When I was growing up, I read a book about the life of Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women). The book told how she would lock herself away in her room for days at a time and write frantically on her novel.I feel a little like that while writing for NaNo this month. I feel like I have to give up the rest of my life in order to get a rough draft of the words I need for my novel. I miss my TV shows. I miss surfing the web. I miss my computer games. I miss hanging out with friends. I had to turn down an invitation to hang out with someone last week because I needed to spend that night writing and would never get the words I needed if I even spent a couple of hours out - because those two hours stretch on late into the evening.
Last year one of the NaNo pep-talk writers said that he wrote 1,000 words a day, writing over the course of the entire day. For those of us who have day jobs or must take care of family members, we do not have that luxury. Someone once said to be a successful writer, you have to want it more than anything else. A strong desire, produces results.
Is locking yourself away from the world for weeks at a time to complete a novel really worth the sacrifice? That's up to each aspiring writer to decide for themselves.
