Tricky Obstacles

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A client of mine recently discovered the NaNoWriMo trick. If you’re unfamiliar, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month (November), a challenge for which participants must complete a 50,000-word draft of a novel in one month. It’s become incredibly popular in large part because it forces authors to write as quickly as they can without worrying about whether what they’re writing is any good. There’s no time for rewriting and worrying and making sure the plot comes together. That will all be dealt with in December or whenever. First, just write, write, and keep writing.

When my client learned about NaNoWriMo he immediately gave himself a month to complete a draft of the memoir he’d been avoiding starting, and Lo! He had himself a draft in 30 days. I was happy for him, but I reminded him it was a trick. A good trick, but a trick just the same. Mind you, I’ve had to trick myself a few times in my writing life. When I wrote these essays at the pace of five-a-week I only allowed myself 40 minutes to complete one. This kept me from both trying to perfect anything and from worrying what people thought of them. I was too busy getting onto the next one.

Whether it was my 40-minute timer or the one-month deadline of NaNoWriMo, these tricks help us leap over obstacles we’ve constructed to limit our success. It feels great to clear those obstacles, to find ourselves on the other side, but it is more important to remember the obstacles were never real in the first place. No one ever had to perfect what can’t be perfected; no one ever had to sit around worrying what some unknown reader would think of that sex scene; no one ever had to prove they were smart enough or talented enough or creative enough to write.

Easy to say now, but if I’ve thrown up some obstacle—like believing only people who’ve signed six-figure deals are truly successful—that obstacle can look pretty damn real in my mind where only I can see it and where only I’m navigating it. I write these pieces in part to help you remove any obstacles you might have constructed for yourself, but I know how it goes. I know you can take down one and then put up another because you’re used to having obstacles, because that’s how life is, because who said it was easy, because life is a struggle—because, because, because. None of it’s real. The only thing real is what you experience on the other side of what you thought was blocking you, that moment when you see that what seemed hard wasn’t so hard at all, and you think to yourself, “I guess I never had to worry about that in the first place.”

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

William KenowerComment