Monday Motivation - when it's hard to keep going

"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter."  ~James Michener

I hit 43,000 on the WIP yesterday. I'm thinking I have 10-15,000 words left until I reach the end. The hard part is that right now, I have all these threads I'm trying to weave as I write and it is very, very hard. Things are slow going.

But every time I get discouraged, I remind myself that this is a draft. If it feels messy and very far from being perfect, it's okay! That's how it's supposed to feel.

The important thing right now is to just keep going. Keep walking down the path. Trust that I'll get to the end eventually, and a warm house with fresh-baked cookies will be there to greet me. (Actually, I gain weight every time I write a book. Stress-eating anyone? So maybe I should envision a warm house with a tasty salad waiting for me).

We all know the importance of getting the draft down so the real work can begin, even if the draft is really bad. Because we also know it is impossible to a revise a blank page. And yet, that doesn't stop us from worrying, worrying and WORRYING about the mess that is the first draft.

Some scenes will have to go. New scenes will have to be imagined. Characters will need deepening, pacing will need to be tweaked, and on and on.

But now is not the time to think of any of that. Right now, the goal is to just keep going. Word by word. Sentence by sentence. Scene by scene. There is nothing at this point that's going to make it happen other than sheer tenacity. Sitting down at my desk every day and writing as much as I can in the time slot I'm given on that particular day.

At times, the forest is dark. Cold. Scary!! But you know what they say. The only way out is through.