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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Working It Out Wednesday: Small Steps

Sometimes I get overwhelmed when I think about the amount of pages I need to write to finish my book.  When my heart starts beating faster than it should when I'm sitting in front of the computer, I take a few deep breaths and refocus on the amount of pages I want to write for THE DAY.  I begin to write and often I write more than I planned to.  Those written pages for the day put me that much closer to the end of the story.

Perhaps you've heard the advice to "write everyday".  I've heard this advice first hand from published authors, I've read it in writing journals, and I've told myself to do the same thing.  Although, I usually interpret the "everyday" part to "Monday thru Friday" because as much as I would love to write on Saturdays and Sundays, it usually doesn't happen because that's family time.

During my pregnancies, 40 weeks seemed so long and far away, but once I hit 30 weeks into my pregnancy, I then began the 10-week-countdown and suddenly, those 10 weeks flew and before I knew it I had a beautiful baby in my arms.  My book is like another "pregnancy" so-to-speak.  It's growing and developing and now that I'm working on the last 100 pages, I feel like I've begun the 10-week-countdown again.  Baby steps to the big finale - a complete book that I've written.

Continue to write words, paragraphs, and pages and soon those small steps will result in a finished piece of work. 

Below is a poem I found amongst my 7-year-old's school papers and wanted to share his Small Steps representing Spring.

Daffodils from our front yard
Spring
Spring has sprung.
Put on your rain boots.
Rain jacket.
I love Spring.
Nothing but mud.
Going to the park.



 Stay inspired and continue to write,

Elena

4 comments:

  1. Great post, Elena. And a very cute poem

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  2. Thank you, we love to get feedback as its a new blog but we're having so much fun with it.

    PS - My son's happy with having his poem on our blog too, he'll appreciate the compliment.

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  3. Such good advice, and I do hear it all the time. Sometimes you just need to do away with all the excuses and just sit down and write something! Even if it's only a small amount, they do add up =D

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  4. Kellie, thank you for the reminder to put on the blinders to the email inbox, laundry, phone, etc. I often want to create the optimal writing enviroment (mood music, candle, calmness, etc.) but that's usually far-fetched for my household. I recently had a contractor working in my house while I was writing. Guess he was so curious what I was doing on the computer he actually asked my son and my son told him I was "writing a book". I actually got alot written that day too, on a Saturday! Go figure.

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