I love October. After surviving the brutal Arizona summer, October feels to me like a fresh start. It’s a time when leaves are changing and a time to change some habits too. One bad habit I’d like to shake is the lack of time I’ve spent writing lately. In the past four months or so, my writing time has slipped from around 36 hours a week to closer to half that. I can try to blame it on a new ‘day’ job, and on ramping up my promotional efforts in preparation for my book launch, but mostly it’s because I’ve been lacking direction lately. I know this because in the time I could have written one 80K word book, I’ve written four 20-30K word beginnings of a book. As any writer, agent or editor will probably tell you, you can’t sell a book you never finish (unless maybe you’re already super famous, which I am clearly not.)

Those first 30K words are what I call the honeymoon phase of writing. It’s so exciting to capture the new story that the words practically fall right out of my head. But then I settle into a routine and find myself looking at my story and wondering what I ever saw in it to begin with. I start to see its ugly bumps—the way it leaves its socks on the floor when the laundry hamper is right there. I begin to doubt I’ll ever make it through the long haul. Fortunately, I understand writing a book isn’t about feeling in love with what I write. It’s often a matter of faith, persistence and a lot of hard work. Sometimes, it can be downright miserable.

Fortunately, misery loves company. That is why I’m committing to National Novel Writing Month this year, and October is the perfect time to prepare for it. If you’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo, and you’ve ever had an inkling that you’d like to write, check it out at www.nanowrimo.org.  NaNoWriMo is an opportunity for writers to push themselves to produce more. It’s all about quantity, not quality (that’s what revision is for). It’s a matter of plodding (and plotting) along, even when you don’t want to. Even when your fingers ache. Even when you think your cat could cough up a better story than what you’ve written.

This year, I’ve going in to NaNoWriMo with 30K words completed on a new urban fantasy, and I plan to come out of it with 70K words. I don’t know whether or not I’ll make it, but one thing is for certain. As long as I try, I’ll have replaced a bad habit with a good one, and connected with some talented writers. Who knows, maybe I’ll even be inspired to take a second honeymoon.