Better Living Through Introspection

Well, November has come and gone and with it, National Novel Writing Month. What was supposed to be an “experiment in output” was for me an experiment in failure. But, it was a brilliant failure. While I was nowhere near the target of 50,000 words written in 30 days (my official word-count was 2,586, not even in site of the final goal), participating in this month-long writing exercise reminded me of some things I had forgotten over the past, oh…decade. Here’s what I learned (or, what I re-discovered):

• Only you can write your novel.
  It’s true. Your friends won’t write it. Your family won’t write it. No matter how much support you ask for, and how much you actually receive, you are the only person who is going to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and actually bang out some words in some (optionally coherent) fashion. My mistake was thinking that having a friend ask “How’s the novel going?” would be enough. It’s not.
• You have to make time.
  It’s not enough to think “Hey, I’ll set aside a few minutes in the morning.” or “Maybe I can jot a few notes down on the Metro to work.” You really need to carve out a chunk of time (I’d say an hour at bare minimum) each day. It wasn’t until Day 27 that I had learned to actually make more time by getting up an hour earlier each day. Brilliant.
• You have to prioritize.
  If you’re unwilling to get up an hour earlier, then you have to learn how to prioritize. My mistake was being unwilling to sacrifice time that was normally dedicated to friends, family, television, movies, drinking, or photography. Oh yeah, and that job that pays the bills. Seriously, I had major problems prioritizing. Detractors will say, “Then you obviously didn’t want to write a novel enough.” They would be right. I wanted to write, but I also wanted to do a million other things that I was already accustomed to doing. Being a creature of habit, it’s difficult for me to make adjustments, so I didn’t. Lesson learned.
• Once you force yourself to make time and prioritize, the writing part is easy.
  Seriously. Days 27 and 28 (both early riser days) were brilliant for me. Will the output of those two days withstand the killer editing phase? Who knows. The point is that for a brief period I had gotten into the swing of things, as they say. And once you get into the swing of things, writing becomes easy. Well, easier. (I shouldn’t sugarcoat.) Had I fallen into this habit on Days 1 and 2, this post would have an entirely different topic…though possibly the same title.

Finally, aside from what I learned about my own scheduling habits, I had forgotten how much fun writing can be. I’m still working on letting my inner editor let go or, at least, loosen up (probably couldn’t gotten another 1,000 words out of myself without that bastard in the way), but I have to say, I loved every excruciating second of it all. Creative writing was once a passion of mine — not a day went by where I wouldn’t jot down an idea for a short story or a new line for a poem (long-time readers who remember the earliest incarnations of this blog will remember it heavily featured some home-made verse at one point), and over the years as my habits and interests changed, I lost the memory of the joy that writing can bring. So, I suppose a “Thank You” is in order to the people who created NaNoWriMo, The Office of Letters and Light, for encouraging me to once again find my inspiration.

Want to help others find their inspiration? Support The Office of Letters and Light. (They have programs for kids, too!)

And, if you’re a glutton for punishment, you can read what little I’ve written so far. I’m hoping to add to it instead of waiting for next November to roll around.