Welcome and Hello!

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for coming to the site, and I hope you'll stay!

I'm going to keep this first post short, half because it's almost midnight where I am and I'm quite sleepy, but I want to break down a few goals for this blog.

1. Make friends.

Who doesn't like friends? EVIL PEOPLE, THAT'S WHO. And we're only a little evil at times, I think. Writers are a fairly lonely bunch, but not because we don't want to be! It's just that writing takes a lot of imagining, which takes a lot of time staring at walls or cats or clouds, and since a lot of NaNoers don't write full-time, that imagination time cuts into your social schedule. Then there's the writing itself! So as you can imagine, there's not always time for parties. But whenever we DO come together, it's always a glamorous and fun-filled affair. (And maybe a little smelly at times depending on how long some of us have spent in our writing caves)

In short, NaNoPals is here to help you meet people like you.

2. Help writers.

Making friends is great, but we can do better! We can make PARTNERS. One thing a lot of writers share is SHAME. That is a bad word that we hate. But NaNoPals doesn't believe in shame. Shame is a word that makes people not believe in themselves, and see the gifts they have as bad because other people are sad inside and don't know how to deal with it in an adult, self-aware manner. (I promise I'm getting to something with this) There is an intrinsic fear of putting up your work, even finished work, before other people.

NaNoPals wants to help you with this. We want to help you solve the problems that you can't solve. When you've stared and stared and stared at a page for so long that the words are burned into your retinas, it's time for fresh eyes, and ones that won't lie to you.

That's where NaNoPals will come in. Taking snippets of WIPs and pieces of flash fiction you did for fun, or maybe practice, posting it up here, and helping you understand what you did well, and what you can do better. Think of it as one giant creative writing class with crowdfunded grades. This is a place where you will want to read the comments.

3. Be Awesome

Okay this one's a little lame, but hear me out. NaNoPals wants to celebrate what you've done, because art isn't a finished product - it's not some piece of IKEA furniture that's either finished or unfinished (though it can be as frustrating to make). Art is expression, and every time you write or draw or sing or just say something to express yourself, that is art, and we want to celebrate the awesomeness that is. Even if you never get published, or never get a record deal or whatever you're going for, the fact that you are expressing yourself, that you're making art, means that you are contributing to humanity as a whole understanding itself. Even if it just helps you understand yourself.

To quote the eminent Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer:

Keep making art.