One Hundred Day Creative Challenge Day 100: The End is the Beginning

Well, here we are at one hundred days!* The journey I set out on is not the journey I anticipated, but isn’t that life?

There are no wrong turnings.

Only paths we had not known we were meant to walk. 

Guy Gavriel Kay

Elizabeth Gilbert said, ‘There is no interruption. Life is in session.’ By this she meant that everything that may be seen as a distraction or detour from your work is just part of the creative process and we need to learn how to navigate them. This series of blog posts was a way of motivating me to keep writing during a long recovery after surgery. It was a bit of a distraction from my core writing of novels, but it’s functioned as a whole other adventure as I’ve been challenged to write every day. I’ve found that my writing muscles have been exercised in ways I never imagined.

When I look back over the last 100 days, I had times when I wanted to give up. There have been times I’ve spent twenty minutes writing a post and hours on others. As I write this last post I want to stop, but I want to keep going.

Coming out of your comfort zone is tough in the beginning,

chaotic in the middle, and awesome in the end…

because in the end, it shows you a whole new world !!

Make an attempt.

Manoj Arora

My next creative challenge is to edit my next YA novel and complete my women’s fiction novel. I’ve signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo  for the month of April with a group of writer friends as a motivation.

I’ve learned that writing is a process, it’s a discipline, but most of all it’s just getting it down on the page. I’ve found a freedom in the discipline of writing I haven’t had for a long time. This is a paradox of writing. You need the creative space, but you just need the discipline to write every day, no matter what. It’s totally achievable. It’s necessary.

So, even though I’ve finished this creative challenge, it’s only the beginning of the next part of the journey in writing and in life.

*From now on I’ll be posting once a week so I can put my energy into finishing my novels. Or you can follow me on Facebook