I never thought I’d be writing a blog post tying together National Novel Writing Month and Taylor Swift, but here we are.
If you didn’t know, Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21st. I’m a fan of her work, so naturally, I’ve been listening to the album on and off over the past five days, soaking in the vibes and memorizing my favorite lyrics.
But there was only one song that made me tear up instantly. It’s our topic of the day: “You’re On Your Own, Kid.” With a blend of melancholia and dreaminess, Swift illustrates the multiple times in her life that she’s had to face the fact that she’s on her own in the world. It’s a sad song until she reaches the last few verses, when she adds an undercurrent of hope.
You're on your own, kid Yeah, you can face this You're on your own, kid You always have been
As NaNoWriMo approaches, you might feel like you’re on your own. Maybe no one in your personal life is taking on the challenge. Maybe, far from being supportive of your creative pursuits, your loved ones are asking you pointed questions about it with a concerned look on their face. Even if their intentions are good, the words they choose may hurt anyway.
And that’s the best-case scenario—that’s if the people in your life aren’t openly antagonistic towards the idea of you taking time for yourself to write.
You may feel alone right now. But you’re not alone.
Yes, you’ll be on your own in many ways. Only you can write your story, after all, and only you have your voice. You might be writing that story sitting in the dark in your car, or cross-legged on your closet floor, or locked in your makeshift office, but you won’t do it with anyone else’s hands on the keyboard but yours.
On top of that, your offline life might be utterly devoid of people who you can talk to about your work in progress while sipping your favorite beverage at the cozy café down the street. If you don’t have that—as I didn’t during my college years while majoring in something that wasn’t creative writing, before I found Writer’s Atelier—the ache for it can consume your writing hours.
Yes, you’re on your own. But you’re not alone. Because you have online communities like ours. You have the knowledge that nearly half a million writers are trying to do the same thing. They are reachable through forums and Facebook groups and Twitter chats and a thousand other ways. Let them be a comfort to you when the loneliness seeks to sink you.
You’re on your own, but so are all the other writers in the world. Writers always have been on their own, and look how far they’ve made it. Look at how far you’ve made it already, taking this step of accepting the challenge!
And we can’t wait to see how far you go.
(PS. If you’re wanting that feeling of writing with an offline friend by your side, we have a new video below that can give you that same feeling. Click to complete a Pomodoro set with me! It’s also great to put on if you’re having trouble focusing. The video is silent except for the chimes to indicate when to take a break and when to get back to writing, so you can play your own music in another tab.)
