I Did It!

So much for Writing: Impossible. I, a working mother, wrote just over 50,000 words in a month. I honestly didn't think at the beginning of the month that I would make it, but after the first couple of days when I did meet the daily quota, I became determined to finish despite a couple of unproductive days. It took a lot of effort, but I caught up. The last thousand was a bit tricky because today was so busy; I'll blog about that in a separate entry.

I learned a lot from doing this. I found that lunchtime is a productive time of day for me; I can write over a thousand words then. I learned how to turn off my inner editor and just put words down on paper, even if they're filler or awkwardly phrased. In fact, it's fun in a way to just let loose. At the same time, I also discovered that night time might not be my "write time." My exhaustion catches up to me at night, making it harder to write. There are more online distractions; even more importantly, I want to spend some time with my family instead of being forced to the keyboard to meet quota.

Speaking of family, I'd like to thank Eugene for his support this month. He offered me encouragement and gave me the time at night to write. One Saturday, when I was still a few thousand words off target, he even took off early from the clinic so he could babysit Alex and let me write at the bookstore. Love you lots, hon!

I still have a fair amount to go before I finish my story, and then it's going to need a major self-edit before it's ready for other people to crit. I think I'm going to continue to write on my lunch hour but slow down writing at home. I'd like to spend more time with Eugene. Besides, I have a new project to work on. I'll post about it next....