One word at a time

This week has been a rough one, for different reasons. For the first time in a long time, I didn't post on Monday. Well, I did post, but then I erased it because I didn't like it. (Blame the inner editor, but the outer one was in agreement.) I've been working through The Writer's Portable Mentor and following Kristi Holl's advice to actually do the assignments. That's perhaps why I'm still stuck on chapter one. It's much easier to zip through a book on writing and not do the actual assignments, but as Kristi pointed out on her blog, that doesn't produce the results that you want as a writer. So I'm bound and determined not to venture past chapter one until I'm done with the assignments that go with it.

Also, while I was knocking out Examiner articles for the past ten days (and no, I didn't win the ipad that went with the incentive), I let the other writing in my life go. Unfortunately, that means that I didn't make much progress on my novel and lost a lot of momentum. I have had to re-evaluate this week, and kick back into a regular word quota. Even though I feel intimidated by writing a novel (as opposed to a picture book), I just need to stick to it and get it done the same way I do any other kind of writing: one word at a time.

So hopefully you've all been more productive than I have lately, but condemning yourself doesn't do any good. You just have to learn from the past, sit down, and get back to writing. One word at a time.