Logically I know that if I work out regularly, my muscles will grow stronger. If I practice piano regularly, I’ll slowly improve my sight-reading, my playing, and even the muscle memory in my hands. If I write regularly then…
I’m amazed that we treat our brains differently than we do the rest of our bodies. They’re not muscles, exactly, but like muscles, if we regularly expose our brains to something, they will get better at processing, at taking things in, and at sharing that information back.
I logically know this about writing. The more regular I am in the practice, the easier it gets. But there’s a resistance if I’ve been away from it for a while. And just like working out, if I can break through that resistance, everything flows a lot easier from there.
As I wrote last time, my daily goal every weekday is to write 1500 words. That’s a lot of words streaming from my brain, down my fingertips, through the keys, and onto the computer screen. The first few days were looooong! It took hours to reach my goal and I was barely able to get in other work afterwards.
But after a few days, those 1500 words came in four hours instead of five, then a couple of days later, those four hours were down to three and a half, then down to three, and now, as of this post, I wrote 1800+ words in three hours and I’m writing this post before lunch.
I’m not saying I won’t have rough writing days or that there won’t be days that still take me six hours instead of three. But I am saying it’s only been a week and a half of this schedule where I make writing the first priority of my workday…and I’m already seeing a massive improvement in how my brain spits stuff out.
Hopefully, that’s an encouragement to you too. That if you break through the resistance to even start something, you can see improvement in a short period of time.
Now, is the writing any good? I guess time will tell.
Blessings,
Jennifer
P.S. As of this post, my rough draft is up to 63,395 words. My goal is 100,000 but Quaking Soul topped out at 138K in rough form, so we’ll see if 100K is enough to finish the sequel =)
“Goal setting”…..important!
And, for you, proven production.
It’s working so far 🙂
I’ve found the same to be true for my writing: if I work on my draft first thing in the morning, I can usually knock out my daily word count goal by lunch. Hope your writing days keep getting easier! 🙂
The morning has been working fairly well for me too. If I attempt to get started in the afternoon, I’ll get something but it doesn’t come as easily 🙂
There’s definitely something to be said for routine and consistency! I love the idea of likening writing to exercising a muscle. Usually, I refer to writing every day in terms of a habit, but I like the muscle better. In theory, the more you write, the better you get. I’m so glad to know what you’re doing is working because I can’t wait for your next books!
The consistency is definitely making a difference! the rough draft that’s coming out is going to be a mess because I’m completely off any sort of outline at the moment, but I’m finding this is the way my writing works for longer pieces, so I’m running with it 🙂
I can completely understand that, haha! If it worked the first time, I have complete faith it’ll turn out wonderfully when it’s published. Whatever works, works!
The writing is awesome, that’s all I’ve got to say!
Thank you 😊 rough drafts are always a bit interesting. Can’t think too much about polishing it until it’s out of my head and down on paper 🙂
Just keep swimming!!! Love ya
Swimming away!! 😊