Welcome to Day 14 of the Write the Story! writing challenge!
As we approach the middle of the month, I'm wondering how you're feeling. Because here's the thing about writing challenges, sometimes they can steal our writing joy. Sometimes a writing challenge becomes too much about having to hit a word count every day.
It can almost feel like you are trying to prove something to yourself.
The writing can become more about the goal, the word count, than the writing and the joy and the wonder of the writing process. The adventure of writing.
I remember when I was in college and as I moved through one of the semesters in my junior year I realized I had a 4.0 GPA and I thought about how cool it would be to close out that semester with that perfect GPA. And, while I managed to pull that off, I also created a daily sense of anxiety for myself for much of the second half of that semester.
Every test, every paper, every assignment took on a whole new weightiness for me. And, honestly, my joy of learning took a far, far second place to the perfect 4.0 GPA.
I hope you aren't experiencing that kind of weight as we approach the middle of this writing adventure.
In fact, I hope you will consider this less of a writing challenge and more of a wonderful and wonder-filled adventure. I hope you will recall the reason you started this with me this month---because you love writing. Because you have a story to tell. You have characters that you love and who have asked you to share their story.
And that leads us into today's encouragement. It is a simple but profound quote from E.B. White:
Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.
It is my hope that as you approach your keyboard or pick up your pen and settle in with your characters, that you indeed will be on the lookout for wonder. I hope you will discover delight. I hope you will experience joy.
Because that's what writing holds, isn't it? That's why we write. That's why we read. That's why we pursue the things that matter to us.
May you experience the presence of wonder as you write today.
Remember: drop your daily word count in the comments so we can track your daily word count and provide you a final total when we hit November 30.
