Sharing work-in-progress can’t be that scary… can it? Guess I’ll find out.
We all know that work-in-progress is crap. Sharing it is terrifying. Then why would I want to share my NaNoWriMo journey with the world? I’m not a novelist (at the moment), but a small business owner. So what gives?
(NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month)
The answer is anything but simple. But let me ask you this: Why are you afraid to share unfinished work? Is it because you truly believe your work is not good enough without its makeup on or are you afraid of people judging you? Well, you are definitely not alone.
I recently talked with a client about his new social platform for professional musicians. I especially liked their feature of allowing musicians to work on their beats and share them on the platform. HOWEVER.
What they found out is that those musicians would not share their work-in-progress publicly. They would only share it with their mentors.
I’m not surprised, are you?
When I write blog posts, it takes anything between 30 minutes and 5 hours to edit, format, and beautify them. And if it’s an ebook, I take anything between weeks and years to make it ready to be read. Any version between points A and B would make me believe that I suck as a writer.
And that’s OK. There’s hardly a writer out there who can spit out a perfect blog post or book in one sitting.
So we’ve established that work-in-progress is crappy. Then why would anyone want to share it?
I can only tell you why I want to share it.
A while ago, I realized that almost everything I wrote was of the myth-busting sort. I would pick a belief that bugged me and bust it for the fraud that it is. Because the truth is: every stereotype and widely-held belief is a fraud.
If you just go through life believing everything people tell you, you will live an unremarkable life.
Quotes like:
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
Pick something everybody does and do it differently.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
… will NOT be true for your life and when you’re gone, nobody will say, she changed the world or she was a leader or anything of that sort. And if you don’t want to be considered as such, that’s perfectly fine.
But I want to be, and I’ve always had this bone to pick with the world. I could never stop picking it. Know the feeling?
So I’m going to share my NaNoWriMo journey, despite the fact that whatever I share is going to suck.
What kind of a creative rebel would I be if I didn’t?
I’ve been looking for extra motivation to write some ebooks this winter and I believe that National Novel Writing Month is it.
So what if it’s mostly done by novelists? I’ve written tons of words throughout the years, won a few times, and almost got a finished novel out of it. But still, nothing saw the light of day, and that SUCKS.
I want to come out of NaNoWriMo as a true winner and publish something. Even if it’s a short guide on my website… or 3.
That motivation I needed? I’ve discovered it. I’m going to share my NaNoWriMo journey with whomever signs up to witness it. I’m also going to share free chapters from the following titles:
I know you’re probably busy doing your own thing, but I think this challenge is something you and I are both up for. There’s power and beauty in total vulnerability, Brene Brown will tell you all about it. And if you do this challenge with me, you’ll know exactly what it feels like:
Terrifying. And liberating.
So what do you say? Be a creative rebel with me. The world has enough people who follow the rules. Let’s see what happens when we break them!
Take action.
If you want to follow my journey, sign up here. If you want to accept my challenge, comment and read my blog post of best practices. Finally, add me on the NaNoWriMo site, so we can be writing buds.
See you on the other side!!! *evil laugh*
