Kristina... That is your inner editor talking. Find some duck tape and hand cuffs. Put the duck tape over that little voices mouth and handcuff its hands behind its back then throw it in a closet until at least December.

Don't jinks yourself before you even get started. Most people feel overwhelmed their first nano. They focus on those 50000 words and forget its just 1667 words a day. Think about it. One and a half writers cramps. You can do that. That number is still considered to be a micro story.

That is all your doing. Your writing a micro story every day that connects to the next micro story and so on and so forth. One or more micro stories and you have a scene. Two or more scenes and you have a chapter, 8 or so chapters and you have a novella and 50000 words. As long as you keep it broken down into bite size pieces you can win.

I lost the first year I tried to do Nano. I managed to win in November of 2007. My father died the following January but not before I was able to say, "Daddy, I finally wrote a novel."

After I won... 50k was nothing. I did it three years in a row and it was like, so what? This is easy. Then I saw someone who was consistently hitting a million. I can't type that much in a month. My bad arm won't take it. I'm not sure that my arm can handle more than 150k I usually do. But, I am going to try. I am shooting for 200k this year because I have missed the last year or so. That is what I keep telling myself. Whats 8333 words a day for 24 days? A short story a day... I can do that. Anyone can do that. I average 60 words a minute That works out to be just over 2 hours of writing a day. I can do that. Anyone can do that.

If I can so can you. Why 24 days? My birthday is on the 25th and its the first day they start handing out winner awards. I never write passed the 24th.