Write On Wednesday

This week, Becca asks:

How about you? Is your writing life healthy these days? How do you keep your writing life alive? What are some of the remedies you use to revive it?

I was just making a list today of all of the things I try to cram into my free hours at home, revolving around writing, and when I finally looked at what I'm expecting of myself, it was a "smack my forehead" moment. No wonder my time feels so cramped! I'm trying to do everything, everyday.

What do I actually get accomplished out of all of that? When it comes to writing, I have my highs and lows in terms of inspiration and wordcount. I am learning how to write when my muse is on vacation. Although I like it when she's around. I have much better wordcounts when I'm so inspired I forget how long I've been writing and it turns out I just pounded out 500 words in a single go of it. And then the next day it takes me two hours to get out five hundred words that I know I'll probably delete tomorrow.

So it goes. Days that I sit at my computer and write absolute crap, though, are still better than days I don't write at all. When I don't write one day, the next day I figure my word count for the week is shot anyhow, so why bother, I can just wait until the next Sunday to get started, and do better then... and then a week's gone past and I haven't written a blessed thing that wasn't for work. Or my blog, if I'm lucky.

So I try to be flexible with myself when I don't meet my writing goals. If I can't write, can I revise something I've already written? Can I do some research for The Great American Novel? Can I read a chapter from one of my awesome writing books that I got for Christmas? Then I give myself a pep talk.

"Self?"

"Yes?"

"You can do it."

"No, I can't."

"Yes you can." (Inspiring music from Rocky playing in the background.)

"Nah, I think its more fun wasting time on the internets right now."

"Getyourrearintogearnow!! Ooh... internets... pretty... Paris Hilton got a nose job?"

When all else fails, I imitate other writers. I mark passages in the books I'm reading and copy them into a big ole Word doc and as I type I have to think through the structure and the words that the author chose for this passage and I feel WAY smarter. I've STUDIED! I've LEARNED!!

And when even that fails, there's always reruns of 30 Rock awaiting me online. Because TV helps me write (*eye twitches uncontrollably). Really!!