Just a quick post today on keeping motivated.
During NaNo, I noticed on Twitter, Facebook, and writing blogs that there were writers who mentioned that they’d gotten frustrated with NaNo and stopped participating.
Many times, they mentioned that they felt like they’d fallen behind everyone else—and couldn’t catch up.
Every day is a fresh start—not a chance to catch up. Just a chance to meet that day’s writing goal.
If I get behind on my goal and tried to catch up on that day plus write my usual amount, I’m going to try putting off my writing time. Because it’s double my usual writing goal.
Unless I’m really under a deadline crunch (not a personal deadline, but a publisher one), then I’ve made a rule for myself that I don’t play catch-up.
I’m just picking up where I left off and meeting my goal for that day. Any other day is over and done with. Somehow, for me, it’s easier to pick it all back up again after I’ve told myself that.
I can only imagine the writers who felt like they needed to write 2,000 words a day for NaNo—and then missed a couple of days. They were trying to write 6,000 words to catch up.
I know we’re right up on the holidays and that’s another time where it’s easy to miss daily goals.
If you do, consider just forgetting about those lost days and, whenever you’re able to get back to the writing, just pick up where you left off.
Do you ever get that “left-behind” feeling? How do you respond to it?
And please join me tomorrow for Enid Wilson’s guest post, “Choose Your Own Mystery.”
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