You should be proud of the streak, Rob. That’s great. And that’s what things like streaks do. They challenge us in great ways and force us to overcome the things that get in our way. Great work!

A streak is good for me, better than The Race, but I can become quite comfortable in that habit and risk stagnation. In other words, routine means I can just go through the motions, it’s safe, and I don’t need to push myself. Wrong. Have to push beyond the 500 words a day, find out why I’m not finishing things, and get rid of those bad writing habits that crop up from fear or any of the other games the procrastinating/avoidance game the mind can come up with.

I feel quite proud about the streak (over 150 days and counting) yet there’s those mind games lurking lurking lurking . . .

This is a wonderful set of essays (chapters?) and I hope to someday see them gathered together in a print book. In the meantime, check out the birthday present I sent. It will tell you how much I value what you are doing.

Sandy

That’s exactly how I trained myself to stay at the computer, Jack. I set up a clock radio alarm on a nasty station across the room and sat at my desk until the dang thing went off. I cleared everything from the area–no books, no games, nothing on the computer but my writing–and didn’t let myself move until an hour went by. I got so bored that I eventually had to write. It worked. Some people say it takes discipline to stay in the chair, but I think it was just another mind game. I was trying to outwait myself and failed. 🙂

Cindie, I do it daily, and I consider it overhead. But I write fiction, so I can’t really add a bill to my publishers with a charge for maintenance. (Would that I could!) In fact, I don’t bill unless someone is horribly late with payment or they work on an invoice system. Other freelancers might be able to answer you better than I can on this one.

I’ve also realized that though I am a freelancer, in many ways, it’s really just my day job. I write nonfiction for a living. I want to write novels. I always assumed that what got me through the nonfiction should get me through the fiction. I now have a better understanding of why it doesn’t. Money motivates me with fiction — my income is crucial to my family — but love of writing motivates me with nonfiction. The problem with that is that I have always put stuff that feeds me behind stuff that feeds others. So making money to support the fam is more important than doing something just because I love it, no matter how good it makes me feel. Doing anything for anyone always feels more important than doing the most important thing for me.

Now to figure out how to nip that in the bud and find some balance. Thanks, Kris!