I just wanted to respectfully point out that before a lot of these authors were able to quit their day jobs to write full-time, they started out as most of us do — with day 9-5 jobs, with spouses, with children to shuttle to school/practice/etc, and with all the other distractions that come with, well, life. They had to contend with all the same things a lot of NaNo-ers do (and who’s to say they’re not still contending with those things now, even as professional authors who probably earn enough to not necessitate working the typical 9-5 job?).

Plenty of published authors maintain their jobs and families while writing on the side/part-time/etc. I know a friend of mine churned out something like 20 novels before she could officially quit her day job and make a living off writing alone. So, I think a lot of authors are actually a lot like us – writing in their “spare” time as much as possible.

NaNo gives us a chance to see what it might be like to be a pro author. It challenges us to be able to write on a daily basis despite life’s distractions/issues/etc… which, I suspect, is something most authors do already.

Happy writing.

I enjoy reading posts like this one because it reinforces the idea that I must, absolutely, write regardless of whether or not I feel like it. I’ve heard the advice time and again, but until this past year, it hadn’t clicked. Or, I had my excuses in place (I mean, really, wasn’t I doing enough writing while I was in college?). But these days, it is about sitting down, setting up, and plugging away…

To echo the prolific Nora Roberts, “There ain’t no muse.”

Thanks for the reminder, Justine!

Reading both your and Scott’s blog have been quite helpful. I wrote an interview with the main antagonist, and it’s a blast having him talk about his evil plan, all the while taking up 1000+ words! It will eventually get dropped, I’m sure. But it was fun! Thanks again for the tips!

Weekends are usually good for me in that regard. I have all day to work and will eventually end up with two or three thousand words at the end of the day.

Anyway, more on the topic, I’ve been speaking with a few people who haven’t jumped on the Nano bandwagon this year and think they’d like to next year and it is this very thing that stops them. They feel they won’t have the discipline to write without real inspiritation and if they force themselves to work passed that they’ll find they hate it. But for me, I’ve found those uninspired times to sometimes be the most fruitful – and frankly, I think working through that has only made me a better writer. Possibly a crankier one, too.