50,000 Words Or Bust!

          I won NaNoWriMo!

          That may not mean much to many of you, but to me, it’s a huge  accomplishment. NaNoWriMo – or National Novel Writing Month (NaNo for short) – is held every November. The goal is to write a 50,000-word manuscript in 30 days. If you reach the goal, you win! … You don’t win anything, really, other than the satisfaction that you actually wrote 50,000 words in 30 days.

          When I started on the road to a NaNo win, I prefaced my goal with the explanation that I would be “cheating.” Even though part of my writing was on a story I want to eventually turn into a novel, I counted my daily journaling and my writing for this blog in my daily numbers. I counted every word I wrote, whether it was for my book or not.

          Then during a Zoom meeting with other members of my writing group, I joined in on a conversation when we were trying to tell another writer that every word she wrote counted toward her 50,000-word goal. To not put so much pressure on herself. That her 50,000 words didn’t have to be for a single project.

          It was pointed out to me that if it wasn’t cheating for her, then it wasn’t cheating for me either.

          Hmm.

          I finally embraced my own advice. I wasn’t cheating. I was writing a “non-traditional” NaNo.

          So, even though I didn’t write 50,000 words for my novel, I did write 50,000 novel (new) words, AND I wrote every day for 30 days. Both are milestones I have never accomplished before. I’m proud of myself. And I want to keep it up.

          I credit my writing groups and my accountability partners for my “win.”

          If anyone is familiar with Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies, you’ll understand my need for an accountability group when I tell you I am a classic “Obliger.” I readily meet other people’s expectations, but I do not put a priority on meeting my own goals. So, if I have a project due for a client and an article due for myself, I am more likely to complete the project for a client and let my own work go undone. (If you want to learn more about the Four Tendencies, you can visit gretchenrubin.com for the short eight-question assessment. The results may be eye-opening.)

          I’ve found myself saying “I’ve never done this before” several times in the past few months: writing fiction, participating in “prompt parties” where we are given a prompt and have 20 minutes to write a story, the 3-day novel, NaNoWriMo. All things that a REAL WRITER does. And that’s me — a real writer.

          There’s just one month left in 2020. The first 11 months haven’t been the best, but I plan on finishing 2020 on a high note, in spite of the pandemic. What I’ve been doing seems right, like I’ve been trying to get to this point for a very long time and I’ve finally arrived.

          I listen to a podcast called “Do It Scared.” The host says courage isn’t being fearless. Courage is being afraid doing the thing you’re fearful of anyway.

          What about you? How are you going to finish 2020? Do you have something you wanted to do in 2020 that hasn’t been done yet? Something you thought you’d enjoy, but were afraid to try? Even if the activity doesn’t end up how you thought it would, it’s never a failure. It’s a learning experience.

          Here’s to all of us who have taken some steps off the safe path and blazed a new trail. And here’s to everyone who wants to but is unsure how to do it.

         Tell me how you “do it scared” in the comments below or email me at susie@stix-n-stonez.com

Until next week,

Susie from Stix-N-Stonez