Tell the Story!

I felt burned out when I woke up this morning. It’s a Saturday and I wanted to sleep in. But I got up at first-meow anyway (the meowing will only intensify if I don’t and I wanted the rest of the family to be able sleep in).

For the last two days, I’d had a hard time fitting writing into the day-job-and-family schedule and my energy bucket had run dry. That happens sometimes. So I’d turned in a couple hundred words of nonsense just to keep the streak technically going.

I felt like kicking that can down the road another day. I mean, I’m still ahead of my (small) word goal for the month anyway.

But then a really obvious thing hit me: I remembered what I was doing all this for in the first place. I want to tell this story!

I’ve had this thing rattling around in my head for eight years and I really want to get it all out to see if it’s any good. This one is aimed at all audiences and I really want to read it to my kids.

Suddenly, the situation had completely changed. I felt a pressure to get the next scene out so I could move on to the next. And in the process, I sped it up, too, which will probably make it more fun to read anyway.

Word count goals are great. But the ultimate motivator is the desire to get the story out, so it’s no longer trapped in my head.

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