Camp NaNoWriMo 2014 - Day Five

Today, I do not feel like writing.

I am tired. I have a stomach ache. I want to go to bed. I want to fall asleep daydreaming about being a writer, but I don’t want to actually do the work to become a writer. After all, can’t I catch up on my novel tomorrow? It’s only day five. I can write extra some other day and catch up.

But the problem with that attitude is that once you give yourself that excuse, it becomes inifinitely easier to give that same excuse the next day. And the day after that. And while it can be easy to gradually catch up on one day’s work, it gets a little bit harder to catch up every day.

That is why I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo this year: I am out of the rhythm. I missing writing every day, and I think about writing most days, but I can’t force myself to open the document and start typing. The problem is that I am never going to finish a story that way; I’ll never get to do the parts I love. I will never be able to drive to a bookstore and see my name on a book that is sitting on shelves. I will never be able to share the world I have created.

So perhaps I am not going to write 1,666 words today. But I am going to try for one page. If nothing else, that will get me one page closer to my goal. Do the same.

TODAY'S PLOT DEVICE: A lost puppy shows up in the backyard. What happens next?