You’ve begun working in earnest. The story is alive, your cylinders are firing. You’re getting up every morning and putting in the hours.
But then, something happens. Life delivers a distraction, and your story hangs in the balance.
You get a call that your friend needs help moving, or you get a speeding ticket and have to appear in court, or your spouse starts a fight with you about not spending any time with them because all you do is “write that darn book.”
This is the point where the writer often abandons ship. They rationalize that they will just help their friend move and give up writing for the day. They tells themselves that they really should spend more time with their spouse . . . and then they’ll return to their story at a later time.
But it doesn’t work like that. This is a test that every writer must face.
What if you approached your work-in-progress the way you do eating and sleeping? Do it each day, even if sometimes only a little.
Don’t break the habit. And don’t buy into guilt.
This means that you may have to become like a Jedi master. You can acknowledge your partner’s feelings and give them a hug. You can tell your friend that you don’t have time to help them move, and then buy them a lovely house-warming gift . . . and keep writing.
Stay out of the drama. Get your pages down, no matter what.
Learn more about marrying the wildness of your imagination to the rigor of structure in The 90-Day Novel, The 90-Day Memoir, or The 90-Day Screenplay workshops.
Setting a Plan with Purpose