While unofficially participating in writing a book in a month I wrote about 240 pages of a new novel which I've been thinking about for a long while. That's close to 12 chapters and not nearly all of the book, but certainly more than I might have written otherwise.
The success reminded me of when I was younger, struggling to take off pounds after having two babies. I worked and worked, doing well one week, slip sliding the next. Then a bunch of the local women in the neighborhood got together to have a weekly meeting, weigh in and exchange recipes we'd found and set goals for our weight loss. In those days lo-cal recipes were much more difficult to find than now. I do remember some of them were awful, but a few were good. Otherwise it was Jello, salads, tuna and chicken. There also weren't so many sugar free foods. However, the point I'm trying to make is that when we all gathered and vowed to lose our weight, it was so much easier and we met our goals.
I've never had trouble writing every day, but until I set a schedule of what to do each day, I didn't get as much done. And when I attempted to write an entire book in one month, I managed to write over half of mine. I've mentioned before that my schedule includes promotion, writing blogs, taking care of a website, writing a weekly column and a monthly column, writing short stories for anthologies, and writing on my work in progress.
Recently I finished two non-fiction books, taking about a year to do all the research, visit communities in four counties and write the books. One includes 150 recipes, some I found in my mother's collection, others I borrowed from acquaintances who've always lived in the Boston Mountains. Copying and editing the recipes took a while. Then there were stories to write for the book called Arkansas Meals and Memories. Most of those were from my own childhood, but a few had been told to me. Besides all the writing I came up with 137 photos for the Boston Mountain Book and about 12 for the meals and memories book. There were those to scan and write cutlines for as well.
There's only one way to consistently accomplish so much, and that's with discipline. While talking to a couple of writers last week, they said they had good intentions, but then life got in the way. I told them that if they were serious about become writers, then writing would be part of that life. Nothing else would get in the way. Thats, of course, if you don't break a leg or something worse. I'm talking about everyday living. We place our need to write in our life and nothing else gets in the way. Of course, there's writing for a hobby. If that's the case do it when you feel like it.
I remember a few years ago I had back surgery, and on the third day was sent to rehab. Every afternoon we had a few hours off and I could be found in my wheelchair at the table with my Alpha Smart (didn't have a laptop at that time) writing. After I came home I wasn't allowed to sit more than 20 minutes at a time, so I alternated writing for 20 minutes sitting, then stood at the kitchen cabinet and continued to write.
I guess it comes down to how badly one wants to write. I've been doing this for 25 years and it's become a habit to show up in my office right after lunch and write till supper time six days a week. I have a friend who sometimes writes 16 - 18 hours a day. He lives it and breathes it. I have to have time off. I like to read and watch movies, have a few favorite TV shows. I sit in the sun when it shines and walk around in the yard in the spring and summer. I swim every day in the summer. So writing is not by any means my entire life. It is a major portion of it.
Why? Because I enjoy writing so much. If I didn't I'd quit. It's not glamorous nor financially rewarding. It's enjoyable and addictive; the idea that people read what I have to say and get something out of it thrills me.
