I must say: I love these year’s NaNoWriMo stickers. For those who haven’t seen it, or haven’t gotten the chance to get yours yet (they’ll be available again during the Thank Goodness it’s Over party, so be there if you want one!), you can see them all in the NaNoWriMo store, or here:

I think, out of all stickers I’ve seen while I was a Municipal Liaison, this year’s pack contained the most number of pep, and the most I have related to in the last seven years I have been doing NaNo (although nothing will probably beat the 2007 sticker that says, My novel is better than yours! and Don’t bother me or I’ll put you in my novel! Or something like that). While I was thinking of my last pep talk for NaNoWriMo 2011, I found myself thinking of these stickers and realized that there is a really good reason why these became our stickers this year.

Let me elaborate.

1. You are part money, part ninja, part stairmaster cyborg.

Some of you may have entered NaNoWriMo without any thought of all the other things you are also supposed to do for November. Some of you may have thought of all these things, but decided to join anyway, since it’s just writing. What could be so hard about that? And them sometime in the middle of November, you realize how hard writing a novel was, and how many other things you need to do for November. You realize that you can’t be a novelist and something else, too, and you wonder if you are crazy for really undertaking this challenge.

This November, I was not only a novelist and your Municipal Liaison, but I was also an employee, friend, a sister, a daughter and overall in charge for our household things. Suddenly, all my friends wanted to see me. Suddenly there were books I want to read. Suddenly, I had to deal with learning a snake got in our house one morning. I was on night shift, so going out on a morning of a Saturday was torture, and sometimes all I want to do was sleep when I get home and not write. I also had to take a certification exam at work, and my performance evaluation is at stake with that certification. I’m sure you guys also realized how many other roles you had to fulfill during November too: business owner, boss, husband, wife, father, mother, brother, son, boyfriend, girlfriend, student, unemployed but looking for a job, [insert your own role here]. More often than not, we have to juggle multiple roles during November and we wonder for the nth time why even joined this challenge in the first place.

But you know what? That’s the thing: we are never made for simply one role in our life. We are often asked to be more than a monkey, more than a ninja and more than a stairmaster cyborg. Sometimes we have to be both the monkey and the ninja. Being a novelist is just adding another role in our plate, and while sometimes it feels overwhelming, we still somehow can do it. It doesn’t feel like it, but when November ends and you look back, you’ll see that you were doing pretty good being a part ninja, part monkey and part stairmaster cyborg in one.

2. Run whooping through the valleys of your imagination.

Okay, the idea of a “valley” is really not so much as whimsical as it is made, because a valley usually means darkness, or a dark time. People often want to get out of the valley, because the mountain top is better than being in the darkness of the valley.

But here’s the thing about valleys: we learn a lot more being in a valley than being on the mountain top. The mountain top usually means a reward, and but to get that reward, you have to do some pretty difficult things first. There were probably times when you felt dry, felt like you can write no longer. That’s a part of the valley. That’s why you need to run whooping through it — if you keep on thinking that your valley is a sad and dry place, it will take you a long time to get out of it. But if you want to get to your mountain, well, you better hurry and run. Run as fast as you can, and whoop while you’re at it. Because whooping is fun.

The best part is, you’re not whooping alone. Everyone in the region who’s also doing NaNoWriMo is whooping with you. Everyone in the world who’s also doing NaNoWriMo is whooping with you. So run whooping through the valleys of your imagination, because soon, you’ll be out of it and you’ll be able to claim your reward.

3. Whatever you think you are, you are more than that.

Whenever I am doing some crunches (and just so you know, I am so not fond of that exercise), I always try to make myself do one or two more reps when I am done with a set, just because. I remember reading somewhere that the trick to doing more crunches even when it’s painful is to say that you will do ten last ones, and then when you’re done with that, you say just ten more, and so on. Then later, when your entire abdominal area is screaming with pain, you would be surprised that you made a hundred crunches (or even more).

I think NaNoWriMo is like that. When we near the end of the season and our story is hard and our characters are stubborn and you want to do everything but write and you can’t possibly write another word, it’s tempting to throw the towel and quit. But just like doing crunches, don’t. As long as it’s still November, as long as everyone else is still writing, tell yourself that you’ll write 1,000 more words. And then when you do that, 1,000 more. And more. Then you’ll be surprised to see how close you are to the goal, and you’ll just want to keep writing. This year, take this sticker’s message to heart, because it is true. You are more than what you think you are, and you can do more than what you think you can do.

4. Your story matters.

I’ve shared this a couple of times in other pep talks already but for the benefit of those who missed it: I lost NaNoWriMo on my first try. I made it to 33,000+ words and stopped writing because school got too busy and I started to not like my male main character. It was really more of neglect, and back then we had no regional support to get me to writing. I consider it a battle scar, because at least I know how it feels not to win NaNoWriMo out of all my other wins.

And how does it feel not to get to 50k? Well, it kind of sucks but it’s also not so bad. The thing with not getting to the goal then made me want to finish my story and even more determined to win the next year. My 2004 novel was the first I wrote and finished, even if it didn’t make the word count goal that November and I consider it a special one. Granted, it’s kind of cheesy, but you never forget your first child.

The point is, whatever your end word count is this month, and whether it’s your first or fifth time doing NaNoWriMo, the most important thing in the end is that you wrote. And 20,000 words is better than zero. Every word you have written this month is important, and it’s something to be proud of.

Remember this, as November 30 and the end of NaNoWriMo approaches: whatever your final word count is, YOUR STORY MATTERS. So don’t give up on it.

A few days ago, an article came up after the Manila International Literary Festival with insights from local writing “legends” that asked, Where is the next great Philippine novel? If I was there, I would have waved our banner (if we had one, that is) up high. This is my eighth year doing NaNoWriMo and my fifth year as ML and I still stand by what I say about this community: I am among some of the best writers in the country and you guys have never ceased to inspire me.

See you at the finish line.

Sometimes it still surprises me when I realize that NaNoWriMo 2011 is my eighth NaNoWriMo. That meant that in the past seven years, I have been joining this craziness and haven’t stopped. I’ve won six out of seven times: two finished novels, five unfinished and two of them will probably never, ever see the light of day.

So when this year started, I admit that I am running dry with ideas. Normally, I would be thinking of plots and twists and scribbling a vague outline on paper or on my iPod Touch to prepare myself for November. This year, I have an idea of a plot and I have a main character. Real life and ML stuff got in the way of actual novel planning, so I was really expecting to wing it, until I uttered these words on Twitter:

Well, I actually want to finish something this year that I won’t want to bury in my hard drive.

I guess this put some pressure on myself, because this really made it hard for me to write. Oh I loved my idea, and I think it will get me somewhere, but I knew in my heart that if I wing it, I’d end up hating it and I really do not want to hate another novel I wrote (believe me, the 2010 novel was excruciating to read through again).

But I tried. Oh yes, I tried. (That is a song, I think?) I had to change my timelines and agonize over how my novel will end for days, until I hit 11,000 words during the Ayala Triangle write-in. YAY, FINALLY.

And then.

On my way home that night, something was nagging me. The chapter I was writing was going well, but I was scared to figure out what would happen next. Because honestly, I do not know. I have no idea where my story will go even if I knew the ending. I wanted to write it, but I don’t know how. And that presented a real problem for me, because like I said, I do not want to hate this year’s novel.

Then I thought some more, and I realized that maybe I was having a hard time with this because it’s been such a long time since I read chick lit. Some of the NaNo vets know me as the “chick lit girl”, the one who always writes fluff. Well, I think I have only read two chick lit books this year, and the rest are young adult novels. So that made me wonder: why am I not writing a young adult novel when that is practically all I have been reading for the past year?

And then, I decided to go crazy.

On the 8th day of November, I trashed my first novel and started again.

I know, I know. We always say that in NaNo, you shouldn’t delete, you should just stick to what you are writing and you’ll find it will work somehow. I do not recommend what I just did (but if you’re crazy enough like me, then why not?), and if you feel like jumping ship, too, then better do it NOW because if you do it later, it’s too late. Some suggested mid-stream plot change so I won’t lose the word count, but knowing my old plot and my new plot…well, it wouldn’t really work.

But the plot change isn’t really the point here. Here’s one thing I learned as I started writing my new novel: what you like to read is really the same as what you like to write. Chris Baty said it well: “What should I write about?” is a hard question. “What would I like to read about?” is easier. The answers will be the same for both. That is true. I couldn’t write my chick lit novel because as much as I love chick lit, I haven’t been reading it much. But now I love (see the emphasis there? ) reading contemporary young adult novels, so why wasn’t I writing it?

If you’re having a hard time writing now, if you’re running out of words or plot, ask yourself why you decided to write what you’re writing in the first place. Chances are you want to write is also what you like reading. Or what you like watching. Or what you like discussing with friends, even if the rest do not understand what you are talking about. What you want to write about is something that makes you grin, something that makes your heart race, something that excites you. I don’t think it’s copying ideas from someone else. I’d like to believe it’s getting inspiration from something you’re really passionate about.

There will still be bad days of course. Days where I would be stuck, days when I’d hate my characters, but it would be a welcome problem because it’s a problem I am more willing to face. Oh the final product of this month is still going to be crap, and I don’t think I’d want anyone to read it yet, but I am pretty sure it would be something that I like. And I think that makes a world of difference.

As for the plot I discarded this year? Well, that will be reserved for next year. After all, it was supposed to be an apocalyptic novel, and when is the best time to write it but 2012?

Right now, I am at 6,623 words — behind quota. Usually at this time of the month in the past years, I would be doing pretty good with quota. But you know what? It’s okay. Because now that I like what I’m writing, I know that I have enough fuel to get me through the next days, and beyond, up to the end of my novel.

So, ask yourself: I hope that by asking this question, you find your inspiration to keep on writing this month. It’s far from over, but trust someone who’s been doing this crazy thing for eight years — it gets better. And getting to the end and that purple winner bar is absolutely worth all this craziness.