If you saw the headline to this post and rage-clicked it for my arrogance, everything that follows may disappoint you. Or it may not; who am I to say? You may recall, a month ago, I wrote a post about a terrible mistake I made (if you don’t, click that link to read all about it).
As I embarked on Camp NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month, not to be confused with the “real” one in November), it was feeling very much like a mistake. Like I had set myself up to fail. Sure, I’d won Camp NaNoWriMo before (my last draft of Luminary), and I’d won NaNoWriMo before (my first draft of Luminary). But winning Camp NaNoWriMo this time was an uphill battle that I didn’t think I’d win.
And here’s a fun fact: I almost didn’t. And, because when writing, who wants to solely focus on the writing at hand, I was planning on titling this post “It’s Okay to be a Loser” (© W.A. Stanley, 2023; there will likely be a NaNoWriMo event where I’m forced to use it). And you know what? It is okay to be a loser. It’s okay to fail, especially if you put in the effort. For the majority of my month, I was convinced I was going to do just that.
It was only on 25 July where I thought that I might just win this thing. That was the first of three days I took off from my day job to write in a bid to make it through. And, as I write this in the early hours of 1 August (because as much as I’d love to, I can’t take every day off work to write), after spending the last Camp NaNoWriMo evening writing a book review, I come to you a little weary. Writing 50,000 words is a big effort. It’s an achievement. And as that arrogant headline will likely express, I’m pretty damn proud of that achievement.
It’s okay to fail, but it’s also okay to be proud of your achievements. And if you fail, it’s okay to be proud of the achievement you still put in. Would have I been? Probably not. But I’d probably be wrong in that.
But as the headline to this little post says, winning is just the beginning. It is. Throughout July, I wrote the first 59,002 words in the third draft (which I refer to as Draft 2, because I don’t see that first draft as being worthy of a number) of something I aim to turn into a book. I still have nine chapters to go. And I’m already thinking about what needs to change in the next draft. As I do that, I’ll also be considering the subsequent draft.
So yes, I won Camp NaNoWriMo. It’s an achievement, and I’m proud of it. But it’s just the beginning; it doesn’t even count as a milestone. That will be the end of the draft. Which is still a little way off, because I can’t sustain that pace, and I can’t take more time off work to try.
But for the next little while, Luminary, draft 2, will be my focus. Until it isn’t, when I turn my attention back to Till Death Do Us Party. Or, maybe—because who wants to solely focus on the writing at hand—the next book I have bubbling away in my head.
Because winning really is just the beginning of this journey.
TTFN,
wastanley.com 