best thing was torturing my Sims.

That’s right—I’m not writing at the moment. At least not for the thing I’m supposed to be writing for. In fact, I feel like the Sim I’m torturing, and making her sell fish while she lives in a tent.




Day seven and 11k+ words later, I feel like I’m in survival mode. Still barely getting to the word count each day, but doing so much better than I’ve ever done in the three years that I’ve been doing Nanowrimo.

 Three things that I’ve picked up while participating:

1.) Know your characters. Really, if you have the time—as November comes around once each year—use it wisely. You don’t have to spend every waking minute nitpicking over your characters, just write them down.

You’re probably not going to know how those characters are going to connect until you actually get the chance to start writing. That’s the fun magic of seeing YOUR writing come to life.

2.) Sadly, you might have this sudden dream that your writing will look good. But when you’re participating, it’s not hard to feel like you’re writing a load of gibberish instead.



3.) Make friends. Get a support system--whatever you want to call it. Although I made myself a writing twitter a couple years ago, I only used it for friends that were also participating in Nanowrimo—but this year I read somewhere or some wise soul of a friend told me that if you use the hash tag #amwriting or #nanowrimo on twitter, you can find people who are writing just like you are.

Everyone has a different opinion, which can make you clash, or if you’re stuck—they can definitely help you or shoot out ideas that can make you feel unstuck.

And before you know it…. you might have your own writing catch!