![\"writinginpublic\"](\"http://kevins.studio/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/writinginpublic.jpg\")
Another work day. One more of those before the weekend, where hopefully I can get a little ahead on word-count.
If you\’ve been reading this for a bit, you\’re probably familiar with my schedule already. Up at 6am. At work by 7am. Today was a messy work day… I didn\’t get out until 5pm, and had to skip lunch to even get out then. I ate my chicken and swiss cheese sandwich in the car after work. Seedless soft rye, which is a nice treat – haven\’t had it in years, and had forgotten how much I liked the stuff. It was a delicious sandwich, although unsure how much of that was the actual taste, and how much of it was the not having eaten for over ten hours!
Got home and checked email briefly, then napped. I was pretty toasty, and needed the rest. Slept through dinner, which was sort of OK since I\’d just eaten.
I woke up sometime around 7:30, plowed through a little more email, and worked on Ashes Ascendant for a while. Then it was time to tuck the kids in, and a little bit of \”non writing work\” related stuff that I had to take care of. Watched an episode of our TV program with my wife, and chatted with her for a while. Was back to writing at about 11:30, and put in twenty minutes or so.
Total for the day was 1050 words, over the two sprints. Not a huge number, but something. Really, that\’s what it\’s all about, when you\’ve had a long day: keep getting in the *something* that means you are a little closer than you were the day before. Keep building the habit, the NEED, the drive to go forward. Every. Single. Day.
Because when you stop, that\’s when it stops being important enough to you. That\’s when you\’re telling your brain that it\’s OK to not worry about that writing thing. Same is true of anything, really. If you put effort into something every day, you will make progress with that thing. If you stop putting effort in, even for a little while, you\’re setting a new standard, and your brain is going to get used to that new standard. That seems to be how mine works, anyway. (I\’m curious about others\’ experiences on this.)
Today\’s writing was interesting. I\’m at the point of the book where the protagonist, Ryan, makes the decision to go chasing after Something Bad. He doesn\’t know what it is. He knows it just sent magical fire shooting out down a hallway with such force that he barely survived the experience. And it melted a hole in solid rock to escape. Whatever it is, he\’s convinced it is enormously powerful, and has a decent chance of eating him for breakfast. But he\’s going after it anyway.
Exploring that line of reasoning was interesting. Ryan\’s knee-jerk reaction is always to stand up and help people when he can. It\’s how things got rolling in the first book; we see that characteristic in the first scene of BOTH books, really. It\’s a core part of Ryan. So going into that a little bit, exploring that bit of his motivation, has been a challenge. It has to feel real. Hopefully I\’ve done OK with that. Any writers out there reading this who\’ve had similar experiences with exploring character motivation?
All right, off to bed. More writing tomorrow!
Totals for Day 12
Daily Fiction Wordcount: 1050 words Month to date fiction: 16900 words
Daily Blog Post Wordcount: 591 words Month to date blog posts: 7489 words
“That seems to be how mine works, anyway.”
I have a non-writing project that I’d been neglecting through the summer. However, it has a lot of parallels to writing I think:
No one is going to motivate me to work on it except me. It is something that has the potential to move me towards a long term goal, but is far from a sure thing. The “work” part of it is something I enjoy when it is going well, but have periods where it is a struggle. Working on it just a little bit each day is going to add up over time.
Reading your posts has motivated me to put in some time every day and I think I’ve experienced what you described. A reset of the “standard.” I guess it works the same way for me. 🙂