Aside from the normal Monday blues, the day always brings
along a bit of regret with it. Most
often from not checking off enough items on the weekend ‘to do’ list to feel as
though one truly accomplished anything.
How I miss the free time of youth.
A few planned odd jobs can quickly multiply into twenty or
thirty as one completed project leads to another. I was out pulling weeds in an area beside the
house yesterday. I cleared the entire
area out, laid down the black landscape fabric, and topped it off with some
mulch. I was feeling quite
accomplished.
Then I realized the
outside of the house was still dirty and needs to be power washed. The tops of the bushes are getting some new
growth and should be tidied up now before they get out of control. I was by the chimney which reminded me I
should get that swept and cleaned out now so it’s ready for fall. And on and on and on. My list quickly morphed like Tribbles and I
felt that I really hadn’t done much at all.
The trouble with Tribbles!
As a writer, it often feels like that on any given day. You plan to glue yourself to your seat and
not leave until you bang out (insert your own personal goal) number of words or
pages. More often than not, you fall
short and walk away from your workstation with that nagging feeling of regret.
Here’s the thing — progress is progress. Whether it’s that weekend ‘to do’ list or
your writing, every task you complete or word you get down on the page is one
step closer to your goal. Here’s the
other thing — you have to commit to writing something. The words are not going to write themselves.
If you aren’t writing full-time, life will often attempt to
get in the way. Consider tackling it as
if you are saving spare change.
Deposit your words as randomly as you would spare change.
Let’s say you’re writing a novel and shooting for 85,000
words. Spread that out over a year and
it comes out to roughly 233 words per day.
That’s far more manageable than sitting down every few weeks and feeling
the pressure to pound out considerably more.
It’s like losing weight.
You want it to come off. You want
it to come off right away. BUT that isn’t
how it works. Writing is exactly the
same way. You want your book done, but
it isn’t going to be completed in a day, a week, or even a month. I know, I know…what about NaMoWriMo? You may get 50,000 words down, but the odds
are certainly stacked against you. It’s
like binge dieting or running. Don’t get
me wrong — I love NaMoWriMo, but if you aren’t able to run a mile without
stopping, it’s difficult to dive into a marathon right out of the gate.
Some of my best pieces have been written on the fly when I
stole a few moments to get them down. They
didn’t come out perfect and certainly needed to be cleaned up, but they were
diamonds in need of polishing. Those
diamonds came in short chunks (see previous note on 233 words a day) vs. the repeated instances I told myself I was going to sit down and write several pages in a
sitting — and didn't.
Pace yourself. 100
pennies in the piggybank still equal $1.00.
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