Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
- Napoleon

Saturday, November 15, 2008

NNWM is Good Practice

Yesterday I was being a whiner. I admit it fully. When writing time came, all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and watch TV. (Damn USA network for running a three hour marathon of NCIS every night starting at 6:00 my time.)

When I mentioned... okay whined... to my husband that I had writing to do, he gave me the ol' 'Why?' look. I mean, I don't have a contract and no one is standing behind me tapping their foot as they wait for the words to come out. I don't have to write 50K words this month. I don't have even have to do 50K this year. If I don't write another word in 2008, no one is going to die.

Still...

As I told my better half, I'm doing this because it's good practice for the day when I do have a contract and I am under a deadline. It'll happen someday and I'd better be ready for it when it does. A contract is a commitment and if I sign something that says I'll have a book to them by x-date, then by god, I'll honor my commitment. (Barring flood, famine, disaster or grievous bodily injury, of course.)

When I first started writing, I was absolutely sure I wouldn't be able to write to deadlines. I had a meandering way of writing. I waited for inspiration to strike me, and then I'd sit down to let the words pour out of my fingers. It made writing really easy, but it was so unrealistic I could go back in time and pat my former self on the head like I was a misguided child. (Which I was.) If I was never planning on being published, writing when the muse was ready would be fine. Except I plan on being published, and I want to be able to meet the expectations of my publishers.

So here I am. I'm still straining against the convention of sitting my butt down and typing every night, but I'm also kicking myself when I don't. I know I have work to do, and I will do it. By the end of today, I need to have about 3000 words done to be on track for my goal. I know I can do it. I have the next three scenes already plotted out, waiting to be written. (I should've written at least one of them last night.)

I know I can do this. Now I just have to prove it to myself. And when my contract finally comes, I'll be ahead of the game.

.

3 comments:

Kristen Painter said...

I struggle to write every day, but that doesn't mean I'm any less of a writer. When I have a deadline, it will be different because then it will be a job. A paying job. Right now it's a non-paying dream.

Marty said...

If you have the talent to write then WRITE! Throw the TV out the window and write. I have confidence that you can succeed.

Marty said...

Keep telling yourself that there is no story on the TV that is as good as the one you are going to write.