Getting back into writing after a long break is actually harder than I thought it would be. I gave myself permission not to write so many times that I conditioned an avoidance response… And now I have an uphill battle making my brain feel excited about it. When I first started writing, the excitement came from the novelty (ha) and from the rapidly growing word count, so I’m trying to get back to that feeling.
Once I sit down to write, my self-imposed rule is that I have to write 500 words before I’m allowed to stop. That rule got me through a whole first draft of my first novel in 3 weeks because once I get going (probably after pushing through 250 words or so), I get on a roll and can sometimes bang out 8500 words in a sitting. So, realistically, the 500-word minimum is a trick I play on myself to have time to get my head in the right space. I’ve rarely if ever, stopped at 500. On a normal day, I feel pretty good about 1000, but I’m positive if I made my target 1000, I’d feel too daunted to start!
Does anyone else have any writing motivation advice or tricks to share?
Rita Davie 