It was a rough week writing-wise…but it ended on an upswing, folks.
If any of my beta readers are reading this entry tonight, you folks are my saviors. You forced me to push past my malaise this week, and crank out pages for you. It took me almost all day, but I hit just shy of 2,000 words, which is kind of my unofficial daily goal, and from last week’s writing, had just enough to warrant sending an email to the group for reading.
Praise be.
The Ho is out of town for the next few days, which always puts me in a bit of a depressive mood…but I am resolved to get things done.
I am also resolved that my success as an author lies in writing every day. This is a new revelation not so much in hearing or saying that concept out loud…but rather in finally understanding, I think, what it means. If I write every day, I don’t have to have the pressure on myself to really do all that much. It just needs to be a little bit each day, and what I really had reinforced to me today, was that aiming for just a little bit often turns into a lot.
See…I had 500 words written today that were anguish…but I wrote them EARLY. Despite having a non-ideal morning, getting up early, and all those kinds of roadblocks, I committed to sitting down and writing at least SOMETHING early. I set a timer for just 30 minutes, and I made sure I worked that time.
Well, by the time wore into the evening, I knew I could do some more, and so I sat down to do some more…this time without a timer…and I just aimed to finish the chapter I was working on. I blinked, and I’d written 1,900 words. Poof. Just like that.
THAT right there is the ticket, folks. That is what writing every day gets you. It’s not so much that every single day I hit a word count…it’s that simply by aiming for just a little bit every day, it breaks a crack in the dam of excuses, and allows the creativity to dribble through until it bursts out and the flood waters come through. Some days might be 500 words. But then there will also be the 10,000 word days when the end is in sight.
So, yeah…I’m going to aim for 30 minutes every day as my minimum. My unofficial goal beyond that is to try and finish a chapter a day, which is anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 words…but on the days where the writing is just tough and a slog, I will start with 30 minutes. Just hit that, Ira, and let the rest fall where it may. Keep the momentum moving forward. Never let that stop, and everything just might turn out okay.
Night, guys.
The end of this book is in sight. I’m ready to get there.
Retro artwork tonight is from John Totleben.