Maureen Johnson does a great post on THE FEAR OF THE FIFTY-THOUSAND. One note:

And 50,000 words, though it seems like an UNGAINLY number, isn’t even as much as you think. It SOUNDS big, but that’s 1,666 words a day. That’s not a huge number. That’s a few emails and a couple of texts. It only seems big because you’ve put an expectation on yourself that you can now THROW AWAY. This is not a text. No one will tase you in the neck if you write the wrong thing, because YOU CANNOT WRITE THE WRONG THING. Give yourself a chance to get it wrong. You’ll get it right later.

Well, 1,667/day is a bit more than a few emails and a couple of texts (even from someone like me, who writes overly long emails at the office), but it is quite doable … especially if you don’t get into a lather about it having to be the perfect 1,667 words.

(I do get into such a lather, but that’s a problem, not an advisable course of action.)

The next step is to write some words. ANY WORDS. Something has to be on the page. It’s totally okay if what goes on that page are the WRONG WORDS, as long as they are SOME WORDS, because you can work with the WRONG WORDS. A lot of what you are doing at the start is blowing some of the crap out of your head and knocking the fear out of the way. You are PUNCHING FEAR IN THE FACE. You’ve already got it on the floor. Now KICK IT. Seriously. KICK IT.

Plus, pictures of cute owls.