‘Cause we’re nearly done, folks.
One more month! Can’t believe this challenge is nearly over. Write Despite officially ends on January 1, 2014, but we will still be around—won’t you? Still posting updates and tips and encouragement—guest bloggers and Q&As and other stuff so we can all still hang out together here in cyberspace and help each other through our masterpieces. We hope you’ll stick around too, and tell us how you did this past year.
And since it’s officially still November as we write this and we’re still in our post-turkey comas, we thought we’d spread a little love around and tell you all what we’re thankful for this season.
Here are Karen’s Writerly Things to Be Thankful for:
1. The Microsoft Word text notes function. Because the editing process is painful enough.
2. Small presses. Where literature, not profit, is the bottom line. So many intriguing voices would never find their way into print in today’s market without them. Raise a glass this holiday season to all the unpaid editors and publishers in cramped home offices reading your work because they really do want to give you a chance.
3. Not having any writer Frenemies. I’m eternally grateful that I don’t belong to one of those writers groups where members rip your work to shreds in a desperate (and bitchy) attempt to feel better about their own. Trolls belong in closets.
4. Moms who write. I’ve got a number in my life, and these ladies have their shit together. Time management, love management, they do it all. I humbly observe and follow their lead.
5. Bridgette. Because she taught me this little trick for those days when you need a lift, such as when the agent who requested your full says she really loves it but just doesn’t think she can sell it. Put your bathrobe in the dryer for five minutes. Get it good and hot, then remove immediately and wrap yourself up. It’s like a hug from the sun. Breathe. Life goes on.
And from Cathy:
1. A clean desk (yes, I’m working on it).
2. Writer friends who read my work and tell me it’s great and say only words of encouragement to keep me going.
3. Writer friends who read my work and tell me it’s a huge pile of Oh-No-You-Didn’t and Stop-Screwing-Around-And-Write-Something-Decent-Will-You, because they are equally as valuable for getting me off my lame ass–or on it and in my chair.
4. A husband who encourages my work and lets me run away from the kiddos and out to Panera Bread with his laptop so I can get something done.
5. This blog, this forum, this great group of people we’ve met and this challenge that has opened my eyes and my mind and has helped me put things into perspective in a huge way. Thanks Write Despite. You’ve made a big difference for me these past few months.
Write Despite 
Thanks for sticking around, Cathy & Karen. Write Despite is one of those “little things” that keep me going!
Congratulations and so glad you’re sticking around. It’s that so true about our writing lives. We may finish one book but then another demands to be written. My blog life will continue as well. However, in the new year, my blog will undergo a much needed face-lift. More will be revealed soon. I promise…
That dryer trick still works. I’m so grateful for being a part of a writing community that cares about its members. It takes a village to raise a writer as well as a child.