I’m sorry if my posts have been a little repetitive as of late. As I might have shared, there’s a lot going on ‘behind the scenes,’ and while my life as a writer is one I strive to share– sometimes it’s like only having one part of a certain song stuck in your head.

That’s either because you don’t know the whole song, or for some reason that part might have more meaning to you at the present time.

Whatever the case, the thing of it is: I haven’t been writing every day.

(Dear Agent, if you’re reading this, I promise I’m still productive!)

I have honestly never been one of those people who is disciplined to sit down every day and write. I have tried, in the past, to hit 250-500 words so that even if I’m not hashing out thousands, I could still say I wrote something. But lately, this hasn’t been happening. I get to the end of the day and look from my computer to my current read, and the book I’m reading tends to win.

My day is full of to-dos and adulting, as I know so many others days are, too– so sometimes even getting 250 words down seems impossible to me.

But as you might recall in finding the time to be a writer, not writing every day soon turns into a bad habit for many people. Soon your writing is no longer a priority, and you feel guilty whenever you try to rectify that.

At the end of those long days when you don’t have the energy or mental capacity to get the words down, and you promise yourself you’ll do it the next day– just do me a favor (and we can keep each other accountable):

Write down one sentence. One idea. One pitch. One string of words that will make something that goes toward your life as an author.

That’s what I’ve been doing lately. It seems my head is swimming with all these ideas, none of which have been concrete enough t put into the process past the first spark. And that’s OK. It’s OK because my mind is still working, still producing, still working in writerly-fashion.

The truth of the matter is, that unless you go to work and are given written assignments as your job or you get to lock yourself away to write your books for a living– odds are you will reach a point where you won’t be writing every day, or can’t, or have to change your plans. And that IS ok.

Say it with me:

IT IS OK.

Life will throw boulders in your path and sometimes you have to sit down and reflect what your best option is to get rid of them, or go around them, or use them. Those are the moments to not feel guilty about putting your writing on the back-burner– because you know it’s still there. As long as you are persistent in always thinking about it, and doing little things to work on it, and promise yourself that you’re not giving up– it’s going to be OK.

Your writing is a gift. Don’t squander it.

 

This post is as much for you as it is for me. A constant reminder that we don’t need to feel guilty to live our lives outside of our writing careers, as long as we continue to polish those careers in the long-run.