Need a pep talk, please. Thinking of quiting.

Is there another plot you'd rather be writing? If you really leg it, you can start over from scratch (and hell, we won't even say anything if you keep the first few thousand words.) Take a few minutes or hours and try and think of something you'd really love, be it similar or completely different from what you've started. Just try to find one line that sparks your interest. Check out the dares & adoptions threads; there's some really good stuff there. I know you can write 50,000 words, but the most important thing is to enjoy yourself while you're doing it. And it's easy to enjoy yourself! It's basically what we humans try to do all the time. So you simply can't quit. Think how unwriterly and bleak the rest of your month will be.

Having been called in here very many times over the past few months to answer for this or that misdemeanor, Oliver was well acquainted with the room's nuances and eccentricities – most of them fungal.

I agree with prismac. Make sure this is the story you want to write. Ask yourself what made you excited about the story in the first place. Was it the characters, the concept, the setting, the mood? Focus on what inspired you, figure out how to work that back in or transplant it to another plot or even tweak the one you already have, so long as the passion to write comes back.
Sometimes thinking about how much you have to do can be crippling as well. Focus on one word, one image, one sentence at a time (sometimes not being near pen&paper or keyboard helps..especially if you're doing the dishes--something about water and soapy bubbles..). Hopefully, before you know it the rest will start to flow.
A few more things that might help could be music--loud or really low, reading other stories, chatting with friends, daydreaming (sometimes about killing a certain inner editor..), having a conversation with your character (asking questions like what do you want, how do you plan to get it, what were you thinking, who is in your way right now, what would really make your day suck, what would make you happy, etc.), and playing word associations.
Hope that helps.

I've found that you just have to write, eventually it gets better, you just have to get over that hurtle of the 'my characters suck... theh plot is so blah... I want to sleep instead.' and keep typing, the characters'll get there in time, the plot'll develop. After all it's just a first draft, it's supposed to be bad.

Really though, I'm in the same situation, I find 15min word wars help just to crank 300-500 words out fast to get the day done with. Also EVEN THOUGH it is sometimes a very bad idea, I tend to go back and read what I wrote and add a lot more detail to it, it gets about 300+ words and helps develop characters more.

Also take something you DO like to write about, is it dialogue? Action scenes? Thoughts from the character? Times when you write where you're like 'oh yeah this totally works, I'm liking that' and you WANT to keep typing? Write more of that, jsut toss it in, even if it doesn't fit.

I also have made a habit of skipping chapters, like, I see something I want my charaters to go through later on, and just write that a ways down, and fill in the middle later on. It can also help.

And last but not least, just do it! You're not the only one who's struggling, trust me I feel your pain. We can do it! :)

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

2005: 80k.
2006: 52k.
2007: 50k.
2008: 25k
2009: ??

I thought about quitting a couple of days ago. I even thought about changing my NaNo and starting over from scratch with something completely different. I was depressed, eating my way out of the 6 kilos I'd lost before NaNo begun, sleep deprived because all I could think about was my NaNo and then...I suddenly found inspiration and I'm at 10k.

Maybe if you aren't inspired you should look at doing a topic you like? I usually (in fact a lot of the time) write about topics that I like. Most of the time it's vampires :P but after the upsurge in vamp novella in the last couple of years I decided that NaNo was going to be about Gods. In a highschool/college Academy setting. I love mythology, so it was something I was drawn to when my classmate suggested the topic.

It's not too late to change topic of your novel and start over if you really need to! Of course, I'm babbling on about crap at the moment in mine :P Sometimes you have to to get to 50k. After all, December is for editing, November is for pumping out words. Just WRITE. Even if you don't like it, someone else will :) Remember that!

http://cupcake_writer.livejournal.com

2009: Welcome to Hell. A novel about Gods in high school.
2010: Thermals (tentaitive title). Steampunk. High adventure/fantasy of an all-female crew of airship pirates.

I was in EXACTLY the same situation as you about two days ago. I just HATED everything in my novel and myself for writing it. I was randomly researching a topic on Wikipedia that I like learning about, not even thinking about NaNoWriMo, just cos I could. And then it hit me.
I've now got a vague plot, and have outlined 24 chapters.
I'm still only at 1500 words because I'm just lazy like that, but all of that I worte this morning.
Like the others said, write about something you enjoy, the words and ideas will come to you. Or enter word wars. My words today have come from the 24 hour word war I've entered. It really MAKES you write.

On the other hand, if this is a story that you think you might actually love once it's finished, then just keep going. I'm a first time NaNoer too, and I'm telling you, I know how you feel!

I honestly have no direct plot either. I just have a small storyline, and I'm going with it. And I barely have time to write, too, because I work two shifts and get home exhausted. My day off is the only time I can actually get in a few thousand words.

The point is, you're supposed to do the NaNo because it makes you feel like you achieved something - which you do, once it's over. It doesn't matter if your plot completely sucks; the point is, once you can actually write "The End", then you can sit back and say, "Wow. I wrote a novel."

Then, once November's over, you can start the editing process. ;)

I hope you won't quit - truthfully, I was thinking about quitting two days ago, but I told myself to toughen up and just get it over with. Just keep going. ;) Best of luck to you!