Day 27 - Matt's Monday Musings - Slow Going

This last week has been busy to say the least. I finished planting my garden, discovered my tenants are moving out of my basement a few months earlier than I has wrongly assumed (their lease was up, I just thought they would stay to the end of the summer) and so I've had to work harder at my actual job to try and generate more funds to cover the loss of income. I mowed out yard, hauled out an old clothesline pole from the 1940's that had a couple hundred pounds of cement on it (when pulled it out of the ground with my truck, it bent the super-thick steel 70 degrees before I was able to move it...). I've had a terrible sinus and throat infection for the past few weeks that has made extended speaking difficult. My dad is still in the hospital with leukemia and I spent a considerable amount of time researching other doctors and facilities versus his current location. Thankfully, we found an outstanding option there with Huntsman, who just accepted him into their program, and we'll be transferring him next week. While visiting my dad this evening, my wife called and said my infant son had fallen off the couch and put his two front teeth through the middle of his tongue, and there was a lot of blood.

So I know that was a disjointed paragraph, but it got the information out. I am exhausted. Days like this make me want to just say "Tonight, don't worry about writing or blogging." In the future perhaps I will schedule a weekly break. But not now. Not while I am solidifying habits.

Habits then is the key to success as a writer. I could take a break, and be completely justified. Yet I realize that with my personality, I could then more easily justify breaks for lesser things. Before I knew what was happening, I would be taking more break days than writing days. I am working now on improving that aspect of me. Even though the going has definitely become tough, I keep on going. This way I know that when I really cannot blog or write one or multiple days, I will have the mental fortitude, perhaps even the craving, to get back on the horse as soon as possible.

As a consequence of my busy week, I have written very little, but I have written daily. Not a day has gone by where a few sentences weren't written. And I have a goal: 10% of my novel written by day 30. It's ambitious. I'll need to do some sprint writing. I may not make it, but by golly, I am going to shoot for the stars.

Categories: Author Blog , Daily Blog , Matt Tandy , Matthew Tandy , Monday Musings