I Did It! Observations from Non-NaNoWriMo 2020

Well, dear reader, I did it! The sun is now setting on November 2020, and a new month dawns tomorrow. With today's post, I have now taken the time to sit down and write something, anything, each day in the month of November. I'm proud of myself for doing this. For someone who has always had the drive, but lacking the direction and discipline, this is no small feat! I have looked forward to sticking to my goal, and I am thrilled to report that I met that! A few observations as I close out this chapter of Non-NaNoWriMo 2020.

I Kept Myself Accountable. Admittedly, it wasn't always easy. Some days I struggled with content, other days it was the mental energy. But, I persevered, even on the days when I may have cheated a little and phoned it in with a Random Things Edition or calling back a memory that was written years ago. I purposely didn't set limitations on myself with this project, as I knew those days would likely come. It's hard to write everyday, and keeping myself free of any constraints paid off. The point is that I carved out the time and let my brain do the driving in what each day's effort level and content material would be. One caveat: I inadvertently over wrote the post that I created on November 5th. It wasn't a very significant post, as I was deep in the throes of Election Day Hangover and was mentally zapped. It was short and sweet and a total cheat day. Still, it did exist for a time and a win is still a win,

I Enjoyed that it Became a Habit. They say that it takes roughly three weeks of completing a repetitive routine for something to become a habit. I subscribe to that notion. I liked that I would sometimes think about the blog and what I wanted to type each night while I was taking a brain break from work. Or I'd be going about my day and the inspiration for that day's entry came to me, and I just couldn't wait to sit down and write to get it on the virtual page. I am encouraged that this desire and habit will stick with me. I am still unsure of where exactly this blog is going to go as the future unfolds. But I'm inspired and confident that even if I don't publicly share everything I write, I'll at least jot something down for myself. Whether it's an idea, or an outline or a random character's name I think will be good for a novel one day, it will be something. The sky is the limit on how this will flourish and for that, I am inspired, encouraged and excited. There is hope and promise on the forefront!

My Design Dabbling Days Have Also Returned! I had completely forgotten how much fun designing can be. In my quest to create the ill-fated Facebook page to mirror and help share the blog, I stumbled upon my love for designing and creating graphics. I revisited Canva and accrued a number of creations that I'm also pretty geeked over! As I ruminate an alternative to the Facebook sharing platform, I will continue to flex that creative muscle and produce more designs for The Mercurial Wordsmith portfolio!

Hard Lesson Learned. As mentioned above, it is looking less and less likely that my intended plan to maintain a separate Facebook page as a vehicle for sharing the blog will succeed. It appears that the constraints of that environment and categorizing it as a business page does not mesh with promoting the blog as an external source, especially since it's obviously not a business. For now, I am sharing the blog links first via Twitter, and will likely continue to do so exclusively. That is, until I find a possible alternative. I haven't given up, yet! It's been a bumpy ride and a lesson learned as this all unfolded over the past few days. Indeed, it's also never easy to navigate the delicate art of self-promotion, even more so when your chosen art is the written word. If any new plans or updates arise on that front, I will share accordingly. 

So, there you have it! I will be taking a much deserved break for a few days as I now ruminate and focus on the continued direction of the blog. But I do invite you to continue to follow AND I encourage you to engage and comment here, too! Non-NaNoWriMo has been a wild success, and I thank you for reading!

Keeping that creative spark alive! 💖

The Mercurial Wordsmith