Writing Accountability
Commitment vs. Opportunity
So post-LibertyCon, I decided that I was going to make an effort to write more, edit more, and read more.
While I’ve been somewhat silent here, I have been keeping up with those goals. I’ve managed to post daily on Facebook about my writing accountability project. I’m currently on day 70/180, so I’m approaching my halfway point in this experiment.
It’s been going well, actually.
Oddly enough, it’s been the reading that’s been the most difficult. I usually end up doing it at the end of the day, and when that happens, I can get a few pages in before I start to get sleepy. Hazards of old age and a busy schedule, I suppose.
So far, I’ve managed to complete three stories, get significant work done on several others, and otherwise convince myself that yes, I can keep this sort of commitment. I am seriously considering taking what I’ve learned so far and spending the last three months trying to hammer a novel into shape.
Stay tuned. If that happens, I’ll shift over to giving my daily updates here on Substack.
Am I writing every day? No. This is not my full-time profession. It’s not even my fourth profession :) So sometimes family, work, ministry, or politics takes precedence and I don’t get to write.
That’s OK. One of the bits of advice I got early on was that life would happen. I realized that if I said, “Yeah, I’m going to write FIVE THOUSAND WORDS EVERY DAY!” that I would be setting myself up for failure and disappointment.
I’ve been there with exercise. If you commit to working out every day, it becomes a chore. Something you do to get out of the way. If you make your goal something like “I’ll walk when I can”, then it becomes a lot more fun. A missed day isn’t a broken commitment, it’s a missed opportunity. For me, at least, that means that I start looking for ways to make that missed opportunity happen.
My personal workout schedule got a lot better once I stopped making commitments and started looking for opportunities. I’m finding the same pattern holds true in my writing life.
So, for now at least, that’s how I’m going to continue. Let’s say that I’ve made a commitment to look for opportunities… and I’ve been having a lot more fun with it than I ever have before.