Are you a dragon slayer?

If you are reading this, there’s a good chance that the answer is – yes. People who write novels, or aspire to, are, if nothing else, adventurers. They are mixed in with the same brave souls who run marathons, climb mountains, sail blindly across strange oceans, and slay dragons.

National Novel Writing Month was created for adventurers. The fifty-thousand-word challenge is not about writing the great American novel. It’s about teaching yourself the business of putting words on paper. It’s about getting yourself to move!

Even now, a week into this year’s NaNoWriMo challenge, it’s not too late to begin. According to the NaNoWriMo website, there are now two options for your goal: the traditional fifty-thousand words for a new novel, or adding fifty-thousand words to a novel you’ve already started.

The creators of NaNoWriMo know that every mountaineer begins their journey with hands on hips, eyes squinting against the icy wind as they stare at the distant snow-covered summit. But it means nothing if they don’t start putting one foot in front of the other at the bottom of that first rise. That’s when they become a mountaineer. Yep, same for writers.

Sound hard? Well, adventuring is supposed to be hard. Some adventurers limp to a stop halfway into the race. Sometimes, they collapse short of the summit. Sometimes, their ship fades to white in a mysterious mist. And, sometimes, the dragon slays them (dragons are like that.). But true adventurers are not the kind of people who, in the face of their possible doom, say, “Gee, I wish I’d stayed home!”

The same principle applies if you choose writing novels instead of fighting monsters or climbing icy peaks. It’s one word after the other. So, if you’ve got the fortitude to tackle and defeat this great challenge, then warriors, I salute you!

BUT … (I’m whispering now) … if you don’t have time to pound out more than sixteen hundred words per day for thirty days straight, just set a different goal. For example, if you could manage three hundred fifty words a day (the exact number of words I’ve written here so far), five days a week – you could publish a novel every year, with time to spare. That’s less than a page per day!

I believe what’s most important is to set a goal that’ll get you on the right path to “The End.” If you are doing it just to get a certificate, you probably aren’t getting the point. No matter what goal you set, you’ve got to start getting words on paper (literally or virtually).

How about it – are you an adventurer? ‘Tis a noble calling, to be sure. Adventurers, by nature, are a different sort from the average person – but where would we be without them? Take dragon slayers, for example. They’re often loud, obnoxious, self-centered louts (with some bad traits mixed in there, too) … but handy to have around when a grumpy ol’ dragon shows up.

We really could use more of them. So, draw your sword, and tell us your story.