These are the first words I write this year.

Ponder that a moment.  Wooooah.

Welcome, everyone, to NaNoWriMo 2018.  We’re almost twelve hours in, and the region is already off to a great start.  The facebook group is hopping.  The forum is starting to take off.  We’ve already had people at our planning events and preseason gatherings.  And now it’s time to get down to work.

Whether this is your first year or your fifteenth, the rush of Day One is universal.  You might have planned for months (like I wanted to) or be completely pantsing it (like I am).  But the excitement and nervousness of something you’ve been waiting for for weeks or months is something we all feel.

If you’re anxious or nervous, try not to be.  There’s nothing to fear except failure, and the glory of nano is that we can boldly risk failure with no consequences.  Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.  There’s encouragement on all sides, friendly competition to keep us motivated, and if you are the sort of person who responds well to rewards, have we got the buttons for you!

It’s going to be a good year.  We have somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty new pieces of swag to give out.  Our rematch with Seattle is going to be an uphill battle all the way.  It’s going to take a lot of grit and determination, but as long as we’re all pulling together, we can make it.

Our inaugural Team Championship is ready to go!  We have the teams, the captains, the buttons, and the assignment quiz.  Have you taken the quiz?  You must!  You’ll get a team assignment and a pair of nemeses to battle against.  There will be opportunities to fight for your team at events throughout the month.  And in the end, if your team is victorious, your name will live forever in the Golden Notebook.  We also have a poster, that Laura and I* worked on very, very hard, that will only be available this year, so seize your chance to get it.

*I’m Erika, btw.  I write most of the posts for this site.

This website was born last year and has grown quite a bit.  It’s going to continue to get better as we keep working on it.  My goal is to give you a post with some encouragement, or tips for success, or updates, every few days at least.  And I am counting every one of these words.  They’re going to look a little strange next to the fantasy novel I’m writing this year (for the second time, because I like nothing better than taking another crack at a project I had hoped would turn out better) but they’re my words and I’m owning every one of them.  I just won’t be pulling as many rambley increase the word count tricks in these, because I hope that someone is actually reading them.

Good luck to you.

These were the first words I wrote this year.