[Insert Witty Title Here]

Like Amy, I had troubles over the past few days trying to decide what to write about for my inaugural post on this lovely blog; my co-bloggers have set high expectations that I think I will fall short of. Even up until when I sat down to write this, I still had no clue what to write about. And then it hit me, somewhere as I tried to make a title: I should write about deciding a topic to write on.

Beginning to write a novel can be extremely hard for some people, especially when you don't have a topic to write about. That was my problem when I first started NaNoWriMo this year. I didn't know what I was going to write about. All the ideas that I came up with were stealing from other authors' works. A story about witches and wizards, a story about vampires and werewolves, a story about faeries. And besides feeling like I was stealing their ideas, even though my plotlines were totally different, I felt overwhelmed by trying to start a novel that took place in a world that I would know nothing about until I began crafting it with words was daunting. I felt like I would mess it up. But thankfully I had decided in mid-October that I was going to do it, so I had a little time to think of other ideas. Then one night I had a dream (I know it sounds cliche, but it's true!), and it all clicked into place. It's safe to say I was ecstatic that I finally had a direction to move in. And not only did I have a direction, but I knew all about the places that my character was going to go, because I had been there myself. Then when November 1st came along, the words just started flowing out of my fingers and on to the keyboard. Not that I'll even finish my 50,000 words by the end of the month, but like my co-bloggers have said, at least I started!

On a completely unrelated note, one thing that I think is one of  the key "ingredients" to writing is lots of food and drink. I know that when I'm writing, not only is my mind hungry to see where my story will take me next, but my stomach is also begging for something. It seems every time I get into a good rhythm, I become hungry and have to grab something to eat. Even if I've just eaten. My mind relates writing with eating. So I've outsmarted my stomach and now when I go to write, I bring lots of snacks with me so I don't have to interrupt myself. And it works quite well.

Well, there's my two cents about starting a novel, and if I've helped even one person start on their goal of writing a book, then my mission has been accomplished. Much love!