Knowing When to Stop

You know when we start our journey each year or in some cases every six months to undertake writing 50K in 30 days, we have all the rules we intended to stick by.

Just write, do not edit.

Ignore the outside world.

Writing comes first.

Make sure your family knows you will not be available. And so on.

Then one day you get a phone call to say your Mum has spent the night in hospital, but it’s not serious. Then you go down to visit and realise for the normal person a bit of vomiting may not be serious, but for your mother who weighs less than 50 kg, can’t afford to lose any more weight it could turn out a big problem.


This was my weekend, then things got a little more serious on Monday. My Mum had a fall, not that she hurt herself bad, but we have now been told her illness could have started to take a turn for the worse and progress faster than it had been. You see, my Mum has late on setting Huntington's chorea disease. For the past few months, my family and I have watched small things change within my Mum, now instead of the disease taking dolly steps it has moved into giant steps.

My point is that no matter how good you intentions are at the start of the challenge, sometimes life steps in and you have to accept defeat. Not reaching 50Ks is NOT the end of the world, the novel will be there for you when you’re ready to start again.

Sometimes you just have to know when to stop.

Sandie