I made a goal of getting ten thousand words done today, and it didn’t happen. I slept in, thanks to too much excellent German beer and good company the night beforehand. I had all those pesky things one needs to use a weekend for, and it got right up my nose that, as I sat down, an excellent idea I’d had for dialogue had slipped through my fingers. I didn’t want to write at all. I was tired and so annoyed that the dialogue had escaped me that I wanted to leave it be for the day.
So I sat and wrote.
I didn’t make my goal but there is still a part of the evening left and several thousand words already done.
Writing stories isn’t just about finding the time to write, it’s about writing when you know the story is missing something, about pushing on through past the barrier of writer’s block. It only stops you as long as you let it.
I’m not going to be happy with today’s writing and that’s alright. It’s more important that the plot moved on, that there are good bits coming up, and that I at least got something done.
I know too many people who want to be authors and couldn’t get past this point, and it won’t stop me and shouldn’t stop you.
Just write.
Write through the writers block, put word after word down just to get to the bit you know well. You can always come back to the bit you didn’t like and edit it.
It’s hard to grasp the concept that it doesn’t have to be perfectly formed, or even the way you like it.
It doesn’t do anyone any good if you walk away, saying you’ll do it when it comes to you and letting it lie for a day. It becomes a week, a month, a year.
As I have just discovered, pausing to write my weekly update, it’s a far better thing to push on and find something new about your character you didn’t know was there because you pushed through that barrier.
It’s important to keep pushing through your own barriers, you won’t know how far you can get until you try.
E. J. Dawson 