Is It Really Failing?

I decided to try NaNoWriMo again this year. National Novel Writing Month occurs every November and the goal is to write 50,000 words or 1667 words a day for thirty days. (And yes, I know if you do the math, it’s actually 50,010 words.)

I’ve signed up for NaNo two other times. The first year I barely did anything. I had more success on my second attempt. My Facebook memories from two years ago said this: I finished NaNoWriMo thanks to the support of Sisters in Crime and the SinC50K with Sisters in Crime NaNoWriMo Group. I wrote 50004 words plus the 8835 I’d already written. I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. When I hit 3000 words today, Bob said why don’t you just try to finish so I did — 4880 today. I’m tired!

That book was Three Shots to the Wind. I wrote it doing a lot of sprints. (A writing sprint is where you write for a specific amount of time without taking your fingers off the keys.) It seemed to come out funnier than some of my books. I always wonder if the sprints had anything to do with that.

This year I didn’t come close to the 50K goal. I only wrote 8,646 words on my new manuscript. However, that’s more words than I started with so that is a win as far as I’m concerned. And I’d already written 6541words. So, all total, it’s about twenty percent of a 75,000-word novel.

A couple of things kept me from finishing. First, I’ve been working on a Hallmark-type holiday romance novel. My original goal was to have it to my agent by October 1. A bout of Covid, and the book needing more editing than I thought it would, put me behind. So, while I wanted to add words to my new manuscript, I also wanted to send off the romance and I did! Finally, on November 15th I hit send. Second, I’m always drained when I send off a project and it took a bit to reorient myself to the NaNo project.

I like these quotes on failure:

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” ― Samuel Beckett

“Do not judge me by my successes; judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” ― Nelson Mandela

“Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” ― Oprah Winfrey

Readers: How do you feel when you don’t make a goal? Do you have a favorite inspirational quote?

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