Welcome to Monday Motivation - Perception vs Reality

This week we ran a challenge called "Plot Your Novel in Just Five Days." The idea for the challenge was to try and create the perfect learning environment to teach a huge group of writers something that many of them believed they were incapable of learning—specifically how to plot a novel. I had seen these kinds of challenges before work so well. I know a lot of people do NanoWriMo and love the thrill of writing a novel in the month.

So, overall there were pretty close to 1500 writers who participated in the challenge, and about 1000 of those people joined our Facebook group which we made just for the challenge. I learned a lot, but one of the things that has reaalllly stood out to me is how many people came into the challenge saying something along the lines of "I can't plot, never have been able to, but I'm curious enough to give this a shot," and how many of them left saying something along the lines of "holy moly I plotted my entire book in five days and I never thought that was possible."

I don't say that as a "wow we are amazing" statement—though, of course, I am so proud of the results of the past week—but the insight here is that what so many people needed to take a major step forward into their writing life was just the right tools.

It got me thinking about how many people came into the challenge with the perception that they couldn't do something. And that perception was not reality. They could plot. They could learn. They could do it, but there were two things holding them back

1. Their beliefs in their ability
2. The right tools and environment

And so, riding high on a stellar week with a heart full of emotion, this Monday Motivation is super simple. It is that whatever is your perception of yourself and what you are capable of doing, the reality is most likely much much much higher if you only have the right beliefs and tools.

Think about that for a minute with me. I watched dozens... I mean maybe a hundred or more people have their perception of their abilities ROCKED in just five days.

I think this is the thing that makes me so insanely excited to see HappyWriter come to life. We've worked so hard to put the right tools in front of writers—specifically community, accountability, and education—so that they can actually become the writer they've always wanted to be. Just having educational programs isn't enough because you need a community and accountability. If you have accountability, but you aren't learning the craft of writing, you'll quickly plateau. And accountability and education without a community is a terribly lonely existence. I believe the combination of these three things is like the holy trifecta for writers. It is what makes for a HappyWriter.

HappyWriter's fall programming is completely packed with content. We have masterclasses being taught by authors James Wade, Jennifer Probst, and many others. We're kicking off all kinds of writing accountability groups. And yes, the entire plot your novel in Just Five Days Challenge will live forever inside HappyWriter. And all of this is wrapped in an inclusive, safe, and diverse community of writers. To me, it is about as good as it gets. If you'd like to join HappyWriter, head on over to howwriterswrite.com and you can read more about it and jump right into the community. I'd love to see you there.

Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you have a wonderful week of writing.

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