Thus concludes National Novel Writing Month, and with it the Nanowrimo challenge.

If you remember, I was taking National Novel Writing Month TO THE EXTREME!

Some were able to make it to champion status.

Others didn’t, but they have more words than when theystarted, and I hope they continue to bring their ideas to fruition.

The most important lesson that this month taught me as a writer,is the need for discipline. That seems an ironic concept, as I trained in the martial arts for a few years, especially with the mindset that what you learn on the mats transcends into your every day lives.  

Even if you don’t have a game plan for the writing, you have to have a game plan of when and what you’ll be working on each day or it won’t work. And if your schedule is as crazy as mine is, you really do need to pencil in times to write.

Writing is also like a muscle. You can likely finish a 10k without a training, but it won’t happen in the same time frame than someone who has been training for the big day. I was only successful because I have been working out almost every day… on writing. Don’t think I can actually run a 10k or anything.

I let the Stackskill thing go to the wayside. Again, from the martial arts, I was conditioned to believe that you must always go back to the fundamentals if you want to succeed, but these fundamentals diverted from my time to get to work. I felt like I was stuck in a lecture that, although brief, I couldn’t get out of.

I have about an hour left of Steven King’s On Writing. I’ve enjoyed it some extent,but I can see now why he claims he will never be able to break out of that Suspenseful Literature like he wanted to a few years back. His views on writing are the makings of the own box that he put himself into, but his insights are something that all writers should go through so that they can make conscious choices about their writing.

How was everyone else’s National Novel Writing Month?

And when is National Novel READING Month?