One of those days...

Bleh. Today was one of those days where I just didn't want to write at first, for a variety of reasons. It had been a fairly tiring day of programming work, and besides, it was Friday. Also, there was a really severe thunderstorm and several tornadoes touched down in the area -- I don't care about lightning, but tornadoes have been the primary actor in my worst nightmares since I was a kid. Lastly, I was kind of sore, and finding it hard to get comfortable in my chair. Oh, and I was a bit too hot.

Ahem. Presumably you see where I'm going with this. All of the above was quite true, and would previously have been enough to dissuade me from trying to write unless I was already excited about writing that day -- but if I was excited about writing that day, I most likely wouldn't have noticed any of the other stuff. As I said, previously I would have let this sort of mood, the cumulative effect of all those little excuses, trip me up. But not today!

Granted, the first hour I sat at my computer was almost completely wasted. I did just about everything but write -- and then I finally managed to get control of the situation, and made myself start working. It was difficult going for another hour or so, and then I really got into it and the last two hours of the session weren't bad at all.

In all, I did make my goal of completing four pages of work, though a lot more time and effort was required for that result than I would have liked. But that's just part of being a writer. I've decided that I can't afford to always wait until the muses are smiling. If writing is going to be my career, I have to learn to press on even without my muses, when I am utterly and completely alone in the productivity-generating department.

Some days, writing is more an act of willpower than it is inspiration. I very much hope that those days remain in the minority, but I've decided that I have a job to do regardless. Even if it isn't always a romp in the park, I can't escape the fact that I can't not be a writer. So today I wrote my four pages, even though I didn't really want to, and even if tomorrow is one of the good days I'll still be glad I pushed through those four pages today. That sort of determination on an ongoing basis is the only way I'm going to reach the goals I've set for myself. I'll be interested to see if I can do it. I've never written a novel in less than a year and a half before.

The stats as of today:
-29,250 estimated words.
-33,730 actual words.
-Nearly three fully-revised-and-expanded chapters (40 pages total).
-Ten completed chapters in all (117 pages).