I failed to write 50,000 words in the month of November.
If you are not familiar with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), it’s where people all over the world commit to writing a novel in 30 days – or at least 50,000 words of a novel. I made it to 35,668 words, shy by just over 14,000.
And I am not sad about.
It’s 35,668 words that I probably would not have written if I hadn’t participated.
Why I Didn’t Finish
There are close to a dozen reasons: some good, some bad.
One is that on day 30, I finally picked up “Gone Girl” and read it straight through in a 6-hour car ride when I could have been typing.
One is that I had a co-worker in town from NYC and we had double the meetings for two days (no lunch-hour writing) and a work dinner one evening.
And one (big one) is that I accepted a new job offer. In fact, you can see the moment my numbers started to fall off:
Failing is a Great Feeling
Honestly? 35,668 words is a great place to be: the plot is really coming together (I should have made an outline, but that is another blog entirely). The characters are slowly taking shape as “real” individuals in my head – and on the screen. And I am feeling the itch to write again – not the “I should probably write today” feeling, but the “I cannot stop forming this paragraph in my head and I need to get it written out STAT” feeling. It’s a great feeling.
I might have failed at NaNoWriMo, but I didn’t fail in rediscovering once again that I love to write.
I might have failed at NaNoWriMo, but I realized that I can fit 1,000 words into my day most days, if I learn to shift my priorities.
I might have failed at NaNoWriMo, but I now know that I can write a novel, if I just sit down and put in the work.
I’m slowly learning that most of life is all about progress, not perfection. It’s about being a [even slightly] better version of yourself the next day, and then the next, so that each little success adds up into a bigger one.
What is something you’ve failed at recently, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise?
You rock. I wouldn’t call it failure. It’s only a failure when we don’t learn from a situation that didn’t go the way we expected. Cheers!
Thanks for the kindness, Garth! I agree – learning is the key. I’m looking forward to the launch of Curb Magazine! Can’t wait to see what all your hard work looks like. :)
I love what you said about having the itch to write instead of the guilt that you *should* be writing. It makes such a difference! I wouldn’t count that as a failure at all.
My failure/blessing was not finishing the Typing Away e-guide before Hadley was born. The whole point was for it to earn a little trickle of passive income and give my readers something to do while I was on maternity leave, so missing that deadline felt crushing to me. But now that I’m revising, I’m able to see how much I needed space away from it to make it a better, more helpful product. It will be just as good (better, actually) in 2015 as it would’ve been last summer.
Thanks for stopping by, Ashley! I am so glad that you’ve found some peace with your failure/blessing: I love looking back and knowing that my timing was off, but God’s was better. I am excited to see what the finished product is when you do launch!
Love this post so much! You did anything but fail here. You made so much incredible progress…certainly more so than someone who didn’t participate at all. I can’t wait to see what you do with your WIP! :)
Thanks, Jessica! It felt good to write again – but it is nice to slow down post-NaNo and write with a little more direction, instead of just to get words on the page.