I went “back to work” today. I put that air quotes because I’ve really been writing every day lately, even on vacation…and boy, do I have to tell you guys, that is a revelation. It’s curing my productivity woes.
I wrote almost 4,000 words on vacation. On vacation. And yes, I wrote another 2,000 today, so that’s really like two days worth of full time work, but the benefits of those 4,000 words go far beyond just the words themselves.
First off, those would have been ZERO days. No progress made. The emotional toll on me for zero days is frustration and self-doubt. So, there’s a huge mind-set benefit. And that leads into the second benefit, which is that it was so, soooo much easier for me to slip back into “full-time” writing today, my first day “back,” because I hadn’t ever mentally left my story. I didn’t have to warm myself back up to get into it. I really was able to just sit down and go.
So, yeah…I get it. I understand why all these authors talk about writing every day. Obviously, it’s not about having a streak, or some kind of outward-showing bragging right…it’s about mental space. It’s just so much easier to move forward when you’re producing your story every single day. There’s never a question of “will I write today?” The answer is always “yes, at least this much.”
It was a good day. I did some story organizing with Red Tower, which helped A LOT. It showed me that what I’m agonizing over right now that has been so frustrating and just seems like it’s not working is really a FRACTION of an otherwise compelling story. It is a big fraction, a significant piece…but it is only ONE piece of many.
That realization is going to help me power through and finish this draft, imperfect as it is. I *do* want to get through this version of the story I created before I tear it down and rebuild. That process of creating, destroying, and re-creating hasn’t offered me the clarity I want to this point. It’s time to finish it as-is, and then evaluate. Granted, I plowed through at the end of last year, and that didn’t go well…but it is different this time. I don’t have an artificial deadline I have to stick to. Huge difference.
I also worked out today, and did reading! I still have a bit more of the reading to do, so I’m going to go do that now…but today was amazing. I did everything I wanted. Huzzah 🙂