I hit the thousand mark today for the first time in a while, after a full writing session of nearly an hour.
I still struggled to get into it at first. Or rather, I struggled to force myself to get down to it. Once I did start, though, I was able to click forward at a pretty good clip. I know from experience that, no matter how much I might not be looking forward to it and want to delay, it feels good to get moving with the story when I do start. If I could just find a way to skip the 10 minutes or so of dithering first, I would be a lot more efficient.
I was feeling pretty good about myself for that session, but between the session and writing today’s post, I listened to an interview on the Self Publishing Show by a man who worked 70 hours a week and still managed to write by putting in 2 hours in the morning and another 2 after his family went to sleep, ultimately sleeping only 5 hours per night. Like me, he had a military background, but unlike me, he learned a different level of discipline. I thought I was pretty good forcing myself to wake up at 5 every morning to write. But that’s the difference between my AF background and his Army, I guess!
I think I would break down if I tried that, and I’m not willing yet to sacrifice time with my family or the few moments of leisure that I take out of my day. Because of that, I have to accept that it’s going to take me longer, and I’m fine with that.
But at the same time, there are areas where I could be more disciplined, and I need to take a good hard look at that.