Yes Indeed, You Are A Writer, Yes You.

A Lin-Manuel Tweet from September

For many writers the month of November means NaNoWriMo. A month-long writing challenge. 

I am not participating this year, (I seem to participate every other year), because I am working on multiple writing projects and word count is a poor metric right now for me to use. 

But I love the idea of NaNoWriMo, and it is cool to have a novel draft, or a novella draft, completed in a month. The key to NaNoWriMo is to simply write without editing or second guessing your word choices.

On the other hand, NaNoWriMo can be daunting. It is important to remember that while 50,000 words is the goal, any writing you write is a victory.   

In light of NaNoWriMo, this is a time of year filled with posts about  NaNoWriMo, and writing in general.

One I found particularly interesting is:

  

"NaNoWriMo and looking at some terrible advice" by Mary Robinette Kowal

I love her wisdom around some of the common writing advice given

Write Every Day

Being a writer, or being anything else , means you have to pay attention to self-care. Sometimes for a variety of personal, work, or societal reasons you just can't write for a period of time. And yes you may Feel like a failure (I often do), but YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE.

A Writer Writes

I find what I write and how much I write varries a lot. Sometimes I write all the time. Sometimes I take long periods off either because I don't have ideas or more often because life means I don't have time to write. No matter what obstacles come up, which keep you from writing, you shall aways be a writer. "They can't take that away from (you)". 

You must submit your fiction

Personally, I love this distinction between "writer" and "author". There have definitely been times where others described me as a writer and I have felt the shock of imposter syndrome. But using these definitions I am clearly a writer, because I write. 

So as this post is titled "Yes Indeed, You Are A Writer, Yes You.". Go forth and write. Go forth and tell your story. Go forth and celebrate that you are a writer.