The habit of writing everyday no matter what started for me around 2009 or 2010. I was invited to join a group. This group is named GIAM, which stands for Goals Inspiration Amity Motivation. Amy Atwell began the group to allow writers to form friendships and share like interests. This was before social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all the others became so popular.
I joined the group in 2009 when Amy created a special loop called Writing GIAM 100×100 on Yahoo. I don’t know how many of us started with the group. I do know there are currently six of us still there writing our little hearts out.
We have become friends. The type of friends that you can rant, vent, cry, and laugh with. It might be virtual, but we’ve grown close. We’re scattered over the United States with one in Canada. But we are next door friends.
These women shared the trial of living with my sister during my husband’s serious illnesses, the heart break of losing him after almost forty-one years. At first the lady that handled our loop, JoAnn Banker, would send out certificates each time one of us crossed that 100 straight days mark. Then at the end of a full year of writing we received a bottle of champagne. I received mine in 2012.
We have all fallen off the loop at one time or another for whatever reason. We didn’t make our 100 words that day. Some of us had surgeries, some had personal things, that toppled us off the bus. That’s what we are. A bus full of friends writing along posting our word counts some every day others every couple of days. We get back on the bus and keep riding.
I was at year five moving towards year six when I had knee surgery. I wrote words the night before the surgery for Monday when I was having it. Then faithfully I wrote every night on my smart phone, I wasn’t smart enough to download MS Office and Dropbox to the phone. I used the memo app to write and I counted each word to make sure I had 100 words. It worked great until Friday night after the surgery on Monday. I was sent to a nursing home for rehab and it was about fifty or sixty miles from where I lived. I was angry, and the anger boiled over when the computer I brought wouldn’t turn on.
So, I blew off five years of not missing a day. Now, I’m back up to year three writing my way towards year four. There are four that are on year one, one that is on year six and myself on year three.
I’ve heard people say they can’t write every day. I work full time, no kiddos except for a four footed one called Precious, but I did it even the nights my husband went to the hospital and yes the night he died. I was already writing that day trying to make NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for 2011. I didn’t make the 50k for NaNo but I did make my 100 words.
I have another friend that’s written over three thousand days without missing a day. She’s not on our loop, but she’s determined too. Her determination paid off with a traditional publishing contract when she pitched her books.
Now, these days have given me several different stories some complete others incomplete. Still I keep typing at least 100 words every day.
Yes, life gets in the way. You dig out your grit and determination and start over. Or you can sit there and say I can’t. My mother always told me, “Can’t never could do anything.” I guess my brain absorbed it and made it my mantra deep inside.
When I was little they called me stubborn, now it’s called being strong because of certain things I’ve done these past few years.
I hope that you find your path and that if you have your path already you will reach out to someone who maybe needs a little help finding theirs.
CK Crouch
https://ckcrouch.com/
Romance Tangled up with Suspense
