Success and Failure, all in one! Succailure?
this November I have participated in my very first Nanowrimo Challenge. I posted about it not that long ago. If you want to know more you can visit the website here. this was the first time I heard about Nanowrimo, I read about it in an article posted by another participant at XOJANE. ( I loooove that site! Check it out ladies! And Gents too, but it is a "woman's" website.)
The Nanowrimo Challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. there are places to go and meet with other writers, and a ways to track your progress and all kinds of other tools. I have seen both praise and complaint about the program. One that stuck with me was one of the Negative comments "Nanowrimo: Anyone can be a writer if you set the bar low enough." I was shamed for being excited about Nanowrimo.
As a writer with a day job, and a husband and two very demanding hound dogs to care for I find it hard to make time to write. Even for this blog, which is mostly lighthearted and fun. Mostly. If you follow my other Blog, you'll see that I cant even make time to take and post a picture every day. How was I going to write 1,667 words a day for the next 30 days?
(Huh, I never did the math before. 1,600 words a day should have been easy!)
It is day 26 and I am not anywhere near my 50,000 words. To meet my goal I will have to write approximately 9,000 words a day for the next five days. Will I try? Yes. Will I succeed? Time will tell, but I suspect not. Yet, I do not see this as a failure. I have written a novel, I am currently having it edited, before sending it to publishers. (Scary!) But since sending it off in March, I have written practically zero. So Nanowrimo, at least got me writing, it got the juices flowing and I wrote more in the last four weeks than I have in the past year. (Excluding my blog here of course).
To me this in itself is a success. Any tool that gets a writer writing or keeps them writing is a good one. For me at least, that is the essence of Nanowrimo. Not to become a writer, not to try something new, but to continue to be a writer. To give myself goals and attempt to stick to them. It's a chance to track my progress in a tangible way. In a way that I have never really been able to before. I am also more productive when I can track my progress in a public venue. When others can see my progress too, Nanowrimo provides that for me. Even though I have only written about 5,600 words in 26 days I still call this a success.
I have started writing again, and I have given life to a new project, that will hopefully get finished and sent off to the editor like the last one. In fact, it has sparked enough creativity to get a second story going, Part of my issue was that I could never decide which story to work on! i can only track one at a time, so I chose one and now I am rolling on it! I cant wait for next year! Maybe there will be more success, or maybe not. Either way I call it a win, and I will not be shamed for it.
The Nanowrimo Challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. there are places to go and meet with other writers, and a ways to track your progress and all kinds of other tools. I have seen both praise and complaint about the program. One that stuck with me was one of the Negative comments "Nanowrimo: Anyone can be a writer if you set the bar low enough." I was shamed for being excited about Nanowrimo.
As a writer with a day job, and a husband and two very demanding hound dogs to care for I find it hard to make time to write. Even for this blog, which is mostly lighthearted and fun. Mostly. If you follow my other Blog, you'll see that I cant even make time to take and post a picture every day. How was I going to write 1,667 words a day for the next 30 days?
(Huh, I never did the math before. 1,600 words a day should have been easy!)
It is day 26 and I am not anywhere near my 50,000 words. To meet my goal I will have to write approximately 9,000 words a day for the next five days. Will I try? Yes. Will I succeed? Time will tell, but I suspect not. Yet, I do not see this as a failure. I have written a novel, I am currently having it edited, before sending it to publishers. (Scary!) But since sending it off in March, I have written practically zero. So Nanowrimo, at least got me writing, it got the juices flowing and I wrote more in the last four weeks than I have in the past year. (Excluding my blog here of course).
To me this in itself is a success. Any tool that gets a writer writing or keeps them writing is a good one. For me at least, that is the essence of Nanowrimo. Not to become a writer, not to try something new, but to continue to be a writer. To give myself goals and attempt to stick to them. It's a chance to track my progress in a tangible way. In a way that I have never really been able to before. I am also more productive when I can track my progress in a public venue. When others can see my progress too, Nanowrimo provides that for me. Even though I have only written about 5,600 words in 26 days I still call this a success.
I have started writing again, and I have given life to a new project, that will hopefully get finished and sent off to the editor like the last one. In fact, it has sparked enough creativity to get a second story going, Part of my issue was that I could never decide which story to work on! i can only track one at a time, so I chose one and now I am rolling on it! I cant wait for next year! Maybe there will be more success, or maybe not. Either way I call it a win, and I will not be shamed for it.
Comments
Post a Comment