So, funny thing, I have always been a writer. Tucked away in a rubber tote are laminated, illustrated tales of dragons and unicorns that I wrote in the third grade. In high school while we were studying WW II I wrote an epic romance short story about a German pilot who got shot down in Liege and fell in love with a Belgian woman (I was 17, give me a break), and let's not even get started about how many files and notebooks full of stories I have amassed.
The thing is, until Hive, I never actually finished any of the tales I have written as an adult. I allowed life to be my excuse for never finishing. When it reality this quote sums up my procrastination quite well:
I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.--Erica Jong
I don't even know who Erica Jong is, but dang, she knows things.
Anyway, my birthday is coming up next month, it's kind of a big one in a sense, as I will enter my fourth decade of life. I'm one of those people who rejoice in getting older, as I tend to like myself more as time elapses. Each decade I've traversed has taught me so much, the motto I cling to, there's always more to learn has taught me so many things about myself, the world, and others. Not that there hasn't been pain, but even that pain has taught me all manner of positive things.
My foray into the blogging and blockchain world was a big bird flipping to my fear of making other's uncomfortable by just being me. Now, I am stepping into the next part of Life's Labyrinth, I am going to finish one of those dang books I have started.
Easier said than done of course, but I set myself a challenge of writing every day for 30 days with the goal of finishing my manuscript draft by the end of April. Here I am five days in and this is my word count:
Day 1: 2218
Day 2: 1902
Day 3: 852
Day 4: 902
Day 5: 1312
Now honestly, I can write thousands of words in a day, but my life is pretty busy, and I am proud that I have made the commitment to show up and am making my work a priority instead of everyone else's needs for a change. Self-sabotage and I are old friends, but we are taking a break from each other.
What excites me is that Sunday-Tuesday are the most crazy days of my week, and I still found time to write. And that's the key, I made a disciplined choice. Sure, I had to get up earlier, and rearrange some things, but I still did it.
Even better is that fifty-four pages in I am remembering how excited I was to start writing my story in the first place. I love to write stories one scene at a time, and tend to get overwhelmed by the middle of the tale and the enormity of crafting a novel, because I want it to be good and cohesive. That awesomeness does not come from a one time write through, so I am teaching myself patience and learning to do things that I don't necessarily enjoy doing. Editing and revision I am looking at you here (yuck).
Anyway, part of challenging yourself is adopting a spirit of accountability, so for the next four weeks you all will probably see a post weekly or so digesting and spouting off about my progress, my failures, and the whole journey in general. I know that my whole avatar is a play on the concept of generic, but honestly this community is one of the best, most real things that has ever happened in my life, and I love to share and engage with you all about all manner of things. Thanks for reading my work and being there while I grow, you are all adored.
Full disclosure, I wrote this yesterday, got harangued by heathens and animals, and am posting it today, and yes I wrote today too!
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's sorta morose there is yet another windstorm coming in iPhone.
