Writers’ Hats All Around

Several people around me are have let me know they are participating in NaNoWrimo so I expect them to be writing. Those I know who write for a living, I expect them to be writing too. This weekend though, for some reason, it seems like everyone around me is writing — and writing really well. Here’s two examples:

• Mike sent in a great article about our Purpose Party adventure on Life As a Human, a site to which I’ve contributed in the past, “Build a Goals Engine.”
• Kevin, whom I met through Twitter and most recently in person at FreelanceCamp, has written a very good piece on how our world is killing our ability to tell our stories, “In an Age of Twitter and Elevator Speeches Our Stories are in Peril.”

This is really exciting and hopeful for me. It signifies that people around me (and therefore likely people elsewhere) believe in and are returning to longer forms of expression — reclaiming our rights as storytellers. This is a very good thing.

As for NaNoWriMo, I managed to write over 1000 words today, in one sitting. This is a personal best. It also takes me very close to the 5K mark (after this blog post I’m going to see if I can cross that before midnight). I realize 5K is not 25% of the 55K I need to “win” but I feel good about the progress and I might be able to pick up the pace, who knows? Tomorrow is going to be focused on the Those DeWolfes Podcast but I’ll try to get at least a paragraph or two in — it’s the continuation, the “habit” and the X on the calendar day that matters at this point.

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photo credit: “Officially Licensed “Indiana Jones” Wool Felt Fedora by Dorfman Pacific” by puuikibeach/davidd on Flickr; to me a fedora is the hat I think of when someone tells me to put on my writer’s hat.