Best Advice to a Newbie Writer

Over the weekend, I was able to go visit family. My little sister is about to go on a mission for our church, and it’ll be a year and a half before we see her again. While we were there, my mom threw a huge open house, and I got to meet a whole bunch of my sister’s friends.

One of those said friends found me (with my sister’s help) and told me that he wants to be a writer. There’s nothing that gets me more excited than when I meet another person eager to start the writing journey. As we talked, I learned that as much as he wants to write, he hasn’t really done very much. He told me that he wants to write, but it’s a lot of work, and in the past few months, he’s written about ten pages.

In that kind of situation, I’m never quite sure what to say. I don’t know him very well, and I don’t know what motivates him. He’s got the desire, but without the effort, there’s not much that I can do. The best thing I could do was to direct him to the NaNoWriMo website and help him sign up.

NaNoWriMo is one of the best resources for starting because there’s a built in goal. Each day, you get the chance to gauge how well you did, know whether or not to increase the number of words you write. Plus, there’s a built in writing group, people who encourage you to actually do it. You’re not alone, and you’ve got someone to take the journey with you.

I can’t tell you how excited I am for NaNoWriMo. This year, we’re really pushing toward getting as many new writers as we can. We’re going to paper the town in the next few weeks, which will be awesome!

Who else is excited for NaNoWriMo?