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Perfectionism has nothing to do with getting it right. It has nothing to do with fixing things. It has nothing to do with fixing things. It has nothing to do with standards. Perfectionism is a refusal to let yourself move ahead.
- Julia Cameron
Cerebration is the enemy of originality in art.
- Martin Ritt
Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
- Agnes DE Mille
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We are on the brink of the halfway point of NaNoWriMo and possibly some of you who started 15 days ago have decided you cannot continue. Perhaps it was your schedule. Perhaps it was your first time and your strategy did not bear fruit. Perhaps it hasn’t been your first time but for some reason your commitment to the challenge was not equal to the demands on your time leaving you fearfully behind the curve. Perhaps you were unable to silence the editor long enough to crunch the words out. It is, yet isn’t an easy task to take on. It is easy to manage once you understand the commitment needed and the daily writing required. It is hard if one cannot write daily for whatever reason. If you have given up take some time and find out why and mentally prepare for next year.
However if you are still in the game you are finding that you are about to enter the caverns of the mid-way slog through changing plot lines and characters who suddenly do something unexpected and throw your outlines into disarray. You are about to enter the difficult time as your creativity begins to feel the fatigue of near constant reaching deep for the story. You are perhaps about to discover that your creativity is about spent and there isn’t a thing more you can think of to write down. You have written and written and written and if you haven’t done it daily you are pushing out three to five thousand word sessions and about to collapse from the strain. If you think you cannot possibly pen another paragraph because your mind is emptied of every literary trick you know, then your mind is in a state of readiness!
Creativity is not about thinking something up; it is about getting something down. It is about listening and not thinking. It is about hearing from your creativity what should happen next. It isn’t about exerting energy to force something out but to quiet the tendency to perfectionism and going with the flow. It isn’t about rowing up-stream but about letting the current take where it will. Nothing of originality is ever thought up. It is never concentrated upon and written down. It is found by dropping down into the well of creativity and given to be written down. It is creative dictation from a voice that is not our own but of us nonetheless.
NaNoWriMo is pure creativity in a hurried and harried fit of daily writing. If you are on track to finish, you are at or near the 25,500 word mark. Like a meditation to prepare the mind you may have found that this exercise has been that meditation. Instead of clearing the mind it has instead cleared it of the censor and the perfectionist. These two care nothing for art or creativity but only for personal fame and glory. Art is not about glory but about telling the truth and that truth is given more than it is decided upon. Your story may be a shambles of plot twists and bad sentence structure but who cares? You shouldn’t. Nirvana, that place that is sought by meditation to discover enlightenment, is not found through the editor or the perfectionist but through the meeting of the soul with the creative voice whispering in that deep well. That voice has a story to tell you.
If you have given up or shied away from even starting perhaps you struggle or struggled with the process of putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard in such a way so as to contact that deep whisperer. It is a learning process to be sure and all art must have its journey to discovery. You may not consider yourself an artist but by creating even simple and silly poems you are participating in the act of creation; you are participating as an artist.
If the perfectionist voice rules your written roost, learn to silence and quell it. There is a time for everything and creating is no time for critiquing or judging. It is for creating.
Here’s a simple exercise to try out:
If I didn’t have to do it perfectly, I would try …
Fill in the blank for as many things as come to mind. Then, give one of them a try.
If you are still plugging away at NaNo, what have you discovered so far?
If you were unable to participate or have had to quit, what did you discover in the process that you would change next time?
phil1861
phil1861
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I've found a few journals and NaNo Novels to plug and encourage you to track these participants progress and give them some encouragement. If you read and review any of the NaNo Novels out there, please do so with the thought that you are encouraging them to keep going, not worry about what needs to be changed. That will come in due time; for now just cheer them on as they keep going.
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Questions from the 10/19 NL
Have you succeeded in NaNo before? What did you find that worked and what didn't?
If you didn't make it the last time, what did you find you did that didn't help you on your journey?
Are you doing this for the first time? What are your thoughts and fears?
Amyaurora 
Submitted Comment:
The question was "Have you succeeded in NaNo before? What did you find that worked and what didn't?
If you didn't make it the last time, what did you find you did that didn't help you on your journey?"
No I haven't succeeded, yet. This will be my third NaNo year. I don't really have an idea as to what doesn't or doesn't work for me while NaNoing but I never stop to doubt my writing journey.
Hopefully you are still in the race! It is a combination of temperment and resolve more than anything. There are some finite variables: one can only write for so long before the words trickle out instead of flow out before a break is needed. Creativity has a way of wanting to regulate itself over being regulated by us. The well of creativity needs time to refill between writing bouts that sometimes does not cooperate with our own schedules.
megsie2584
Submitted Comment:
Thanks for the encouragement, and the reminder that this is just about one word after another. I signed up for Nanowrimo last year, and didn't get past the 500 word mark. I got discouraged way too early on and just quit.
Maybe it's time to try again.
Hopefully you did try it again! All it takes is one stray thought or some premature input from someone to all but decide us that what we have written isn't worth pursueing to bring NaNo to a halt. That was a left brain decision to derail a right bran activity. There isn't a right or wrong or good or bad in the act of creativity; judging your creativity before it is full born is a pit that people seldom crawl out from before thier project comes to a halt. Hopefully you are finding better success this time around.
Raine 
Submitted Comment:
I'm going to be trying NaNo for the first time this year. I've always said that the most important thing is to get the story told then go back and make it worth telling. So, I'm going to practice what I preach and see if I can do 50K in 30 days.
Hopefully you are finding the challenge worth the effort.
schipperke
Submitted Comment:
I will be trying the NaNoWriMo this year for the third time. Hope springs eternal.
There is a quote from Julia Cameron that goes: running a marathon prepares you to write a play/novel/screenplay and writing a play prepares you to run a marathon. Just the act of taking on the challenge prepares you to take on further challenges. Success helps that but even if you fail to reach the goal once again you still win by pushing the evelope.
inkyshadows}
Submitted Comment:
Hey, phil1861! I'll see you in the NaNoWriMo trenches! Bring plenty of whatever comfort food you crave. I'm bringing hot vanilla to drink and lots of blackberries and lemon meringue pie Have fun and keep right on writing
spazmom
Submitted Comment:
Yeah Nano!!! I'm in this year again.
billwilcox
Submitted Comment:
Pookie,
This was great. You lay it right out there for all to see. NaNo would be easy if everyone followed your advice.
W.D.
 , ok Bill you can pick up this months payment of "sing-my-praises-payoff-NL-feedback" in the park by the bench; say "boy, don't the noodles wax poetic this time of the season" and the man with the eye patch and cloak will reply "yes, and the monkees sure don't mind being fed goulache by the lions", leave your wallet on the bench and the man will insert said payment.
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For Authors: November 16, 2005 Issue [#717]
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