November means many different things to many different people. Some think of the first winter snows, others think of Thanksgiving. But for aspiring writers, we often begin November thinking of one thing: NaNoWriMo.

For those who aren't familiar, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, where in November a community of writers come together to support each other in putting together 50,000 word manuscripts in a month. Each person works to get to their word goal, and eventually, you have a novel. The goal is to encourage everyone to write every day, even if it isn't perfect.

It's something that's incredibly important for anyone who has even considered writing, because any words are good words.

However, there are plenty of other writers who don't do NaNo. For me personally, I've never done NaNo, because I just get discouraged whenever I try and work on a large, cohesive novel.

I tend to assume that everything has already been done, I get down on myself for not being able to work on it every single day, or I simply burn myself out on a product that I'm not happy with. It's not healthy, it's not something I ever have managed to make myself do.

And that's absolutely fine.

Sometimes it's hard for me to tell myself that it's okay, that you don't have to do NaNo to be an incredible writer. I see all my writing friends come out with beautiful novels, and my short stories or drabble-length excerpts just seem woefully inadequate. It can be difficult to deal with from time to time. But I'll tell you what I tell myself: not writing a novel doesn't mean your writing is not valid.

Novels are incredible things, and they've gotten me through tough times in my childhood. WIthout some authors, I wouldn't be where I am today, and they've inspired me to do great things. But just because your work isn't like these lofty ideals, doesn't mean that it isn't valid. Not everyone escapes into novels when they need a respite from the often cruel world.

Some people go onto Archive Of Our Own to read some fanfiction, and despite what many might try and tell you, some of the work there is better than many published authors will put out.

Sure, fanfiction writers might not have created their source material, but they've created something beautiful where there was nothing before. And that's absolutely admirable. They've brought something beautiful into the world. Who cares if it won't ever get published? It makes people happy.

The same goes for people who write short stories. You might feel inadequate when people are writing 50,000-word novels and you've posted 1,000-word one-shots on Tumblr featuring your characters. But even this is an incredible accomplishment. Again, you've created something, and it's a wonderful thing. On top of that, you are practicing your writing. Every single day, you're improving.

And plenty of people have works in progress, works that they've been pouring all of themselves into for a long time. Maybe they're not a novel yet. Maybe it's just an amalgamation of characters and you haven't managed to make it cohesive. To all of you: keep going! Even if you can't put something together in a month, you're still putting something together! You are a creator, and you should be celebrated as one.

We bring novels up to this incredibly lofty ideal, something that every young writer should strive for. In our eyes, "author" is synonymous with "person who has published a novel," when in reality that isn't necessarily true. People write poetry, short stories, fanfiction, comic books, so many different things that aren't necessarily novels. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Writing isn't a contest between different media. There's no "right" or "wrong" way to be an author.

So, you might see everyone on your social media talking about NaNoWriMo. And if you're doing it, incredible! Strive toward those 50,000 words! But if you're not doing NaNo? There's absolutely no shame. For some people, November isn't a good month. That's fine! Others have no interest in a novel. That's great too!

If you want to challenge yourself, try to create something every day, be it a short story or a poem or whatever else. Or you can just write at your own pace, and that's awesome too! You are an author, regardless of what you write. If you write something, you are an author. That's how it is.

And as long as it makes you happy, that's all that matters.