You’re doing NaNoWriMo, right? Well, Brandon and Mary took time out from World Fantasy to record this special message for you. Is it a pep-talk? Sage advice? Or is it just a pronunciation pointer? You decide! But don’t take long. You need to be writing.

Two minutes and forty-eight seconds long, because it’s NaNoWriMo, we’re ALL in a hurry, and hopefully this minimizes the distractions.

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Transcript

As transcribed by Mike Barker

[Brandon] This is Brandon.
[Mary] And this is Mary.
[Brandon] And we’re going to give you your first week Writing Excuses NaNoWriMo writing prompt. Do you say it NaNoWriMo?

[Mary] I do.
[Brandon] Because I used to always say it NaNo-Rim-o because it flowed off the tongue better.
[Mary] Well, that would make sense except that it’s write.
[Brandon] Except it’s write. Yeah, I know, but sometimes…
[Mary] Maybe you’re ritting?
[Brandon] Yeah, okay. [Laughter] Okay, we are here do not just say random things, but to encourage you to get going on your story.
[Mary] That’s right. Any excuse that you think you have right now for not writing… Let me tell you, we are into Day Two as we record this, as NaNoWriMo. I am at a convention that I came here on a train. Day One, I wrote 2000 words.
[Brandon] Very nice. That’s actually very hard to do.
[Mary] I’m at a convention. I’m already up to 400 today. I’m going to try to get another 1600 in today.
[Brandon] If you do, I think it is 1600 a day, you hit the maximum that you would need. Listen, your first week is going to be one of the most important. Because if you can get rolling that first week, and you can do it each day, you will build that habit. Plus there’s going to be hard weeks in the middle.
[Mary] Exactly.
[Brandon] Usually, week one and the last week for me were always the most productive. So get ahead this week. Do 2000 like Mary’s doing.
[Mary] Yeah. That’s exactly why I do the 2000 words at the beginning is because I’m trying to frontload while I have energy…
[Brandon] Right.
[Mary] While I’m excited, and before all of the “Oh, I didn’t think about that” has cropped up.
[Brandon] You will feel so good having done these 50,000 words. We talk on Writing Excuses about how important it is to practice. This is how you do it, folks. You sit down and you do it. Throw away those excuses, write your story, and really become a writer during these weeks.
[Mary] One thing that I have learned as I have been doing this more… The whole “Hello, I’m a writer”… Is that the farther you get in your career, the more time you spend doing things like traveling to conventions. So all of the things, the external distractions that you’ve got going on in your life right now? Those will become different external distractions, but your external distractions will always be there. Use NaNoWriMo if for nothing else to teach yourself how to write through the external distractions.
[Brandon] Yeah. If we can do it, you can do it, right?
[Mary] Yeah. Totally.
[Brandon] I mean, it’s really hard to be at the con. I only wrote three books last week. [Gasping laughter]
[Mary] Three books that were two words long?
[Brandon] That’s right. No, I managed to get… I’m at… This week, I’m at 7000.
[Mary] Oh, wow. Good for you.
[Brandon] So, yeah. That’s since Monday, so I don’t think that that all counts for NaNoWriMo. But anyway, go for it. We will be back with another peptalk next week.