One of the hardest things about the end of Nano is finding personal motivation to keep going in December. Never mind January. Here it is December 15th, and I’ve barely touched my novel since November 30th, only adding a couple thousand words to what I already had. This is a ridiculous state of affairs, and I have no decent excuse.
December is busy, for sure. But it’s no different, really, than any other month of the year (except for maybe January, which is dead dead dead). December brings cookie baking and holiday-card writing, and tree-decorating and shopping. And parties. But that’s really no excuse. How can I not manage to find a few minutes in every day to write? Even if it’s a few hundred words, it’s something.
It isn’t about the time, that’s why. It’s about the motivation. Somehow, not having a deadline hanging over me makes it easier to procrastinate. And that’s just ridiculous. Do I never want this story to hit print? Isn’t that why I’m writing, to begin with, so others can read it? How can they read it if it hasn’t been written? I always say, “if I had an office” or “if I wasn’t so busy doing _________” but those are just convenient excuses for not getting the job done. It is my problem, and I need to fix it.
How to fix it is the big question. I know of no magic potion or device to employ. I’m going to have to do this for myself, by myself, somehow.
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