Nanowrimo #1: Half-assing It

I didn’t remember to start writing about this until nearly 9pm, and I’m actually quite busy working on drafts of other stuff for work right now. So, relevant to the topic I’ll be writing about briefly, this will be a quick slapdash bit of word vomit. But that’s fine.

It’s important to me to get something down on (digital) paper tonight, even if it isn’t much, because it will probably give me the motivation to jot down a few quick notes tomorrow, and so on. While I originally wanted to write an eloquent thought or a small novel each day, the reality is that that probably won’t be the case…ever. All I do at work all day is write, whether it’s chatting with my coworkers, writing reviews (or news, or product roundups, or editorials), or editing articles written by my coworkers; and while I think about people and ideas and events all day, I rarely have the energy to write another few hundred words later that night — or the desire to even look at my computer.

But my point is this: this is all I’m writing tonight. It might seem half-assed, but that’s fine. I recently heard someone say that, on days where you’re feeling down or busy or otherwise hindered, it’s okay to still half-ass things because you’re still doing something. The person who said this was originally talking about depression, and how if you don’t feel like you have the energy to clean your room, just putting your laundry away or clearing off your nightstand is enough. Or that if you don’t have the energy to brush your teeth for the full two minutes, just brushing them for a few seconds is still better than not brushing them at all.

And I couldn’t agree more.

Even though I’m not participating in the traditional Nanowrimo experience, even though I’m just choosing to write a little about a different thing each day, that’s alright. Even though I didn’t create beautiful thought-provoking poetry today, and am instead singing the praises of half-assing things, that’s okay.

I don’t think I have to do more. I don’t think I have to be perfect. I don’t think I have to break my back being the perfect employee or coworker or girlfriend or daughter or woman or human being. I think I just have to try each day, and that I’ll be alright as long as I do.