Right now I’m staring at 300 pages and 62,000 words. I haven’t written a blog post in a very long time and those 300 pages and 62,000 words are why. On top of that, I’ve completed about ten thousand words of short-short stories (under 5,000 words) for a total of another 15,000 words and started several more. This is in only the last six months.
Why am I even talking about this? Am I bragging?
Totally.
Let’s call this what it is. I’m flabbergasted I’ve made it this far. I’m betting this is what it feels like for people who run marathons. They sign up for a fun activity, they need a hobby, but secretly they’ve always wanted to push themselves past some imagined limit.
Can you imagine yourself achieving the one thing you’ve dreamed about your whole life? The dream people scoff at as if it were the equivalent to winning the lottery?
How about smaller dreams? You just want to better yourself or stay in shape. When you make your goals smaller and achieve them then it’s time to move them up, keep raising that bar.
And that is all I’m doing.
Some people run a marathon and I’ve chosen to write a novel. But just like a race I don’t expect to come in first place the first time. My goals are not connected to success. Instead I connect them to something measurable: completion by a certain date.
This is the time of year people start thinking of resolutions and yearly goals. Several years ago I didn’t wait for New Years I just started. I think this worked for me. So do whatever it takes to make it work for you.
So this concludes my update post.
I love comments! Every time you comment rainbows and glitter will appear, you will save a puppy or kitty. Not realistic? This post has been all about pushing yourself to believe the impossible and you might as well start now 🙂
What a lovely and very appropriate analogy. 🙂 I suspect you just finished NaNo successfully! Good for you. I’m thinking winning first place in a national/international contest should give you an inkling that not only do you have what it takes to get to the table, you jumped up on it, and danced!!
Keep dancing girl! You’re awesome! 🙂
No I didn’t do NaNo. I’ve been doing 100 pages a month the last two months (already had a 100 from Sept for the Rewrite Workshop). Thank you for cheering me on, Monique!!
You’re welcome. I’m looking forward to reading more of your story. I love Zeta. I’m on the last chapter of my novella, I took it a different direction by adding a couple unexpected elements and let things play out. I really like how it is turning out. I can’t wait to find out how it ends. 🙂
I did “NoNo- NaNo”– I finished Simply (which is being published soon–I just got the cover! 🙂 And I am almost done with the novella– part of which I took in September.)
That’s fantastic, Tina. Congratulations!!
Thank you, Jeanette!
Nice analogy! I often have compared my writing to my running, you don’t use the same physical muscles but the exact same mental ones. I find I do the same things when the run or the writing gets hard, I say a mantra –just one more step—just one more word. And the more steps I discipline myself to do and the more words the easier it becomes.
Well done on achieving so much, you should crow, throw confetti, and dance.
*Waits for the sparkles and puppies brigade.
The puppies and sparkles happen when you close your eyes and dream.
It goes like this: Normal life, normal life. Blink PUPPIES AND GLITTER!! Wait? What was that? … Close eyes –Puppies on parade under a rainbow.
Takes some practice.
You are an inspiration, Tina! I can’t wait to read the novel and would love to see your short stories as well.
Thanks, Michele! One short story will be out in April through the Writers of the Future anthology and the novel will hopefully be edited enough for public eyes and first readers in the Spring too. I’m going to need to do a lot of read throughs and fixes!! How is your novel coming along?