How many of you have heard of NaNoWriMo? Well, Val Healy is blogging about it on writing.ie . She gives some really good advice. She also shares about her negative thoughts, getting in the way of her writing. Her main fear is of her ‘inner critic.’ I wish I had an inner critic. I seem to have an ‘inner cheerleader.’ And she fills my head with such notions that are more blinding than any pom-poms;
‘It will take you no time to write about 80k words,’
’You can do this in your sleep,’
’You work too hard….maybe just research tonight’ and
‘Why don’t you take some time off?’
I have been procrastinating, a lot. I tweet, read books and blogs, blog, teach, work, drive, drink tea, watch TV, in fact I would do anything not to write. My favourite pastime was ‘research.’ I could ‘research’ till the preverbal cows came home.
As some of you may remember, I entered the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair. They emailed to confirm they received my manuscript (which I had tied with orange ribbons!) and to confirm that I do, in fact, have an ‘inner critic’. Oh the horror of it all!
Five hundred and seventy people entered, and out of all of that they are going to select twenty. 20 out of 570! Well, I am not a defeatist person but you gotta know when to cut your losses and move on. My inner critic also made me realise:
Blogging about writing is not writing.
Tweeting about writing is not writing.
Talking about writing – well you get my drift!
I really doubt I will get a call for the next round but you know what? I don’t care! I have gotten some gems of advice in my course notes from Caren Kennedy and I know how to progress.
Give me a; ‘We won’t be defeated and we won’t be outdone. ‘Cause Moloney King is number one! If you believe in winning – clap.’ If this was Twitter I would be hash tagging #CLAPPING round-about-now.
Why is my inner cheerleader back? Well, they need a finished MS by January and this will ensure that I will sit down and stick to that deadline.
I have married my inner critic to my inner cheerleader and together we will stick to that deadline; writing, fighting and clapping all the way to the orange ribbon finish line!
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Thanks and Reki Blessings for stopping by! The fact that anyone would be interested in what I have to say….well it still shocks me. 🙂
Michelle Moloney King 
10 replies on “NaNoWriMo”
Hi Joanne,
Thank you so much for your kind words and for taking the time to read and comment.
Booo to the inner critic!
M
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Go inner cheerleader ! You sound like a very positive person to me already, so don't listen too much to inner critic .. good luck with the writing comp 1
http://www.balletpumpsandroses.com
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HI Xavier,
Thanks for that link, I am on my way to watch it now.
Onwards
Michelle
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Hi Wendy,
You know what……posting a comment is writing. You are formulating your opinions, reacting to a muse and articulating it in writing.
#clapping for you!
Onwards
Michelle
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Hi Lousie,
Thanks so much, for you I will lend her to you for free!
#Clapping
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Clark Kent is only trotting after you, ya “Superwoman” Ya!
You have said something here that I have been writing and talking about for months – “I have married my inner critic to my inner cheerleader and together we will stick to that deadline”
I put it a little differently but the message is still the same. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g60DaN7OMKg
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Ahhh now why do you want to rain on my parade? Smiles – sounds like me too!
Is posting a comment to your blog writing? Sighs, probably not.
Thank you!
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I think ur fab and if u cud hire out ur inner cheerleader, I wud b d first in line-great pics too.x
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HA! Thanks Finn.
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#CLAPPING
Finn
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