When it comes to missing a day of writing, I used to say, "well, I just didn't have the time." These days, that's very much not the problem. If anything, I have entirely too much time on my hands.
I stay at home while my husband works two jobs, and I don't currently have a vehicle. That's not a "poor me," or anything; it's the way things are, and it works for us. The point is that, aside from our pets, I'm at home alone, with nowhere to go, and that it's a daily thing. I have housework to take care of, but that really doesn't take too much time. The rest of the day is completely mine.
Sounds great, right?
For the most part, yeah, it is pretty awesome. I can walk away from most projects when I start to get overwhelmed or bored or I just feel like doing something else for a little while. The problem is that I have no daily structure, and it's easy to either get extremely bored very quickly, or get sucked into something and not walk away from it until it's 5:30 and time for dinner. Either way, it becomes extremely difficult to focus on the one thing I'm trying to get back into:
Writing.
Lack of structure and an excess of free time makes it so endlessly difficult to muster the self-discipline to write daily. When I can spend literally all day long playing video games and have pretty much no negative repercussions from that act, it's easy to do just that. When I get bored and nothing is stopping me from just going to take a nap, it's really really easy to do just that. The hard thing is putting my butt in the chair, switching on my brain, and doing something that can be difficult, frustrating, and, when it comes to editing, occasionally tedious.
Today I'm letting myself bask in laziness and lack of structure, because I have at least acknowledged the problem. I'm going to get it all out of my system. Tomorrow, however, starts the days of a specific time frame in which I will write. Saying "I'll write [x] amount a day" hasn't cut it, because that [x] amount gets lost in all the free time. Saying "I'll write from noon to one every day" has a lot less wiggle room.
Self-discipline is hard, but I think I can do this.
'Til next time,
J.
1 comment:
"When I can spend literally all day long playing video games and have pretty much no negative repercussions from that act, it's easy to do just that."
Yup. So many evenings playing video games, instead of writing (and instead of housework....)
I envy you your days alone, though, and your freedom of structure. You can get yourself going!
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