Writing – Keeping up with goals

Hello guys!

I think I was a bit exhausted after the A-Z challenge. I’ve barely blogged this month, so sorry about that. I shall now go back to at least once a week. Also, I should have about five book reviews to post soon.

I’d really like feedback: What would you like to see on here? What would you like to be different? I’m thinking of doing Wednesday Word Prompts.

In other news, and on to the title of this blog post, sometimes in writing it is hard to keep up with goals. I know I talked about this off and on, and in my last post. However, it is very relevant to what is going on with my writing.

Have you ever had a moment where you question whether you can call yourself a writer?  If its been a bit since you’ve written anything, if you cannot seem to finish something, or if you just write in spurts, and then stop, then pick it back up?  When you look at others, people writing thousands of words a day, or people with finished unpublished novels or published novels, it may be hard to look at what you do and think you are the same.

Here’s my logic.  I am a writer.  I write, and whether or not I measure up to some crazy goal (even if I set it myself) does not change that.  I have a couple of friends who write thousands of words a day. But everyone’s life is different, and I think that can be important to note.  I have a toddler, I get migraines, I have a husband, and a house and yard to take care of, cleaning to do, a full time job, and I’m job hunting.  Oh, and I also write book reviews for two newspapers, this blog and do other work such as tutoring. To say I have a busy schedule is sometimes an understatement.

Don’t get me wrong. I have time to write, at least most days.  I have time to write when I choose not to write. I’m trying to change that.  As you know I’m working on a new novel, and its going well. I have not actually written words on the novel in the past few days. I stopped. Why? Because, I stopped.  I made the choice to stop and work on my characters a bit. I felt that I needed to develop them a bit more in my head, so that I could really get their personalities onto paper.  I’m working on character descriptions and things like that.  I hope to be back to writing on the novel, at least a little, tonight. So I’m still working on something, even if I’m not getting two thousand words onto the story a day. Quality is important to me too, not just quantity. I don’t want to force the words onto the paper, if I think taking a make is more beneficial (just like my current long planned break for my other novel).

I think sometimes its important to stop and look at what you need. What do you think your story needs? Are you overstressed? Take a break.  Does the messiness of your house make you so stressed you want to hide in a corner? Clean.  Spend some time with your loved ones. That story inside of you is important.  It is important to your soul to breathe those words onto paper and help it come to live. And of course, we all hope to be the next new author making their debut. But you cannot get there at all without self-care.

So remember you. As I said last time – you know what works for you. Pushing yourself is fine. Burning yourself out is not.

So good luck and fair fortunes, and till next time, happy writing!