Why I Didn't Post in November

Happy November.

This month is a very special one for me - for the past several years, I've struggled alongside thousands of others in the pursuit of writing a novel during National Novel Writing Month. Like other celebrated months, it is a reminder of the joy of writing, but it's also an incredible challenge and thorn in the side for anyone who takes it seriously.

It's not a competition, but it has winners. The goal is to create a 50,000 manuscript within one month. That's roughly 1,667 words per day. For visual effect, that's 2 1/4 pages of type, single spaced or the size of a normal paper you'd write for a standard college course. You have to write one of those every day.

It's an excellent trial in a world without much challenge anymore. We have to seek out adventure in a way that many before us didn't. Our lives are so comfortable and yet there is an aching there to achieve something beyond the contentment that the world affords us with little to no effort. It is part of the natural human condition to want to push thresholds and break boundaries. The reason? You know that there is something more to yourself than what you know, and you're dying to find out what all is there. Knowing your limitations is a good thing because it means you've tested them.

Do you have a challenge in your life? Something that exhausts you? Something that you might fail at? I feel like that component is missing from our lives. We love the feeling of achievement, but we hate the challenge of getting there. Is there anything in your life that you would describe as 'daunting'? If not, you should find something as soon as possible.

I love this month because it is aggravating, destructive, maniacal, emotional, frustrating and beautiful. It shows that the process of creation is a terrible and awful process that leads, in the end, to something that didn't exist in the world before you put it there. Let that sink in. The universe was complete at any given moment - and you have the power to add something to it. To give something to people that they didn't have before.

There are challenges ahead. I hope you find them.


Good luck.