12/10/08

Tis the Season . . .

I love this time of the year: making candy, the buying of Advent presents, making presents, listening to Christmas carols, decorating the tree, house, and yard, and just the whole shebang.

We are so busy with the holidays that certain parts of our life go by the wayside, namely, writing. But that's okay, provided you took time to account for the lack of writing in your weekly goals.

Don't make unreasonable goals with your writing as there will be additional demands on your time. For many writers keeping up with their normal daily goal, say 1000 words a day, just isn't realistic. All you'll manage to do is frustrate yourself and lower your self-esteem, create writer's block, and become an all around downer of a person. Chill out this time of year, unless you have a contract with a deadline in hand--then you need to get your butt in the chair!

If you know you won't have much time to write do the 100 word a day challenge. Just write 100 words. No, you won't really be getting into the story, but you will be keeping up with it. 100 words are only a couple of sentences and a very doable daily goal.

Or edit a few pages of your current WIP a day. Another easy-peasy task. Not time-consuming, but it keeps you involved with your story.

The key is to lower your expectations and adjust your goals accordingly.

Write on!

2 comments:

  1. You're right, of course. One of the reasons I blog is to make my mind work every day.

    You know what works to get me writing? All those writing sprints with friends. I don't know why they work, but they do!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arkansas Cyndi,
    What's a writing sprint?
    Sorry to be dim today.
    Susan

    ReplyDelete

Welcome to my little blog.