So, when this time of year rolls around, one of the questions I get asked fairly often is “Are you doing NaNo?”

Usually, my answer is “Nope. My life is pretty much one big NaNo, or X-Y-Z deadline has made doing it impossible.”

(For those of you who don’t know wtf I’m talking about, NaNo = NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month, a month-long challenge/event where thousands of people try to write a novel in 30 days. It has been going on for years, and is super inspiring and badass.)

I’ve spent past years watching NaNo participants with some degree of jealousy—the sense of community, the explosion of creative energy… It has always looked like SO MUCH FUN.

So, it feels like the stars aligned the year…in a few ways:

1. I will be sending in my second round of edits on TOG Book 2 any day now, which means I will be (somewhat) free for November.
2. Thanks to travel, events, and life, I have been actively NOT WRITING new stuff for a few months. Which means I have been ACHING to write-write-write my little heart out. And what better time to do it than NaNo?
3. Thanks to all those events, I’ve met a lot of incredible, incredible people. A lot of aspiring authors, actually. And (here is where I start squirming because I don’t particularly like tooting my own horn, but bear with me) at many of these events, AT LEAST one person has come up to me and told me that they are a) a writer b) stopped writing because they didn’t think they could do it, and c) hearing me talk about how I went from a teen writer to published author and kept with it for ten years inspired them to start writing again.

More than hearing that a reader loves THRONE OF GLASS, it’s hearing THAT—that I made just ONE person want to write—that hits me in the freaking gut every time. It makes every hour of work worth it, it makes me stay the course, makes me remember why I love writing.

I’m a debut author, but I’ve been doing a lot of Thinking lately about my career—how I see it long-term, what I want from it, the things that matter the most to me. Recently, I became totally addicted to Alex Bracken’s “Black Betty Driving Mix” for her (amazing, amazing) novel, THE DARKEST MINDS. I listen to it when I’m cooking, when I’m cleaning, when I’m chilling out. And one of my favorite-favorite songs on the playlist (and of all time) is Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young.” (Which is also the freaking hardest song to find on youtube, so if you want to hear it, head on over to Alex's playlist. It's #10.)

So, the other night, I was cooking dinner (AKA revising went badly that day), and “Forever Young” started playing. And I just stood in my kitchen, listening—REALLY LISTENING—to the words.

And, I started thinking about how I’d listen to this song back when I was a teen and dream big, how it is one of Those Songs that reminds you of Who You Are and What You Want. And then I started thinking about those people at the events who told me that they’d stopped writing, or convinced themselves they weren’t good enough, or who wanted to write but were too afraid to type one word.

And I wound up listening to that song nearly a dozen times that night, especially the lines: “May your wishes all come true / May you always do for others / And let others do for you…”

See, a lot of my wishes HAVE come true. My BIGGEST wish—to be published—came true, and then some. And thanks to that wish coming true, I haven’t had much time to give back lately. But I am here today because someone remembered to reach back (my lovely friend and author/agent, Mandy Hubbard). And because I’ve been doing all that Thinking lately about what I Really Want from my career, and what means the most to me as a writer and author, I got this idea.

It’s not much. And as a published author, I now don’t usually have the luxury of the time to do this kind of stuff, but, again, the stars aligned this year, so…

If you are a writer, if you are thinking of doing NaNo, if you have wanted to write your whole life but have been too scared or had someone tell you it was a waste of your time…. If you’ve always wanted to try NaNo but have been too freaked out and/or intimidated…

If you’re in, I’m in.

I signed up for a NaNo account last week (and it scared the crap out of me, because OMG, it’s so Public and Official). So, add me and I’ll add you. Let’s rock NaNo together.

Write that story you’ve had in your heart for years. Write the story you started but didn’t finish. Hell, even if you don’t make the daily word count, just write. Write WITH me.

If I can do it, then you can do it, too.

So, we’ve got nine days until NaNo begins (on November 1st). And last week when I spoke to my BFFer, Susan Dennard, I mentioned wanting to do something special related to NaNo…. And she said that SHE had been wanting to do something, too (this is obvi why we’re BFFers).

See, one of the things that both of us have realized about What We Want To Do With Our Careers is this: pay it forward. In whatever way we can, whenever we can.

So, again, it’s not much. BUT if you participate in NaNo (and wind up winning), then you can enter into a raffle for a 5-page critique from Sooz and me. We’re actually going to pick TWO winners once NaNo is over.

If you want to enter, then go on over to Sooz’s blog (because Livejournal doesn’t support rafflecopter giveaways)! She also has some great advice/motivation (she’s a NaNo vet and will be writing TWO projects this year for NaNo. Whaaat!).

Throughout NaNo, both of us will be posting frequently on our blogs—advice, The Truth about how NaNo is actually going for us, and general inspiration/silliness/fun. Basically, this is just our way of encouraging all of you to WRITE, and our way of giving back.

So…Be brave. Sign up for NaNo. And then add me. Add Sooz. Follow the Pinterest board that we made to post daily bits of inspiration/snark/humor/hot guys. But just write. :)