We’ve now hit the halfway point in NaNoWriMo, yay! That means you’re either still riding high and feeling great about that word count, or feeling a bit dejected and behind. So let’s talk about that a little.

It’s really easy during NaNoWriMo to get so overwhelmed and feel so behind that you give up entirely. I’m not going to hit 50,000 words so what does it matter? Is the exact thought that runs through my head about this time of November.

But here’s the thing, even if you don’t hit 50,000 words, you’ve still got the chance to do something amazing: write. No matter how many or how few words you actually put onto page during November, you’ll have more words than when you started. (Assuming you wrote even a single word, which I’m sure you did!)

Maybe it’s not 50,000 words. Maybe it’s only 2500 words and you feel horrible for ‘failing’ and ‘not winning’ the race to 50k. But you’ve already won by writing in the first place. Writing isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon and not hitting 50k doesn’t mean you’re not a writer, it just means you didn’t hit 50,000 words.

Don’t let the idea of failing, the thoughts swirling around your head, destroy your writing. You are a writer, so keep going.