I’m in an incredibly privileged situation. Not only to I have a fair amount of financial freedom to devote time to my writing, but I’m unburdened by physical or mental ailments. In the parlance of of the popular metaphor: I’ve got plenty of spoons.
EVEN STILL I have days where I feel like OH LORD I CANNOT with the writing. Which is terrible, because I have no excuses. Well, that’s not true: despite my situation, I do have requirements and responsibilities and two to three other people to share a house with*, and am the one handling the various domestic tasks like errands, cooking, laundry, dishes, etc, in addition to elements of our home business. Some days have special projects, and at the end of those days, the idea of putting my ass in the chair and cranking out some words just makes be want to fall down.
Nonetheless: the writing needs to be done, even on the bad days. I’m not going to preach some sort of writing perfectionism. There are days when it doesn’t happen. Usually because I’m just exhausted or have too many other things to get done that day. And while I do say that if you want to write you have to make it a priority, that’s about the long term, not necessarily the day-to-day.
Some days it just doesn’t happen, and you shouldn’t kick yourself for that. Allow yourself the luxury of a bad day, or a sick day, because it’s a long haul. You can get back on the horse the next day.
But you DO have to get back on the horse the next day. Do not wallow in your failure. Just accept that you had a bad day and move on. Because things will go bad in this business. Things will go bad with you and your day-to-day. You could slip and break a foot. You could wake up with a killer case of vertigo. Your car could be rear-ended by some kids who were skipping school.** Any of those happen, and your productivity will drop. But you can’t let that stop you.
And speaking of: plenty of work to do. Quite the long term to-do list on my part.
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Also: Only two weeks left until the submission deadline for the ArmadilloCon Writers’ Workshop! Get in there while you still can.
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*- Depending on if my mother-in-law is in town or not.
**-No, those are just random examples, really.
Yup, if you wait for inspiration to hit, you’ll never finish the book. I’m in a feast cycle, fortunately — juggling multiple projects and having to be ruthless about my time — but I’m grateful. Whether I feel like it or not, I sit at that page! Thoroughly enjoyed MURDER OF MAGES and look forward to the next one!
I’m never lacking Things To work On, though I do sometimes put too much energy in something other than the thing I’m Supposed To Be Working On.
And thank you!