Zombies: Day 16

I've been getting in a little more work today than the last few days.  I crunched the numbers and realized, "Hey, it took me four days to write two thousand words!  Maybe I ought to step on it?"  I've written just over half of today's word count, and I'll see if I can get at least a little more done; because if I can get a little more work done, then I'm just that much closer to the end.

I'm still struggling to get back into the groove.  When you have a slip-up, it's easy to follow that with another one, and another after that, and then you've dug yourself into a hole before you know it.  So today, as I've been getting my words down, I've also been brainstorming a set of rules and guidelines that might help me get back on track and see this thing through to the end.

In fact, I'm going to print this out, stick it to the wall by my desk and read it once or twice a day as a reminder:

• I will stop punishing myself for failing to meet the previous day's quota.  Like they say in Tibet (or in that movie Seven Years in Tibet), "If a problem can be solved, there is no use worrying about it.  If it can't be solved, worrying will do no good."
• I will set aside a day or two each week to really push myself in order to catch up on my word count.
• When the clock strikes 1:00 AM, I will stop writing for the day and go to sleep, because all-nighters just aren't doing it for me.
• I don't want to wake up early.  I also don't want to drive on the right side of the road, pay my bills, or wear pants, but I have to.  So in order to get the most out of my day, I will wake up early.
• I will let my friends help me to succeed, especially the non-writers.  Chuck Wendig said, "You need the people in your life to know that this is an important thing to you, that they'll need to accommodate your writing hours.  The people in your life deserve to know, and they deserve a chance to help you accomplish this thing you want to accomplish."