Hi. I’m Jessica’s Creativity and today I’m talking about how you can keep your Creativity fired up long after November 30th.

So, you’ve had some time to recover from the mayhem of November. Have you been using it wisely?

Laundry all done? Nicely folded and ironed? What about the dishes? All washed? Pets fed?

What? You even went for a walk outside? Head-spinning stuff!

But I promise you, when the novelty of novel-less-ness wears off , the normal world of non-NaNoWriMo-ness is nowhere near as exciting. (Now try saying that sentence 10 times fast!)

Think back over November. Hasn’t it been fun? Have you learned things? Enjoyed yourself? Bonded with your Creativity?

Those things don’t have to change. They don’t end with the beginning of December. In fact, you can have that feeling just about every day of the year. How?

Keep Setting Word Count Goals

NaNoWriMo works because it forces you to get words down. It’s about quantity and not quality. The act of sitting down each day and blasting words onto the page helps keep your writing pump in working order. Don’t let it rust up now you’ve got it into such a good rhythm.

Obviously, 50,000 words a month is a bit intense for most people to keep up every month. But what about 250, 500 or 1,000 words a day? Take a look at Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s Wordcount Challenge and get a badge for your site, because Creativities love badges…and marshmellow sandwiches with strawberry sauce. Or is that just me?

Maintain Your Writing Routine

During November you’ve probably learned a lot about what sort of writing routine works best for you. Are you a morning writing person who needs the chirping of birdsong to welcome your words into the world? Or are you a lunch break writer who’s forever dropping crumbs on the keyboard? Or are you a nighttime writer who has to get her chapter finished before knocking out the ‘zzzz’s?

Whatever your routine, why stop now? Now that you know more about what works for you, turn that time of day into your regular writing time.

Cultivate Momentum

NaNoWriMo is an event. You prepare for it. You get excited about it. You record it. You blog about it. You lose sleep over it. Your Creativity loves these things. It keeps him/her popping up ideas and firing out writing fodder.

You may have to work harder to create these elements after NaNoWriMo, but your Creativity will reward you for it.

Try:

• Creating a motivational poster or cover art for your novel and sticking it somewhere noticeable. (Why not your wall or desktop background?)
• Blogging about your writing goals.
• Starting a graph to track your word count progress.
• Setting aside special writing time to plan your next few chapters.

Make your writing life the event you’re always excited about!

Remember: You’re Still a Writer

Your status as a writer doesn’t change when December 1st comes around. You’re still a writer! You can still write words, create characters, twist plots and reach your writing goals.

Keep yourself writing this month and on into the future, because you have words to bring into the world!

By the way, how did your NaNoWriMo go? Let us know in the comments. If you’ve blogged about your month, leave a link for us to take a look.