It’s very difficult to write consistently every day. Like, very difficult. Sometimes, even writing the next 200 words to a story seems so overwhelming you just can’t bring yourself to do it. Writing a story can be similar to writing a term paper in some ways. The actual act of writing it isn’t incredibly difficult. The truly difficult part is sitting your ass down and doing it rather than putting it off and putting it off.
Procrastination is a horrible monster to conquer because once you start something new, it always manages to find a way between you and completing your story, or term paper. Little chunks are what keep a story going. Writing a story or a novel is like eating an elephant, you gotta do it one bit at a time. You can’t write 10,000 words every day and expect that to become a habit. It’s simply too big of a goal and you’re gonna stop doing that before you even get started. However, writing even 250 words per day can keep your book progressing and it’ll allow you to start a habit that is actually attainable. Little victories are the key. I wrote 500 words per day Monday through Friday when I wrote Taking Chances. If you keep that word count consistently, you’ll have 50,000 words after a little more than three months. Three months really isn’t all that long. Especially when you consider 500 words typically takes two hours to write if you’re a perfectionist.
I just wrote 1200 words of Frigid Nights. I wanted to complete Chapter 5, which I did. I wanted to start Chapter 6 but ended up getting on a roll and wrote most if not all of it. There may be a bit more to it, but I definitely got the gist of it done. I didn’t write much the past few days because I was procrastinating, but I finally knocked a good bit of it out and now, I just gotta write a measly 250 words tomorrow to turn this back into a habit. Yes, life gets in the way, but life will always get in the way if you let it. There is never an opportune time to write. You have to find the time. Write once you wake up, right before you go to bed, on your lunch break, or after the gym. If it’s that important to you, you’ll make the time.
Drew Schroeder 