How Bad Do You Want It?
I’d like to say I have these great writing organizational skills, and every day I wake up, grab my cup of coffee and sit down at my neatly cleaned desk to pound out the pages, completely uninterrupted.
Ha! It never works that way. The phone rings, I have to deal with emails, to-do lists, promotional tasks, things that pop up that have to be dealt with immediately, and sometimes those kinds of things can take up the entire day.
So how do I manage to write for multiple publishers, have nonstop deadlines and put out several books a year?
I hate to steal from Nike here, but I just do it. I know what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and I manage to get it done. Why? Because I want this.
This is the life I dreamed of. This is the career I always wanted. Now that I have it, I bust my butt to make sure I make my deadlines. And before I was published, I devoted as much time as I possibly could to write a book, edit it and then write another.
So if you want this, you have to work at it. And if that means 6 pages a day, 1500 words a day for 70 days to get a book done, then it’s worth it. It’s not that much if you break it down into small increments instead of looking at the big picture. Write a paragraph here and there throughout your day. Fit it in where you can. Sometimes I’ll do a page, other times I’ll pound out anywhere from 2 pages to an entire chapter in one sitting. It all depends on what else is going on, how many interruptions I have, and what kind of day I’m having. But if I set a goal, you can bet I’m going to achieve it.
I’ve set a goal to get this book done. I’m going to get it done. I love a challenge. It gets my blood fired up, and knowing other people are out there doing the same thing really spurs me on to write.
Don’t come up with all the reasons you can’t do it. Come up with just one reason you can. Don’t you really want this bad? I do. I always have.
So write. And don’t compare your progress to mine, or to anyone else’s. If you don’t do 6 pages a day, don’t worry. Maybe tomorrow you’ll do 10. Maybe you won’t. But if you make progress on your book each and every day, isn’t that what counts?
October 20th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Thanks, Jaci. This challenge is really pushing me to finish this book around my 45+ hours/week dayjob, now that I’ve decided that it’s OKAY to write it 3 pages a day, if that’s how I have to write it to get it done.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:05 am
I’m loving these posts. I haven’t signed up with Sven but I am trying to the first draft of one WIP finished before I do NaNoWriMo.
October 20th, 2007 at 1:07 am
hi jaci I’m going to put that last line on my blog side line hope you don’t mind.
October 20th, 2007 at 3:34 am
Fantastic post, Jaci! I think I need to take to heart the concept of fitting in ‘bits’ of writing during the day… and that a lot of ‘bits’ can make a pretty respectable wordcount in a day. I often find myself not writing because I don’t get a good ‘run’ at it… I’m going to make sure, from now on, that I snatch all these valuable little chunks of time!
October 20th, 2007 at 4:10 am
– But if you make progress on your book each and every day, isn’t that what counts? –
That’s exactly it.
October 20th, 2007 at 6:17 am
Thanks for the inspiring words, Jaci. Like the first commenter I have to squeeze my writing in around a full-time job. At first it seemed impossible. At least to me. But I too want this. And I want it enough to make myself get up early every morning and write before I leave for work, I want it enough to find time to write in the evenings, and I want it enough to write on the weekends. I push myself to get those 1,000 + words done every day.
And you know what I discovered?
That what I had told myself I couldn’t do I actually could. There’s a big difference between not being able to doing something and just not wanting to do it for whatever reason that may be.
That’s not to say it’s always easy. There are days I’m so tired after work my eyes burn from exhaustion. And there are days that the last thing I want to do is get up before the crack of dawn to write.
But then I ask myself, is it that I can’t do it or is it that I don’t want to do it? And then I realize that my desire to write and get published is stronger than my desire to just lie in bed for another half-hour. And up I get.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Very timely post, Jaci, thanks. I signed up for 70 Days of Sweat because I was finding it difficult to write around my other responsibilities. This past week has been particularly brutal working both jobs on the same day but I wrote snippets on all of my breaks instead of burying myself in a magazine. It’s harder to track word count when I have to gather all the scraps of paper together but the point is I’m writing. And that keeps the story fresh in my mind so that when I do have a good run of time, I can maximize it with writing instead of reminding myself who the characters are and why they’re behaving this way.
October 20th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Thank you for this post. I’ve had a frustrating two days because the day job kept me from writing on Thursday and Friday due to large amounts of overtime both days. Days like that thankfully aren’t the norm, but as I dropped into bed last night about 20 minutes after getting home, I was feeling depressed because I hadn’t written and those doubts were creeping in: Why do I try to do this? I can’t write regularly and deal with the job and the family issues that are going on.
Reading this reminds me that I can if I want it enough. Ugly things happen and there will be days when I can’t get to the page. If I really want this, then I have to keep those days to a minimum. Thursday and Friday were a bust; I need to get back on the horse today.
October 20th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Annie - I don’t mind at all.
For those of you struggling….don’t worry. Some days are going to be great, and some aren’t. The important thing is not to get down on yourself over the days you don’t make much, or any, progress. Because there will be time and progress on other days where you can pick up the slack. Sometimes you can really chug along and make some great word count, others you can’t. The whole idea is to make headway, no matter how it gets done. It very rarely happens the same way every day, but as long as you’re doing something, even if it’s just thinking about what you need to do with your story while you’re busy doing something else, that’s a good thing. Then when you sit down to write, you’ll be ready to charge full steam ahead! Those minimal word count days, when added up day after day, may surprise you.
October 20th, 2007 at 9:36 am
[…] I read Jaci Burton’s post this morning on 70 Days of Sweat and it helped remind me why I keep plugging away: This is the life I dreamed of. This is the career […]
October 20th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Word.
October 20th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Fantastic post Jaci. It is hard. I often wonder why it’s 10:30pm before I can sit down and write, what’s the point? It’s so late, I’m exhausted and I’m going to get up early with the kids, etc. etc. But I force myself to do it. I get some help from some writer friends in the form of mini writing challenges. That’s what keeps me motivated. They help keep me on track.
October 20th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
I’ve spent all day writing. The weekends are always good for me since I don’t have to go to the day job. Completed twelve pages so far. I’m taking a break and plan to finish the chapter tonight!
October 20th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Thanks for the inspiration, Jaci. It is true. We have to give ourselves permission to do it in bits and pieces. We need to remember that all of the pieces make up the “whole”.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Weekends (Saturday) are hard for me because they’re the only day I have that’s entirely just for myself and my husband, and it comes after my two 12-hour dayjob days. Sundays are a little easier because I’m home from work at 5 and my husband isn’t home til 9. I’ll work on ramping up my page count on Sundays. One of the habits I’m trying to break myself of is sitting at the computer surfing around on blogs instead of writing. If I just WRITE and get it over with it doesn’t take me four hours to write three pages.
October 20th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Thanks for the inspiration, Jaci. I’m not writing daily but I’ve still managed to hit the targets I set myself. I haven’t been this disciplined about my writing since…well…since never. I do think weekends are harder. After one whole week of work, work, work, all you want to do is kick back and relax. Not stick your butt in a chair and bust your brains over POV shifts and characterisation. Having a challenge like this forces me to write though, even when I prefer to be lazy.
October 21st, 2007 at 7:39 am
Awesome post. In this day and age, we all have frantic lives.
If a person who says they want to write isn’t writing, then it’s because they choose not to.
We ALL waste time, every day.
October 21st, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Plugging away
So I was reading the 70 Days blog this morning and it’s been bugging me all day.
I really have no excuse. None whatsoever. I could hack out the words like a madwoman.
I could… if I only wanted a wordcount.
However, I want it bad… but …
October 21st, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Great post. I really needed this! I love writing. I mean I really love it. I despise my day job, but it pays the bills. If I want to do what I love for a living then I have to figure out a way to do it, do it every spare moment and do it well until that happens! Thanks for the pep talk!
October 24th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
[…] one thing… it ties in with the “How bad do you want it” from the other day. Boy, does it ever. For another, it’s one of those primal scream […]