Okay, that title sounds really depressing but until you realise it is true it will detrimentally affect your life. In everything, but particularly writing, there is the great myth that somehow tomorrow will be a better day for whatever we plan. We all need to realise that right now is as good as it is going to get.
I'm a big one for looking to the future to turn up the perfect writing time. So far this month my excuses have included:
- This morning I'm really tired, so I'll sleep in now and write more this evening.
- This evening I've had a really stressful day at work, I'll feel more like writing in the morning.
- On my working days: when I get to my day off then I'll have time to catch up on the writing I'm missing now.
- On my day off: I need to catch up on washing, and sleeping, and shopping. It'll be much easier when I have a holiday and have nothing else to focus on but writing.
- Once I've stopped tutoring I will have all that extra time to write.
- Once I've gone through and caught up with all my friends, then I'll have time to write.
etc. etc.
So okay, yes, starting work at 10.30am instead of 9am did make a big difference to my writing, but consider two things:
- even going to work at 9am, I have at least 30 mins to write in the morning if I try (haven't really tried yet). This is possibly 500-1000 words (depending how into I can get). If I can just do that morning and night, I meet the NaNoWriMo targets. Do it just once a day, and I'll still write roughly three to four novels a year.
- The only thing that begets writing is more writing. There is never a better time to start writing than right now, and nothing will make writing easier than already having written.
As you can probably guess from this, I've been procrastinating in my writing, even with the reduced word count for NaNoWriMo. Yes, I have excuses, some of them quite valid. But I don't want excuses, I want novels!
So, this is my call to action, my laying it all out before you and asking you to hold me accountable.
I was just about to say 'starting tomorrow' then realise that it was sort of against the spirit of this entire post, so starting right now, I'm going to finish this post and then write my fitbuster.blogspot post (which I haven't done for a few too many days now), and then at least type up some of the ideas for scenes I've had for my story.
Then, from Thursday 15th Nov, for the next week, I'm using you all to hold me accountable to write 2,000 words a day regardless of what is happening. If I have to stay up, I stay up. And I can't carry words over, I can't tell myself I will do 6,000 words on Saturday to make up for everything. It's an individual daily target.
No more tomorrows! It's all about TODAY!
Are you with me?
Yes!
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