Day 23: You Can Keep on Writing

Do you sit down to write with a thrill of excitement or with dread and resentment?

Has the month gotten too long? Does your story make you cringe away? Do you feel like you have nothing more to say?

Well I can understand that. After 22 posts of this sort I sit down for the twenty third and I feel a bit empty. I keep asking myself ‘what else have I got to say? What else have I to give?’

It’s not the first time I’ve felt this way since starting this project and I rather doubt that it will be the last.

Really though I’ve sat down to write almost every one of these posts with the same feeling of ‘what do I say?’ So far I’ve always found the answer, some rather surprising answers too.

Today I’ve wrestled one more post from the shadowy depths of my ink clouded well. I’ve found something to say. It’s not brilliant, but it’s words on the page and sometimes that’s all that matters.

You know every single one of these has been about the same thing, if only in a roundabout way? I’ve found, so far, 23 ways to tell you to write and keep on writing.

Why? Well there are as many reasons to write as there are pens in the world. Today’s reason is because you never know what’s going to come out of you the next time you begin writing. You can never know ahead of time exactly where a word or sentence will lead you. NaNoWriMo is about surprises. It’s about thinking that you have nothing to say and then finding a hundred or more words have poured out of you without your knowing they were even there, just waiting for a chance.

There is always something left in you. I believe that even when I’m groaning that I don’t and that I want to stop. I know that there will always be something left to write because time and time again I’ve found the question of ‘what else can I write?’ answered in ways I never expected.

You can keep writing; I know you can. It’s hard, I know it’s hard, but you can. You can always keep on writing.

~Rita