These are the times that try men’s souls.

I’m about 20,000 words off my NaNo goal. I haven’t had another encouraging letter from Chris Baty land in my Hotmail. I hate my story. Therese has gone to Disney World. I have to overcook a turkey on Thursday. I hate my story. With the fire of a thousand suns.

It’s November 22, and I’ve barely cracked the 20,000 word barrier toward a goal of 50,000, and the realization has sunk in that even if I sat myself in front of my computer every spare minute of the next 10 days, I won’t make it. Now I realize what a herculean task the whole thing was in the first place, an exercise in hubris, flogging your muse toward a finish line that seems farther away every day (I’ll dispense with the classical references here on out).

So here I am, feeling as dry as a two-month orange, and about as pleasant to be around, when I decided to “sniff the broccoli” and blog surf. I hit MJ Rose’s Backstory, a blog that tells the story behind the story.

Sometimes nothing alleviates suffering like hearing about other people’s suffering.

Seriously, it was uplifting reading about how other writers stumbled over their stories. A fair few got their ideas while driving. Some while talking to a relative. Still others who’d had an idea rumbling around their heads for 20 years and one day decided to write it down.

Then I realized what a miracle it was to have a brain wired for storytelling. To have a creative force that whispers words in there that no one else will hear. In short, a 30,000 word goal in less than 10 days is a good problem to have. Lots of folks have bigger problems than these, and I’m thankful that this is mine and not something more horrible.

My pity party is done now.

Gobble gobble.

Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She has written two novels under the pseudonym Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter--both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President's teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins.
Kathleen Bolton
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