Sometimes the writing life feels like slogging through four feet of snow.

Barefoot.

Naked.

After one hour of sleep and NO COFFEE.

I know. The horror of not having coffee makes me shudder.

If you’re on a mountaintop right now, watching the sunrise turn the world to gold and you feel like you can hear the angels sing – then good for you! You’ve worked hard to get there and you deserve this moment.

But if you’re in the valley of the shadow, you need to know that every writer spends time here. Even the J.K. Rowling types. You are not alone.

A lot of us are in the throes of Nanowrimo just now, and maybe that 50k goal we set for ourselves feels too far away to ever reach. Maybe you opted out of Nanowrimo and are scrambling to find time in your day to write a hundred words. Maybe you’re in the middle of a nightmare rewrite, or just received yet another rejection from the agent of your dreams. Maybe you were already established in a writing career but the publisher dropped your series.

Maybe your writing has been hijacked by Thanksgiving and family commitments.

Whatever it is, and wherever you’re at, do not give up.

The worst thing you can do when you’re walking barefoot through ten feet of snow is to stop. You’ll freeze to death and that will be the end.

Nope. You have to keep plowing forward, one word at a time.

Maybe you won’t make your 50k goal by the end of Nanowrimo. So what! You’re got more words than you did at the beginning of November, and probably you’ve learned something about writing this particular book. Maybe you’ve met some cool new people.

Maybe 100 words a day feels like turtle writing. Keep writing anyway. It all adds up.

Rejections? Yeah. They suck. But you never know when you’re going to find that perfect agent for you. So keep on writing and keep on submitting.

Are you getting my point here? I think it’s pretty clear.

Wherever you are in your writing life, KEEP WRITING.

And that’s it for me, because I need all of my words for Nanowrimo. Feel free to friend me there, if you haven’t already, so we can slog through the snow together. You’ll find me as uppington.

And by the way – Happy Thanksgiving. I’m pretty sure you should eat pie.