*pant, pant* Isn't it wonderful? I wrote a total of 22, 788 words, which is a LOT for me. Who else did it? Whether you won or not, there's something about wiping that smirk off the graph that says you have a long while to go. And you participants did go a long, long way.
Every day of November, I sat down at the computer and wrote. Sometimes words plunked out every minute or two and sometimes it was fast and furious. But I wrote.
Now that it's December, I haven't been writing. I'll do the occasional school writing assignment and, you know, there's always Christmas cards. But I haven't really been writing. I mean, come on, it's Christmas time! At least, that's the excuse the little voice in my head tells me. So how do I, in the middle of all that chaos, really write?
One thing that really kept me going in November was goals. Goals that everyone would be asking me if I reached, people I would hate to tell them that I failed, to hear their sympathetic coos. Because sympathetic has the word pathetic in it, and I would feel pathetic. And who likes that? So here's the deal: we are going to push through together. In this week, write a short story. Write a confession. Write a poem. Write a pep talk. Write.
Another great thing with NaNoWriMo was that people were encouraging me. People online, my family, and everyone I could possibly tell what I was doing. So encourage each other! In the comments, tell each other success stories, failures you learned from, and just plain encouragement. 'Cause us writers need someone to rally us on. Be that someone like someone else was for you!
Don't stare at the computer screen any longer. Go write!
Hey guys! This is where you can post a couple words of encouragement. To get us started, I've written a couple myself . . .
ReplyDeletepro-cras-ti-nate (proh-krass-tuh-nate) verb
To put off doing something that you have to do simply because you don't want to do it. (Definition courtesy of my trusty Scholastic Children's Dictionary)
Take a close look at the definition. Procrastinate means putting off something you HAVE to do, but you don't want to do. Every good author, (well, every honest one) tries to procrastinate at least once. Writers HAVE to write, they have to. They are called a writer because they write. Though sitting down at a desk to plink out words may not seem appealing right now, deep down, you want to. You need to write. It's a part of you. So even if it is three o'clock for you right now, and you are checking your favorite blog's recent posts, promising yourself you'll get to bed as soon as you're done, go write. Because the idea in your head right now may not be there in the morning. And if it is, you may not feel the same spark. So go! Because, honey, tomorrow really is Tomorrow. And we all know that we've never lived in Tomorrow.