So today I passed the 25% mark of my 50,000 word goal for the month. I wrote 1888 words, for a grand total of 12,894. According to my noveling software (more about that another day) I have the equivalent of about 37 pages of paperback book text.
I can't believe I got those words in, though, because I felt sooo crummy. Let's just say it was not a good evening, and I didn't get started with word 1 until around 9:30. I was seriously tempted to give today a skip, and hope that tomorrow was a better day.
I have found with other goals that the key, for me, is to just get started. Getting going is so much more difficult than keeping going. So the good news is that often, if I can just get started, I can keep going for quite a while. The bad news is, it can be so hard to get started that I just don't.
My carefully honed technique, therefore, is to bargain myself into starting. I'll offer myself a deal. "Self," I'll tell myself, "you don't want to have to make up all these words tomorrow, do you? Even when you are feeling bad you can write for a few minutes. How about this - how about you just do 500 little words? You can knock that out in a half hour or so, and then you can still get a full evening of rest and relaxation in. No further obligation, promise!"
Even though I know that it is all just a dastardly plot to get myself started, and even though I am really hoping that I will write a lot more than 500 words, still, there is a part of me that will often buy the act. I'll think, "You know, I'm really tired tonight, and feeling crummy. I won't feel up to writing it all, but I will get a little bit done, just to keep from losing all my momentum. A little bit won't be too bad to manage." Sucker!!!
On days when I'm lucky, I'll get started and keep right on going. And that's what happened tonight.
I did stop briefly when I got to 63% of my quota, to go check on what Phil was up to. My poor hubby has had to deal with me writing most evenings, and I couldn't help but feel bad that he was being so neglected. I figured he might be getting sick of being ignored in favor of my alphabet soup of a manuscript. A misguided, amateur-hour manuscript he might not even get to read, it's so questionable.
I told him I was trying to decide between writing more or taking a shower. "Write more!" he said. I told him I was close to 70%. "Then get to 80!" he said.
So I guess he's not too sick of it, yet. Or possibly he just wanted to get back to his Blackberry Word Mole game. But either way, he wasn't missing me too much, and I had no more excuses for feeling guilty.
So I got back to it, and knocked out the last big chunk, and I even set a new record for the month. And you know what? I still feel crummy. Very, very crummy, especially since I forgot whether or not I'd taken my pain medicine this evening, so I couldn't take any more just in case. (Like I've said before, my wonky memory makes life more interesting than it has to be.)
But now I feel crummy AND I finished my quota! Which definitely beats the alternative! In the immortal words of London Tipton, "Yay me!"
Way to go! I know you didn't feel so great yesterday, don't know how you do it. All I can say is, keep up the hard work. When you look back you'll have nothing but a sense of pride!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tabitha! You know, I just realized that my two toughest writing days were also the ones where I wrote the most words. Weird, huh? I guess it kind of proves my point, though. Ah, the magic of wanting to know what on earth happens next!
ReplyDeleteGood job! Yeah, you could just feel crummier and have no words to show for it. You'll always be glad to have this manuscript, you're doing something you've always wanted to do and I'll place bets that it's pretty good! Also, I think you'll be glad to have this blog of your journey, it'll be fun to look back and see where your head was at this point in your life. (And I think that's really supportive of Phil.)
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