"Well, Cadance seems to enjoy writing these shipfics... I guess I could try it..."
Happy first week of NaPoWriMo! I hope you’ve been having an awesome time writing your epic stories! Can you believe it’s already been a week?
Today, I’m going to give you something to chew on the topic of Perseverance!
And to start us out, let’s go with one of my favorite writing quotes of all time:
“Anyone who says writing is easy isn't doing it right.”
― Amy Joy
Can I get a show of hands (and/or hooves) of everyone who agrees with Amy Joy? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Now, at this point, some of you may be way ahead of your goal. Kudos to you! Some of you may be struggling to get in those words since real life decided to rear its ugly head and attack the moment November arrived!
I’m here to talk to both of you, because, believe it or not, this has been a hard month for me. During most NaNoWriMos, I’m blasting through words at top speeds, knocking out up to 8K in a day! Not this time. This time, I’ve started the month with BlizzCon, something that turned out to be exhausting. I’m struggling to make my daily 2,500. I’ve got plans for every single weekend this month. In fact, I had to do 5,000 words yesterday to catch up to where I should be!
"So many shipfics, so little time..."
So, why am I mentioning this?
Because writing is often really flippin’ hard.
“You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.
That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”
― Octavia E. Butler
There’s this myth going around that authors are these magical, mystical creatures who act as conduits of literature. They place their fingers on a keyboard and the story appears without any effort.
I’m sure none of you believe that myth right now.
“I hate writing, I love having written.”
― Dorothy Parker
There are going to be days where writing is the last thing you want to do. There are plenty of times I’d rather be playing Destiny 2 than writing On the Brewing of Saddle Arabian Teas. Pretty much every night, in fact. And by the way, most of those big name fandom authors? They often feel that way… if not worse!
In the end, it comes down to a choice: are you serious enough about this challenge to make it a priority?
You are the only one who can make yourself write. I could get every Equestria Daily user to come online and cheer you on, but if you don't make the decision to do it, nothing will happen. The reason why you write has to come from within. That reason is up to you. You don't even have to know exactly what it is. But it needs to be there.
"Yes, yes, I'll write a shipfic for you. Again."
There’s a reason the main goal is 50K. While I know some don’t have such a lofty goal, I do hope your goal is designed to stretch you, because that’s the true heart of NaPoWriMo & NaNoWriMo. Push yourself. Go for that extra hundred words. This is how you really succeed.
“Imagination is like a muscle. I found out that the more I wrote, the bigger it got.”
― Philip José Farmer
Remember, you aren’t alone. Tens of thousands of people are right there with you. Some of them are going faster, some are going slower. The key is to remember that this isn’t a competition against anyone but yourself.
There will be parts you know are terrible and it’ll get thrown into a fire on the first edit (I’ve got about 4,000 words like that right now). Don’t delete them! The goal of NaNo is word count, not perfection. I know this is really hard to some of you, but try to keep to it. Let the editor out of his box on December 1, not before.
The point is to do your best. But you become your best by the little decisions you make with your time over the course of this month. The decision to write instead of playing a game, watching a show or doing something else.
The truth is, you can’t depend on your muses, inspiration or motivation to be a writer. You can’t depend on any of that for anything creative.
"Notes on Shipping Twilight: She's can be shipped with anypony. Especially me."
But I’ll tell you a secret… if you start writing… that’ll come. It’ll take time―I usually don’t break through my wall until 500-800 words in―but it will happen.
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
So get to writing!
“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
― Jack London
Go on! Shoo!
-Novel
P.S. I forgot to mention this last week, but if you're interested in joining the NaPoWriMo Channel on the EquestriaDaily Discord Server, email [email protected] with the name of your story and your full Discord ID (AmberSpark#1234). You must join the EqD Discord before sending this in or you won't get an invite!
"Soon, all will know my shipping genius..."
