Great post from Tansy Rayner Roberts on actually making oneself write when it isn’t coming easy (and lots of other useful stuff well worth reading), and boy can I identify with it right now. I am currently slogging through WriMoFoFo and to say I am struggling would be an understatement, I am about 3000 words behind where I wanted to be at this point.
When I started the challenge, I thought that knocking out 20,000 words would be a piece of cake, but I am finding the concept of having a set daily goal both oppressive and inspiring, but sadly more of the former. There always seems to be something that crops up to intefere, another excuse why I haven’t met my goal.
However, it has made me think (anything to help procrastinate haha) and I have realised how much writing is like exercise. The past few months I have had a major lifestyle change and actually starting engaging in physical activity! For example, today I ran 5.2km on my lunch break, when I started I would have been lucky to do 550m. And that’s the thing, exercise never becomes easy (not if you are doing it right), but every time you push yourself you get a little better at it and can achieve more. You constantly astound yourself with what you are capable of, you learn tricks and techniques to make life easier and maximise your efficiency.
The other side of the coin is that there is always a reason NOT to exercise, whether it is not feeling 100% or just the busyness of life getting in the way. There are days when it feels much harder than others, times when conditions aren’t exactly optimal. It is at that point that you have to make a conscious decision to push though and to still do what you resolved you were going to do. When you do push through, there is a feeling of satisfaction that you stuck to your guns, when you let whatever excuse it is stop you then you feel guilty afterwards.
And doesn’t all that apply to writing? The more you do it the better you get. Sometimes words just flow, sometimes it is like pulling teeth. But, the fact is, when you do push through the tough times you not only get a feeling of satisfaction, but you start to see results.
Oh, and no, I am not going to count this post against today’s word goal.