Failure is only failure when we 'fail' to try. . .

All this NaNoWriMo stuff. . . trying to free write 50,000 words during the month of November to 'win'. Now, I get caught up in the competitiveness of wanting to 'win', I admit -- but for me it has, in my heart, been less about getting all 50,000 done then just having a great time. I mentioned previously that free writing is like free falling - it is - it is, also, an opportunity to stand outside ourselves to observe what we come up with. We all draw from our experiences or experiences we have witnessed or read about, but it is interesting to see the ones that jump onto the page and, more so, to see how far into fiction we take those thoughts. I am just under 10,000 words from a 'win', but I am also retired, our adult son is doing just fine, my husband is cooking for me so I can finish, I have no real reason not to write.

I know, if I were working, raising a child, scrubbing the house spotless, I would possibly have a legitimate reason for not getting all 50,000 words out other than failing to try, but I also know that I, and many like me, would still feel I had failed. . . but the truth is, y'all. . . if you free wrote at all during November on top of your busy lives, if you felt for just a few minutes the excitement of NaNoWriMo, then you succeeded at being a writer. . . and we all know that is what it is all really about. . . that and donating or buying a t-shirt or poster so the non-profit can help fund more libraries in countries that simply cannot afford to build them or furnish books. My t-shirt is on the way, wrong size because I waited too long. . . but whether I get to 50,000 or not, I will wear it with pride. . . and not just for me, but for all of y'all that free wrote even one sentence this month or the months before. And even if I am written out, I will be there next November and the one after and so on, free falling every day.