When I first decided to write, I had grandiose ideas of the getting hit by these creative surges of energy (aka ‘inspiration’ or ‘the Muse). Once the Muse arrived, I would be magically transported to my laptop and urged to turn off my wireless internet for hours on end. During these long streches of time, I imagined myself writing in a white, hot frenzy, each word coming out pitch perfect (meaning: doesn’t need revision). Then, once I complete my tens of thousands of words in one sitting, I would reread my masterpiece and wonder at the genius who penned the words.
I soon confronted reality.
Reality is juggling a whole bunch of responsibilities while trying to navigate my way to the keyboard. Could I write 50 words? 100 words? 150? One word?!! Could I press the ‘on’ button in my brain and just write something when I had dishes to do, laundry to fold and a child who wants to undecorate the Christmas tree?
Yes.
I stopped trying to fool myself and settled for writing in small chunks. I don’t have a set “schedule” per se with allotted writing time, but I do have a daily word count goal. A reasonable word count goal. My busy mom plan for writing involves leaving the laptop on all day and getting to the keyboard in between my other activities. And when it’s time to put the kiddos down for a nap, I write for a longer stretch.
Is it inspiration? Hardly. Most of the time, I’m on autopilot, typing out what I had planned for a particular scene, knowing I’ll go back and improve it later.
Is it perspiration? Not quite. I enjoy my writing spurts durin the day. It takes the stress and self-sabotaging pressure of having to write a 1,00o words an hour. And I especially love the afternoon nap time when I can write longer.
I’d call my writing life a steady commitment. I’m committed to pounding out daily verbage and revising as needed. Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it drags, but I like the pace of producing something on a regular basis. It’s like reading your Bible everyday or exercising. At first, it looks overwhelming and feels like a huge gruntworthy task. But after you do it for a while, you start to feel weird on the days when you don’t engage in the habit.
How about you? Is writing more inspiration or perspiration?
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