How's it going?

To those of you who are participating in NaNoWriMo:

How’s it going? Are you keeping up with your daily word counts? Are your stories turning out beautiful and vivid?

To those who aren’t:

How’s it going? Are you still working on your story? Is it as beautiful as you envisioned it to be, when you started?

See, we don’t all have to be participating to still be writing. I talked a little bit about that last time. I’m still working on a new novel (technically, I’m working on two), even though I’m not participating in NaNoWriMo.

And that’s the gist of what I have to say today:

You should be writing, whether you’re in NaNoWriMo or not.

Especially if you’re a writer.

Personally, I think that everyone should write. Whether it’s writing technical stuff, blogs, recipes, articles, or novels, everyone should write. It’s a learning experience, every time you sit down to do it. Trust me, I would know. ;-) But for writers, it’s even more important. It’s in our name, people! We’re writers, and writers write. Whether it’s NaNoWriMo or not.

See, when we confine ourselves to only writing in either of the National Novel Writing Months, we’re leaving out a whole ten months where we could be writing. And that’s a problem. Yeah, yeah, we spent a lot of that time catching up on our reading and editing the novels we wrote during NaNoWriMo, but still—it’s not an excuse to stop writing.

Even when I’m editing a book, I’m always writing another one at the same time.

I don’t intend to brag, but yeah, that’s the truth. I’m usually working on two or three of my own projects at a time, while juggling editing and submissions for Mavguard Magazine, while working with the design team to make sure each edition is more stunning than the last, while living my life and taking time for myself. I always make sure I’m writing, whenever I have the opportunity to do so.

That’s one of the reasons why I started Too Many Books to Count. It’s a way for me to keep writing, even when I don’t feel like writing one of my novels or working on another project. It’s a place for me to talk about writing, to hang out with people like me, writers, creatives.

That’s my suggestion to you. Whatever you do, write. Find a way to squeeze it into your schedule, whether it’s by blogging or journaling, noveling or just plain booking. Do it. Write. And don’t ever stop—even when the curtains fall and NaNoWriMo is over.

Above all, never stop writing.

[love]

{Rani Divine}