by Gail Z. Martin
Now that we’re a few months in to the new year, are those resolutions starting to chafe a bit? Maybe the diet is history, the exercise plan is on again/off again, and the desire to meditate daily has hit the snooze button. So where does that leave your resolve to make this the year you finish your book?
Whether you’re writing for your own satisfaction or with an eye on eventually getting published, there will be a lot of days when you don’t feel like writing.
Write anyway.
Maybe you just get a page. Maybe you just get a paragraph. By having the discipline to sit down and put thoughts on paper, you will be that much closer to finally completing your manuscript.
I find that even on days when I don’t know where the book is going to go (and even with an outline, there are days like that), once I sit down and start writing, ideas begin to flow. Not all of the ideas will work. But some of them will be perfect, and I wouldn’t have gotten those ideas without the discipline of putting butt in chair and cranking through ideas to get the good ones.
Maybe your schedule isn’t giving your the time off for writing you’d envisioned. That’s OK. Take stock of the opportunities you do have, and adjust your expectations accordingly. If you think about what you’re going to write any time you have a moment to daydream, you’ll find that even a half hour or an hour of writing time becomes much more productive.
Don’t give up on making this the year your finish your book. If you want to do something bad enough, you’ll find enough stolen moments to make it happen. Persistence leads to publication!
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