Progress

Two nights in a row. I know I shouldn't be this excited about it, but with my track record over the past month, I'm going to let myself be. Maybe that's a function of being in a slump. When you finally pull yourself out of it, get happy about even the smallest amount of progress. Otherwise, it doesn't seem like the work was worth it in the short-term.

Of course, we can all see the progress in the long-term. Especially when we're sitting with a completed book in our hands. (I'm the kind of person who has to print out a copy. Besides the fact that I like to edit with my red pen, I love to feel the weight of the pages in my hands. It's like taking an abstract achievement and turning into a concrete. The only other way to do this is to see it in print, and I'm still working on that.)

Progress in the short-term is harder to measure. Think about writing for an hour. If your story is coming hard and fast at you, you may make 2500 words (or about ten pages) - and that's if you're a good typist. On average, I can get about a thousand in an hour, if I'm on a roll. Four pages roughly. Four pages held up in the scheme of a 350-page book is nothing. Like I said, hard to see the short-term progress. Maybe that's why I keep my word meters and my spreadsheet. I like to see actual achievement, no matter how small it may seem.

And I like to celebrate the little achievements when I can. Tonight put me over 19K words - not a milestone number, but so damned close I can taste it. Tomorrow, maybe I'll hit 20K.

Depends on whether I go with writing new words, or getting back to editing Blink. I'm not sure yet. I'll let y'all know which direction the day takes. =oD

Now, to all of you who accomplished anything today... WAY TO GO!. Give yourself a pat on the back, and if you have any lying around, I think this calls for chocolate.