Wow, between work, family and just plain writing, a whole bunch of days have come and gone and I really wanted to do a quick update.
Work’s been kicking my butt (I’ll omit the details to protect the guilty and because I don’t want to turn this into a work whine blog. I want to keep the focus on my writing adventure), I mention this because it will be relevant to this post.
On the bright side, I’ve rediscovered twitter (follow me at @Frank_Cote but I warn you I don’t really say that much) and got a chance to chat with some people I really admire (shout out to @KMWeiland, @Beverly_Akerman, @AngelaAckerman) and I’ve been writing a lot.
So there’s been some good things, but stress and work have been dragging me down and the feelings I’ve been dealing with have been the kind that in the past would stop me from writing.
I mean stop me for a long time, days and weeks. Months possibly.
My no more zero word count days saved me. Here’s how.
On of the most repeated piece of advice to writers trying to make it in the biz is this: Be professional.
What does this mean? That means treat your writing like your job/career. I will even embellish a little and say treat it like your dream career. Be passionate, be determined, be ambitious, be proactive and most of all be consistent.
That means write consistently. A lot.
I haven’t been doing that.
I’m still struggling with it, but doing much better.
Why? Because I won’t tolerate having zero word count days anymore.
It’s actually amazing how it’s working for me.
Here’s a scenario that happens way too often: I’ve had a shitty day at work for whatever reason. It’s not important why. The day was soul crushing and I come home drained. I’m not just physically tired. I’m drained to my core. My brain is shutting down. It’s all I can do to stay awake and involved for my wife and child who deserve better than a zombie for a husband/father.
We all have bad days, shitty days, days that make us wish we had never been born (or if we are thinking more clearly, that other annoying people had never been born). These days drain our energy and suck out our souls.
Those days I would not write. If I had a string of them, well, there’s a dry spell.
I believed I could not write (not WOULD not write…but UNABLE to write). Maybe you believe this as well.
If you believe that, you are wrong. I was wrong.
That’s where being professional comes in. It means that no matter what, you get your ass in that chair (couch, recliner, whatever) and write.
Write! Damn you! Write!
Once I decided to make the decision to eliminate zero days from my writing tracker, it changed everything.
Here’s what happened to me, and I’m certain this can happen to you.
Before:
Me: Oh crap, what a shitty day. Woe is me! Life sucks. Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!
My ever loving and ever suffering wife: You should write.
Me: Nope. I got nothing left here. I’m going to bed. (insert more emo shit here, but you get the gist.)
Me: [goes to bed]
Word count: 0 *wah wah*
That’s a pretty dismal and pathetic scenario that will never get me published. Ever.
Now let’s look at the same scenario now:
Me: Me: Oh crap, what a shitty day. Woe is me! Life sucks. *now with new and improved waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah*
My ever loving and ever suffering wife: You should write.
Me: Sigh. Yes. No more zero days. No more zero days. (repeat this until you write or until they put you away)
So it goes that I’ll open my WIP and decide “OK, I’ll only write one hundred words. One hundred words is easy. I can do that and then I’ll go to bed.”
What actually happens next however is the awesome part. I won’t write one hundred words. I’ll write FIVE hundred, then maybe a thousand. I might hit a scene that I’m enjoying, so I’ll keep going. Sometimes, I’ll lose myself and just write and hit two thousand words (OK, that’s only happened once so far, but it DID happen!).
When I get those words down. I always feel better. I did it.
You can too.
Zero tolerance for zero word count days folks. It works.
