This was originally posted by SilverStarry back in 2004, my first year attempting NaNoWriMo. It gave me a boost of confidence when I really needed it and I'm hoping it'll inspire others out there who are struggling with self-doubt. I am reprinting it here, with her kind permission. The Infinity Post:
SilverStarry sat down at her desk and began looking over her story. She knew it wasn't perfect. It was anything but perfect, as a matter of fact, but she didn't think she'd done too badly. She had just found a book entitled 'Rate Your Story. Does the Good Outrival the Bad?' and decided it would be interesting to give it a look over.
She began scanning through it to see if any of the things listed in the 'bad' section applied to her story.
"Let's see..." she mused to herself, flipping through the pages. "A very important plot point that disappears halfway through the story for no apparent reason: 10 points. Whoops!" She punched the number into her calculator and continued reading. "Add another 5 if this is because you forgot about it." She blushed and added the five on as well.
"Add the respective amount of points for every cliche used in your story..." SilverStarry went through and added on a lot more points, including 7 for a main character redeeming an evil one, 4 for one of the main characters being the hottest thing to exist on the face of the planet, and 9 for a character being dead/presumed dead and coming back to life by the end of the novel, among other things.
"My," she said to herself, "this is really starting to add up quickly! I can't see how any of the good points of my novel will ever make up for this! I'm not even halfway through the section!"
She also added points for having the worst kissing scene ever written in history (Only 1 point though, which was a big relief.) and 10 points for the first plot hole and 5 for every one after that (There were several, and they added up really quickly.)
It took her almost an hour to go all the way through the 'bad' section in the book, which was a lot longer than she expected it to be, and by the time she was done with that section her 'bad' point count was outrageously high and she was feeling very bad about her novel. She didn't know it was possible to do so many things wrong in one story!
"I'll never be able to make up for all of this," she mumbled dejectedly to herself. She turned the page and her spirit dropped as she saw there were only three items under the 'good' section. She read through them anyway, hoping to at least earn some points.
"Starting your story," she read. "10 points." She sighed and marked that down.
"Working on the story and sticking to it: 50 points." She took those points off of her bad score as well and was slightly happier, even though it didn't outweigh the 'bad' points she had accumulated. She thought about just closing the book right then and there, but something kept her reading it. Maybe she was stubborn. Maybe she was curious. Heck, maybe she was just stupid, but she read on.
"Finishing your story: Infinity. You rock." Her face lit up as she read those last words. True, her story had flaws. True, it wasn't the best story to have ever been written. True, it would take a lot of editing before it would even be readable and even more than that before anyone would even like it. But none of that mattered. She had done something that many people talk about but few ever actually do. She had written a story. She had stuck with it through both its ups and its downs. She had poured all of herself into it. And she had finished it.
In the light of that, nothing else mattered.
Don't give up! Keep writing!
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10,300 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2008 - 23 09
Thank you for posting this.
It made me smile and that's what I needed.
12,971 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2008 - 04 58
That's awesome, Atalanta. Definitely encouraging. I will be referring back to it a lot in the next couple of days.
50,211 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2008 - 07 39
Atalanta, you totally ROCK! Thanks for posting this.
I have "won" nanowrimo in both of my prior attempts but am just coming off of two days of the worst ever 'this is a piece of crap why do i waste my time what idiot scheduled a visit to see the kids for thanksgiving' etc etc etc.
did i tell you that I ALWAYS hate week 2???
So, last night, i did what i do... I started a new, random chapter, amplifying a little bit of some poor, developing character somewhere...4,000 or so words later, this is starting to look "do-able" again. (Almost wrote "a good idea" or "reasonable" but is is far to much fun to be either or those.)
So... before i slip back into "i hate my novel" mode, am gonna go see if there's another character with a piece of his/her/its personality or history to be captured.
Thanks again.....
11,630 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2008 - 12 54
Clever story. Thanks for posting.
5,790 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2008 - 11 01
thank you I needed this.
50,200 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2008 - 13 23
Wow... I really really needed this...
Many, many thanks for posting this :D
40,374 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2008 - 16 07
That is such a great inspirational story. Thanks!
50,181 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2008 - 20 55
This story also seems to say something about having confidence and determination for yourself too. If SilverStarry had never perservered through the 'bad' section, she never would have seen the good section at all. And it's a good reminder to all us writers: always write, even if it's bad. Because even if it's bad, it never woudl have existed without you.
Thanks so much for posting this, Atlanta. It's a lesson everyone here should remember.
60,177 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 08 09
Thank you for. It brought tears to my eyes. The one thing that keeps me going is telling myself that I can't edit NOTHING. But, to have 50,000 words or more, well, that's something I can work with.
"Finishing your story: Infinity. You rock." We rock. We are finishing something that might become a wonderful story.
Marian AKA Tollingbell
50,015 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 08 18
Aww this is so nice =] yeah, even though my story is rubbish, at least I'll finish it if I stick with it, and that's an achievement in itself!
50,923 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 08 19
THANK YOU! -hugs-
54,235 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 08 29
As someone who seriously considered giving the whole thing up last night - then forced myself to stay up and write my daily 1,667 words - thank you SO MUCH for posting this. It almost made me cry (although that might be the lack of sleep talking, hehe).
55,754 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 08 32
Wow... I REALLY needed that :)
Thanks! Everyone here at NaNo rocks for even trying and I guess maybe (with lots of editing) my story could be okay :)
Awesomeness! Thanks again! ^^
26,929 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 08 42
Thanks so much for posting this, it was what I really needed to hear. I was quite worried that every bad point she mentioned features somewhere in my novel, but I was very relieved by the end. Thank you!
6,879 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 08 48
Thanks so much...this really encouraged me.
57,197 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 08 59
:) It was really nice to wake up and read something like that.
Thank you very much!
50,063 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 09 18
Thank you for posting this!
I have so little time to myself, and wonder every day if I'm crazy to keep writing this thing, especially when I know it's not very good. But SilverStarry's story reminds me that just finishing something (which has always been a problem for me) is a big accomplishment. I'm a sprinter by nature, not a marathoner, but at the very least it's good to train myself to write every day. Each day I've written something is a worthwhile day.
50,184 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 09 56
I think I probably need to read this every day :)
51,100 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 09 58
This has gotten me motivated again! Thank you! XD
50,022 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 10 08
Thank you. I post my story on an online website to get reviews, and I have only gotten one and it was a bad review. I needed this. It amde me smile. : )
50,087 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 10 48
Hey DeirdreMarie! Did you read this! You go girl!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the inspiration:)
8,208 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 11 22
THANK YOU!
50,121 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 12 10
That is so true. If you finish, YOU ROCK!!! Actually, even if you just try and don't succeed you're still rock awesome because not many people even START, or even sign up for NaNoWriMo.
We rock for being writers, yo.
I was REALLY discouraged two days ago. I don't know how I got myself to continue. I think I bribed myself. I really like seeing that word-count counter go up, so I used that as incentive. Plus I was threatened by guilt monkeys. Only threatened, though.
I paced myself by groups of two hundred words. I'd write a bit, then check. It was two hundred. "Okay, Dr.Cloudy, write two hundred more! . . . two hundred mooooooreeeee!!!' then it got easier until I neared 2000. IT WAS HARD!!! But, I got it done, and seeing this thread just makes me happy. I rock infinity ^.^
The writing isn't so much the problem as the PLOT. I didn't have time to organize my story before NaNo, so I'm figuring a lot of it out as I go, and sometimes I'm like, 'oh no! What do I write next?! AAnd how to I make such-and-such plot point come into being?!?!?1 AAAHHHH!!!"
I learned to just write random stuff, and eventually something would pop and I'd see a way to connect the pieces together in the story :D
Thanks for posting this thread!
50,020 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 12 14
That is some good encouragement for me right there. I wonder if i can get a copy of that blurb, frame it, and hang it over my desk.
51,252 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 12 29
So true! We all rock for believing in ourselves enough to even try! And also, keep in mind that the last four days of the month constitutes a four-day weekend, which also rocks mightily! A person could get 40,000 words written in that one four-day period if they had to. No, I'm not planning to wait until the last minute to write the bulk of my novel, but, hey! It is doable, if it happened to turn out to be necessary. (Okay, I admit that last year and the year before I wrote almost 20,000 words during the last 3 days of the month and finished at the 11th hour on November 30. I had to take a day off from work both of those years to do it, too. I am such a procrastinator.)
52,667 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 12 36
Thank you for posting this. I was really debating whether it was worth it to finish NaNo this year, even though I won last year, because I've been really busy with classes and work, but this reminded me why it is completely worth it. Just the kick in the pants I needed. So, thank you again : )
50,138 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 13 13
Thank you, Atalanta! It cheered me up and made me smile. : )
50,058 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 13 16
Oh wow that's really sweet!! That really helps. You don't know how many times I've looked at my story and thought it was a piece of crap. Thanks for sharing this with us! :D
50,184 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 13 24
Oh crumbs, me too! I'm trying to write later scenes so at least I'm writing something and not worrying too much about order.
51,636 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2008 - 13 24
Aww, thanks, that was just what I needed! It's a really sweet story :)