Diana Gabaldon Pens Pep-Talk for NaNoWriMo

Diana Gabaldon recently penned a pep-talk for the infamous National Novel Writing Month (nicknamed, also infamously, NaNoWriMo- pronounce this how you will, there is a great debate on whether it’s WRI like “write” or WREE like “wreath”- have at it.) to inspire to-be novelists across the globe!

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For those of you who are unaware that this thing exists, let me be the first to introduce you to the madness that is National Novel Writing Month. Here is, basically, the quick and dirty:

-In the month of November, writers are challenged to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

-Do the math, this breaks down to 1,667 words per day, roughly.

-50,000 words is, approximately, the MINIMUM length of a novel. To put this in perspective, Diana’s “big” books run about 350,000 words. (Now maybe you see why it takes her 3-5 years to write one…)

-Famous authors (both participants of NaNoWriMo and not) write pep-talks to sort of, well, pep everyone up. If you can’t imagine what it’s like to write 50,000 words in a month, I urge you to try it. Then you’ll understand why a pep talk may be necessary.

I have been participating in NaNoWriMo for several years and have “won” (AKA “finished” successfully 50k in 30 days) each year. This will be my fourth year.

As a fan of Outlander and a writer myself, it should come as no surprise that I am fiercely loyal to Diana, and find that she is not only my favorite novelist, but is also a writer that I look up to admire greatly. She always has interesting things to say about the writing process and although her process and mine do not align in really any way, it’s nice to hear how others do it, and find success.

So when I saw her pep talk come through my email, I nearly died. Diana doesn’t actually participate in NaNoWriMo, but knowing that she took out some time to write (a brief!) essay urging me (and 300,000 other particpants world-wide…) to continue was heart-warming and inspiring.

Here is the first little bit of the pep talk. The full pep-talk can be found here.

"“The greatest thing about writing is that it’s just you and the page. The most horrifying thing about writing is that it’s just you and the page. Contemplation of that dichotomy is enough to stop most people dead in their tracks.Success in writing—and by that, I mean getting the contents of your head out onto the page in a form that other people can relate to—is largely a matter of playing mind games with yourself. In order to get anywhere, you need to figure out how your own mind works—and believe me, people are not all wired up the same way.”"

Next: Outlander Season 2: Diana Gabaldon on set

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Let us know, and find me on the NaNoWriMo page (and add me as a buddy!) under the username agirlwhowrites.