The 2020 Daily Writing Challenge – Wrap Up

/ JoHawkTheWriter

2020 Daily Writing Challenge

Writing is like driving at night in the fog.
You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
– E. L. Doctorow

We finished our 2020 Daily Writing Challenge last week. I accounted for each writing session, tabulated the results, double-checked, verified, and had my results audited by an independent accounting entity. In other words, they passed my cat’s sniff test. My grand total for 2020 was 98,233 words written.

My results fall short of my 135k target and my 115k actual from 2019. I suppose I could succumb to sadness, discouragement, and consider myself a failure, but I don’t. I’m not one to make excuses for not reaching my stated goals. I can’t help myself with these results. No one disputes the train wreck of events we experienced. World events, pandemics, social upheaval, strange happenings, and having to face the uncertainty of the unknown is enough to upset anyone’s apple cart. Heap on personal challenges and family struggles, and it is astounding I wrote anything.

There is a positive attribute to the mess. We learned to preserve, and we figured out ways to get things done despite the obstacles. I am eager to close the books on the mayhem, but I won’t soon forget the mindset, determination, the surging force of courage, and the resulting self-confidence I developed. They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but we rarely face those challenges all lumped into one twelve-month period. I hope 2021 will grant us relief, but I intend to hold tight to these new, hard-won strengths.

What positive writing lessons did you learn?

_________________________________________

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

5 thoughts on “The 2020 Daily Writing Challenge – Wrap Up”

  2. Well done! In 2020, I actually made good progress in doing some writing/editing outside of National Novel Writing Month, mainly by not putting as much pressure on myself and building momentum by doing at least a little bit each day. So far, I’ve kept up the habit for 2021. I was also particularly pleased that I completed NaNoWriMo this year as I had a lot going on in November and had to skip writing altogether on some days; I managed a 10,000 word charge on the final weekend.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Congratulations, RJ. That is amazing. I made a stab at NaNo. I knew the goal was too much given my other responsibilities. Still I managed 10k words. Working on small bite sized pieced every day really does add up. I’ll be cheering for you to keep the habit going this year. 👍😊

      Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.