With the Great Florida Road Trip out of my hands and in those of my publisher (for now, at least), I’m able to focus on my fiction writing. My goal is really not that ambitious: 1500 words per day.
Because I do NaNoWriMo, I didn’t expect this to be a struggle. It has been, embarrassingly so, and there have been some dark days where I cruised the MediaBistro job listings and wondered if $20-per-piece articles would be that soul-sucking (Spoiler alert: They are.) Fortunately, I finally realized part of my problem was that I was lazy. Writing, even fun fiction writing, is hard. You can’t sit around playing Candy Crush all day, waiting for inspiration to strike, because it won’t.
I’m not talking about writer’s block, because I straight up do not believe in it (Note from the voices in my head: Way to tempt the Universe, Salustri.) A friend of mine, who managed to publish his first book while raising two toddlers and working full time, has this to say about writer’s block, and I tend to agree with him. I think it’s more feeling as though everything I tried to do with the book didn’t work, so I just gave up on every idea.
Setting a word count goal helped, as did an outline (although, in writing terms, I’m a bit too much of a pantser to outline in detail). When I do NaNoWriMo every year, I have a 1,667 words-per-day goal; today (and every day though the end of June), my goal is slightly less. Knowing I must write a certain amount has helped. Bonus? Scrivener breaks this down for me and if I go over one day, it adjusts my goal for the rest of the time frame I’ve specified.
This is starting to sound like writing advice, which is not what I intended at all, because I’m not really qualified to do that and there’s no shortage of web sites brimming with good (and bad) writing advice. This is just about how I’m training my muse.
See, my muse – like most – is fickle, but she’s starting to learn she needs to show up regularly, even if she’s a little bitch about it. I don’t care if you’re not a morning person, Muse. I can’t go back to writing about garden clubs. I just can’t. So you will show up when I need you and give me every damn thing I want you to give.
This calls to mind a great quote about inspiration.
Happy Friday, y’all. Now, back to Scrivener for me – only 1,418 words to go today!
