Like many of you writers out there, I try to do NaNoWriMo every year.
And every year, I fail. Pretty miserably. And as I writer, I feel pretty miserable about it.
I mean, NaNoWriMo is the writer’s marathon! (30 days, 50,000 words, no mercy.) And failing at NaNoWriMo makes me feel like a professional runner who trips and falls, arms flailing, during the first 30 feet of the Chicago Marathon.
I should be able to nail this thing, right?
So let’s talk about my miserable failure.
I freaking love writing.
You need to know this first so that you know I’m not halfhearted about this shit. My heart is IN it, all the way, filled to the brim.
Nothing satisfies me more than sitting down and piecing words together like a puzzle, reveling in the way they fit and sound and work together.
Nothing delights me more than when my brain just starts going on its own, generating story and dialogue from some deep subconscious well that somehow manages to surprise my conscious mind. I LIVE for those moments. I really do.
So why can’t I find it in my heart to do what I love?
Timing is everything.
Apparently, somewhere along the way, I became an “adult”, which means that I no longer have the luxury of scads and scads of free time during which I can do anything I like.
As an adult, my time gets filled up with a full-time job, social obligations, family responsibilities, extracurriculars, etc. I do not have the time to write the 1,667 words per day that it takes to win NaNoWriMo.
But is that a legitimate reason, or an excuse?
Somewhere along the way, a sacrifice needs to be made. And if you’re serious about following your dream or calling to be a writer—if it’s truly your passion—shouldn’t some of those responsibilities and obligations take the place of your writing on the chopping block?
That’s not a call I can make for you. But I can tell you that my boss would be pretty pissed if I didn’t show up for work tomorrow. And my dad wouldn’t like it if I stopped visiting. Etc., ad nauseum.
Is NaNoWriMo possible for the average American adult?
No. It’s not.
BUT.
That doesn’t mean that it’s not worth doing.
Every November, I knowingly set myself up for failure. And every year I’ll keep doing it, because it starts me down the path toward something awesome.
To me, the value of NaNoWriMo is that it gets me excited about a new writing project every year. And maybe I’ll only write 13,500 words toward it during the actual event. But that doesn’t mean I can’t keep it going afterward, and write during the two or three evenings a week when my time isn’t demanded elsewhere.
The point is that you do what you can with the time you are given.
You scribble notes over your lunch break. You take your idea book with you to that church meeting. You daydream during the commute home. You do what you can.
So what if I’m currently about 14,800 words behind schedule? I’m going to complete the marathon. I’m just not going to finish it in record time.
And that’s okay.