I am really not writing these days. And I need to. I even long to. And yet I'm not really doing it, except in small doses. Why am I not writing? Discomfort. Disorganization. Lack of focus. Lack of energy. Lack of willpower. Lack of courage?
Yesterday, I read a quote from Stephen King where he said that he likes to get ten pages written a day. Ten pages! That’s so fabulous. So do-able. *I* can do ten pages in a day! Now, I admit that I have become lax in these past years, so I need to get myself reoriented and focused and start building a daily writing practice again. But ten pages a day is something I can do! When I’m on, when I’ve been practicing, I can do that! I am feeling hopeful and excited right now. And lazy because I’m not actually writing anything right now (besides this blog post, which *does* count for something, really it does!). Really, I am moving in the right direction and getting some things in place (stay tuned for announcements!). And this tidbit from Maestro King is just gloriously heartening and motivating and exciting!
Something else I read this week—a short paragraph from one of Jack Kerouac’s journals. He was making entries about how many words he wrote on different days. He did quite a lot of words, at least during the time of the excerpt I read. 4500 words on his 26th birthday. 13000 words in five days. That averages 2600 words a day. That’s actually a do-able amount, although on some days it would be pushing it. But still, I know I’ve done that and more during NaNoWriMo, so this is also heartening news. And now that I think of it, the ten pages of Stephen King would work out to be around 3000 words. So really, these are human, do-able, achievable numbers. I just need to remind myself of that. And I need to give myself a big push and get rolling again. I don’t want to reach mid-October again and find that I’ve written almost nothing during the whole year again.
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