I love writing, but I must admit that writing large amounts (let alone a novel) is intimidating and can throw me off. Sooner than I can open my laptop to write, I’m off in the world of procrastination, using anything from YouTube to Facebook to allow for any form of distraction.
However, I am extremely proud of myself, for taking part in the National Novel Writing Month 2018, and completing the task of writing 50,000 words within 30 days. Technically, I hit the mark on Nov. 27, with just a few hundred words putting me over the top.
As soon as I finished, I thought to myself “I never want to write again. I am so proud and so tired I can’t imagine doing anymore.” After I gave myself a well deserved night’s rest, I contemplated exactly what I had been able to accomplish.
Throughout college, I had wrote most of my papers in big chunks on deadlines. I remember basically shotgunning Rockstar Energy Drinks in order to start a paper at 10pm, write for 8 hours, sleep for 2, and then go to a 9am class to hand it in. I always told myself that writing was something that I wanted to get better at, but I never gave myself the chance to actually practice my craft. I admit I had a lot going on, but as long as I could write a 8 page paper with cited sources in one night and get a passing grade, why would I need to change?
Here I am though, a year out of university, and with no papers to write. Anything I want to write, I have to initiate: there are not going to be professors breathing down my neck, reminding me of due dates, and deadlines. I have to be my own starting line.
It’s both a universal truth and a cliche that once you get older, you realize that almost all the things that adults told you as a child were true. The process of #NaNoWriMO has taught me that my parents and teachers were right (as much as I do not want to admit it): if you have a large project, do a little bit everyday and eventually it will be completed. Writing 50,000 words is daunting: writing 1,666 words a day is still a lot, but much more manageable.
Writing is the ultimate freedom, and the ultimate cage: you can write entire worlds into creation, and you are only limited by your imagination and your self imposed limitations.
This isn’t meant to be a #inspirationporn blog: it’s just me constantly reminding myself that I had always dreamed of writing a book, but never did because it would be “too much work.” Because of #NaNoWriMo, I now have almost a hundred pages of raw writing, just waiting to be edited into books, essays, poetry, and much more.
The sky is the limit, 1,666 words a day.
