Day 15: That's Halfway

NaNoWriMo 2012

Today’s the halfway point for NaNoWriMo. According to that that lovely little graph you should have 25,000 words at the end of this day, but you know, it doesn't always happen that way.

This time last year I was frantically writing up until the very last moment to get to that 25,000 mark. I had started out behind by about four days and I was desperate to make up that ground by the halfway point.

I didn’t make it. 

I wrote and wrote until I wasn’t even thinking the words first. My fingers were flying over the keyboard faster then I knew they could. I had never written so much in so short a time as I did the night of the 15th, and yet for all of that I fell short. I was just 13 words away from my goal when midnight struck, but for a few minutes it felt like I had failed.

But then I looked, really looked, at what I had gotten done. Not just all that I had gotten written in my frantic push for victory, but all of it. I had written just under 25,000 words. That was more then I had ever written on one story in my whole life. 11 days and nearly 25,000 words. At that point it was the most incredible thing I had ever done.

Whether or not you reach that 25,000 today, or whatever goal you’ve set for yourself, take a second or two to really take in what you’ve done: what you’ve written and discovered so far this month. This is big, this thing you’ve started, it’s big and scary and so very worth celebrating. Every day you write is a victory; an accomplishment worth noting.

Last year when ever I hit a new high for my daily word count I’d post it on facebook. I didn’t say what it was, I wasn’t brave enough for that, I just put in the number and maybe a few exclamation points and gave a little shout out to the world.

The two things I want to stress this month are:

1. Write and keep writing even when you don’t feel like it.
2. You're wining even if you’re not making the daily word count. 

Every word you write is a word you’ve won for your story. Writing isn’t always easy, most of the time it’s hard to keep on going and there will always be easier things to do. It’s hard to put a dream into words. It’s hard to write when day after day. It’s hard but it’s worth it.

That’s why I say celebrate: Be proud of your words, even the not so good ones.

Everyone who keeps writing through the hard bits, which are most bits, is a real, true, strong, and victorious writer: don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. 

~Rita

NaNoWriMo Day 15, halfway there