Page A Day: It's scientifically proven to work

I am now half-way through the page-a-day challenge and I'm so excited about how far I've come. In the last 16 days I've added 39 pages and 11,000 words!!  I've discovered that the crazy scientist I had to learn about in middle school was right: an object in motion stays in motion. Or in writer's terms, a writer in momentum stays in momentum.

The more I write, the more I want to write.

On the other hand, the blogging has suffered. One can't conquer in all arenas at the same time.

If you've been with me on this blog longer than a few months, you might remember that I started a story well over a year ago... one that I struggled with on and off for a year until finally, in March, giving up and diving into the one I'm writing now.

The thing was, I couldn't get all the pieces of the story to fit. I had these characters, great, fantastic characters that I totally and completely knew and loved. But I didn't have a story for them. I tried. I tried hard to get them a decent plot. But every part felt forced.

Today, suddenly, having not thought of these characters in a long while, the plot fell into place. The entire, whole of it. And suddenly now I am anxious to start that story all over.

But first I need to give my current characters an end, and instead of wanting to rush over and change allegiances, I actually want to stick it out and finish this one before starting the other.  I take that as a good sign.

This past year and a half has been rough, writing-wise. Of course, I did sell my book, go through edits and revisions, and get it published, but there was plenty of time in there to get another one written, and I didn't. Not for lack of trying, but somehow I just struggled settling into a new story. And I think part of that was the pressure to write a lot. Every day. 1,000 words or 1,800 words. 2,000 if I thought I had nothing else to do during the school hours.

This page-a-day challenge has been freeing. A page isn't always easy, but it's not overwhelming by any stretch, and when I feel like going to bed or clicking to check my social media friends, I think, "Just one page. That's it." And when I do it, it feels triumphant.

I've stopped beating myself up over small successes and started saying, "A small success is a success no matter."  The little things really do add up to something big.

It took 3 months to get 15,000 words down. Painful months. If you'd have told me in March that I would've reached 40,000 by May, and 60,000 by June, I would have laughed at you.

The bucket is filling. Little by little word, it's filling. And it feels good.