Wow! It’s been awhile since I last posted. Well, things do get busy around the start of the school year, but that’s no excuse. It’s one of the habits I’ve allowed myself to slip out of. And that’s the problem.
A couple of years ago, after I published BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM, I got stuck on what was supposed to be my next project. I called it writer’s block. Maybe it was. I suspect that my gut instinct told me that there was something wrong with the story or the way I was approaching it. And, so I didn’t write for a while.
And so, I lost the good habit of writing just about every day and replaced it with other–much less productive–habits, like mindless computer games.
And that’s why I haven’t been making much progress on my current project. I’ve tried several things to get back on track. But I’ve finally come to the conclusion that nothing is going to work but just doing it. So, while I’ve never done NaNoWriMo (NAtional NOvel WRiting MOnth)–and I’m not officially going to do it, now, either. I’m not going to try for 50,000 words (which is what it takes to “win” NaNoWriMo). But I am going to force myself to write every day. Even if it’s just a paragraph or two. Even if it’s not very good, because I can always edit it later, but not if I don’t write it first.
Start rebuilding that habit. It’s the only path forward that I can see.
I may try a couple of other things, too. But . . . we’ll see. First I have to replace this keyboard, because a couple of keys stopped working a few days ago. One of them is the question mark. And that just is not going to make things any easier.
On the subject of restarting good habits, I will also try to make regular blog posts about my progress.
Meredith Mansfield, Author 