It's all about the stream

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins- not through strength but by perseverance." H. Jackson Brown

Ok, I would have liked a more humorous quote, but since yesterday was the half way point for NaNoWriMo- this one really fit well.

NaNo isn’t a race, but a challenge of sheer stubbornness. Normal people- even normal writers- wouldn’t subject themselves to writing 50,000 words in 30 days. (Unless there was a very big deadline looming over their heads and the editors were threatening to hunt them down and beat them with sticks.)

NaNo is painful. LOL_ ok, there may be some folks out there for whom writing those kind of word counts isn’t a problem. But for most of us, especially us working full time in non-writing jobs folks- it hurts.

But, like working out each day, it feels good when you’ve finished.

I just did a 10,000 word week-end to catch up and try to get a bit of a cushion for a few days this week that I know I’d have a big zero. It was nasty sometimes, wonderfully amazing others (ok, far more of the former than the latter ;)). But it felt great afterwards. I think for sprinting especially there really is a writer’s high. We may not physically be getting the adrenaline going, but mentally we are stoking those fires and really get the rewards.

And we can’t give up.

NaNo is a great proving ground, not just for writing, but just to show us that when we set our mind to something, we can achieve far beyond what we expect. Regardless of whether someone wins or not- just trying is a success. Most people are too quick to limit themselves, to shake their heads and say “I could never do that.” Usually it’s followed up with a justification- the “real” reason they say they can’t do it.
But most of them time is they just don’t trust in the power of the stream. That big old rock may be laughing now, but give me enough time and I’ll beat it.

If you’re NaNoing- good luck and KEEP AT IT! If you’re not, each day find something to push- to just keep at some task you think is impossible. Little by little, you’ll find you’re stronger than you know.