You Are a Winner!

         That’s what I need to hear right now. That I’ve won NaNoWriMo. Or that I’m close to winning. Trouble is, I wouldn’t believe you. I am so far behind in my NaNoWriMo word count, I don’t believe there is a way to recover. How will I ever get 35,000 words written in less than a week? I’m even having trouble writing these short blogs.

         Are you there, too? Have you given up hope of finishing? Or maybe you never started because you thought there was no hope of writing a story in a month. Don’t quit! Keep writing! Even if you don’t make it to 50,000 words, you will end the month with more words, more of the story told than you would if you gave up. Even if you are not participating in NaNo, if you are regularly visiting our site, you are most likely a writer. So write! That is what makes you winner.

         When you can’t write, though, when life is full of upheavals and activities that drain away your energy, when no matter how hard you try, it’s a struggle to get to pen or keyboard, when days go by and the scene in your head is still trying to find its way out, don’t despair. If you are a writer, you will write. That makes you a winner! Whether you get 50,000 words written in NaNo or only write one short story this month, if you continued the struggle to pull words from your brain, you are a writing winner.

         I’ve had an emotionally and physically draining few weeks. Family responsibilities, both routine and unusual, have taken much of my time. Family interactions have been particularly stressful this month. That has left me drained of energy, even in the few moments I have found to steal away to the computer. But, even with my lagging word count and my diminished hours, I still say I’m a winner.

         I have spent time with my Dad while he’s here recuperating from a car wreck. I’ve played games, put a puzzle together with him and made sure he ate well each day and had everything he needed. I tended to the routine and the not so routine things of my life. I have memorized all my lines for my part in our church’s Christmas play, I show up to practices, people can count on me. And I’m preparing a big Thanksgiving feast. I’m worn out, but this is just a season. A brief season in my life. As I have learned from my past experiences, it will all change again in time. The important thing is to keep the important things in focus. (We’ll be discussing more on how to do that next month. Be sure to come back.)

         The point I’m trying to make is that I am a winner even if I don’t win NaNoWriMo this year. And who knows? Maybe I will win. After all, I wrote 24,000 words in two days last year.

         Keep writing. Keep telling those stories. Keep struggling to put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard.

         Do that and you can say, “I’m a winner, too!”