The Wordiest Time of the Year

It's November 1st which, for many writers and bloggers, marks the beginning of the wordiest month of the year - National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) and National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). For 11 years, I vowed to write a blog post every day for the month of November and succeeded every year but last year. For the last 3 years, I also vowed to write 50,000 words of a novel and succeeded every year but last year. 

After failing last year, I told myself that I was done with both endeavors. I had no winning streak to keep alive and let's be real, the election left me broken and lost. Did stories matter anymore? Did my writing matter anymore? 

It's taken some time for me to grapple with these questions and the accompanying existential angst but I know that stories still matter and writing matters to me. That's enough.

So, I'm once again committing to NaBloPoMo and my focus will be on stories - some short, some long - because stories entertain us, inspire us, and sustain us. In the coming month, I'll tell you some of my stories and if you have one to tell, leave a link or the story itself in the comments. 

I recently read the book Before Everything by Victoria Redel and in it, she writes, "We are here. And then we are not here. For a little while, we are a story." Such a beautiful way of thinking about life.

We are all stories.