Five days into my challenge and I’ve met or exceeded my 500 word goal each day. The backpacking season hasn’t started yet, so I haven’t had any 100 word days, but those days will come soon enough.
The story I started this week is one that I’ve had in my head for a while, but never started writing. And then I had a different story that I had started but never finished that I’m also working on.
I like writing more than one story at a time. When one isn’t flowing, I can switch to the other and get something going. Once I’m in a story mode, it’s easier to get back to the one I was stuck on and figure out which words come next.
I’m thinking about starting a third story for this week, because I don’t think the one I started is going to be finished by Thursday. It feels longer than that. The solution would be to write a flash fiction piece tonight so that I have something completed for the week. I enjoyed the micro fiction exercises in my last class, so I could go even shorter. I’ll probably go for between 500 and 1000 words unless I feel like my first story is getting close to ending.
My main issue so far in maintaining this has been being tired. When I’m tired, I don’t want to write and I get whiny. Having the “deadline” of getting my 500 words in has helped me get past the “I don’t wanna” feeling and just get it done.
The streak aspect helps, too, and I know it will only help more as it grows. If I don’t want to break a 3 or 4 day streak, I definitely won’t want to break a longer one.