There are a bunch of ways this happens directly in a few ways. One is that alumni can "adopt" a new NaNo-ite. Just be there for them. Be there for questions, for support, for urging them on. I have one. So I posted in the adoption thread that I was available. Anne PMed me. She got her undergrad degree in theater and appreciated that I used to stagemanage. Nothing like having to tell a cast of actors when to go pee with out upsetting their pre-show rituals to learn careful prodding skills.
On the other side of the spectrum is picking an enemy. Someone to taunt and taunt you. To challenge you. To battle word counts against. Since I am thinking more and more that I will be shooting for 100,000 words this time (the novel as been forming more and more in my brain), I really need someone to push me. So I found the one person that seemed to also be shooting for big numbers. After I challenged her in the Enemies thread, this is how TrenchcoatPixie responded:
"Ash, you don't know what you're asking for. You've just set your eyes on playing chicken with a force of nature. You can't scare a tornado. Much less a tornado of words.Oh, it is on!
Oh yeah. Metaphors like that will riddle my NaNovel like machine gun rounds in a haystack. That machine gun? Mounted on the front of the car. That car? It has a gas pedal. That gas pedal? Pressed all the way down. That tornado? I forgot about it last paragraph. My verbositymobile caresses more dangerous curves per hour than any noir 50s gumshoe flick you care to name.
6,000 word nights? Don't make me laugh! My first year I did twenty thousand words in a day and a half to skate across the finish line in time. 6,000 words is when I start to warm up.
My soul is flintier than a Capsian-era quarry. It's on."
