Lessons Learned
I wasn’t thinking about learning things, or thinking of anything in particular, really, when I started the 100 stories in 100 days self-imposed challenge. All I knew was it sounded tough, and if I would not have done it, I would have regretted it. Maybe not that day, maybe not that week, but soon, and maybe for the rest of my life.
Or maybe not.
And then, about halfway through my challenge, a friend/fellow writer, Judy McLain, mentioned that she is looking forward to reading what I gleaned from doing this challenge and, (hopefully inadvertently) shattered my calm. I’m sure she didn’t mean to do it. I’m sure her intentions were good and pure. But the outcome was one swift and brutal panic attack followed by a slack-jawed realization that up to that point, I had learned nothing.
No worries, I’ve decided. I’ll make something up. OK, so like my (unofficial) rabbi, Leonard Cohen, once sang, “I’ve got a little secret/If you promise not to tell…” I started out with this major thought in mind — I had no plan B. Once I started, I knew I would finish.
I will forget how to stop — how to give up. I will take it one day at a time.
Sometimes, I wrote two stories in one day, and was, therefore, ahead of the game. Sometimes, I sucked it up, like an adult I was, and only whined about not having any ideas for short periods of time…
