Greetings, friends! How did the first day of writing go?

I couldn’t wait to start–all week I’ve been thinking about characters and plot, making mood boards and naming cities. But yesterday I felt frozen–it took me all day to muster up the courage to type my first words. Those words were hard too. I have to have a good beginning, I told myself.

So did I really just psych myself out?

Yes.

That’s one big reason why I do NaNoWriMo–I get too in my head about writing. I want the words to come out all beautiful and graceful; I panic when they’re squeezed out instead, one after the other into an awkward pile of syllables.

It can be worth it to take the plunge and use NaNo to ruthlessly bombard your inner editor with stray commas until they give you a moment of silence.

Isn’t it funny: we’re busy creating villains for our novels when instead we are our own antagonists. We’re human and our brains love to tell us how much we suck. But we won’t let it win because helping our characters fight their demons could help us fight ours.

Today’s prompt:

Each person who knows you has a different perception of who you are.

This prompt is all about character building. What does your main character (MC) think about the people around them? What perceptions does everyone else have about your MC? Think about how these perceptions can translate into speech patterns or facial expressions–what do they say about the character’s past and how they themselves have been treated/perceived?

And most of all, enjoy day 2!