An unexpected opportunity to write, or perhaps not. Yesterday I wrote about writing challenges, various life events can become a greater priority than writing. Developing a lifestyle that anticipates annual events such as holidays, advanced notices such as weddings and unexpected happenings such as illness or funerals helps maintain the discipline needed to writing, especially when writing is not a full time thing. From time to time unexpected free time becomes available, there are so many things that could be done but writing should be on th top of the list.
Discipline and determination are needed to face writing challenges and making the decision to write and not sleep, shop or socialize is the key to becoming a published author. I will say, utilization of these unexpected opportunities are best served when you have an outline. When writing based on an idea much time is spent on reviewing what was written or thinking about what you will write.
I think, when those unexpected writing opportunities occur it gives you a better sense of what you want to do with your writing. I don’t really like writing novels, nor do I have a desire to write 300 page books. I have discovered my love of blogging and developed an appreciation for mini books, five thousand words is enough for me.
It is day 20 of National Novel Writing Month and I have officially written twenty three thousand sixteen words which does not include the 243 I have written in this article. I really am done with NaNoWriMo, it has become a pointless activity for me, in the beginning it was an exciting adventure.
As I have mentioned in one of these articles, National Novel Writing Month is, in my opinion, comprised mostly of people with liberal ideology, I am not. The website describes itself as follows: “NaNoWriMo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people use their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.” This is a good thing and I am happy to report I was finally in a financial position to donate to the cause! I recommend anyone considering writing participate in the adventure.
I have learned quite a bit from the experience. I know that I love writing and will write even if I am the only one reading what I write. I have learned to encourage myself; because, my genre is not something that has a lot of readers and to get an honest reviews of your writings you have to be a well known individual, otherwise finding someone to actually print a review is challenging. I have learned that readers will accept you writing in various genres if they know in advance. I have also learned that friends and family may not be your number one supporters. I have learned to love myself and to allow myself to grow even in my writing, which means admitting that I don’t agree with what I said ten years ago. Because I have a YouTube channel and spent the past two years making videos, longer than that really, I have learned: I would rather write than video myself talking!
I am going to continue participating in NaNoWriMo for the remainder of this month. I began this writers’ marathon in 2011 and it is time for me to retire. By Day 4 I had decided to adjust my goal from 50 thousand words to 30 days of writing, I quickly learned that I was not willing to commit to such as schedule since I am committed to spending time with God on Sundays, I watch church with my beloved every Sunday. I published my first book in 2010, THE TRUTH ABOUT VASHTAI by Marsha Randolph and have written 5 ebooks and a prayer pamphlet since. The main reason I am willing to continue writing is because I may convert my 30 Days of not writing into a booklet. Of course it will need some editing.
In addition to writing the daily journal I have been writing a mini-ebook, this is the bulk of the word count. I have also written a few blog post that were place on my other blog and the beginnings of another series that may become a book. At the conclusion of this writing marathon I will have decided which blog I will keep and how I will convert it to a personally owned blog and not one owned by blogger or wordpress. Yes, it is time for me to go to the next level!

I am an active participant of National Novel Writing Month- these entries are unedited on purpose- Marsha L Floyd
*Scripture quoted is from the King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise stated
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