Compared to last year, this NaNoWriMo served as a kickstart for my writing. I hadn't been writing as much or as regularly in 2015 compared to previous years because of a greater workload at my day job. It got to the point where I was only writing on weekends, and then I'd have a hard time getting myself back into my story once I sat down to write. However, with NaNoWriMo last month, I found that, as the month progressed, it became easier to write, even during the week.
The experience reminds me of how I feel about exercising. I try to do some form of exercise every day, even if it's just twenty minutes on a treadmill. The reason is that, if I take a few days off from my workout routine, it becomes significantly harder to get back into it. By my rough estimate, for every two days that I don't exercise, it takes me a day to get back into shape. However, if I don't stop exercising, I don't get out of shape, and my daily routine doesn't feel like a chore anymore.
My writing followed the same pattern during NaNoWriMo. Last month, since I wrote every day, it was easy to keep on writing, even if it was just for half an hour. No wonder I felt so sluggish before November. I hadn't been exercising my "writing muscle." Since I didn't write for five days and tried to get back into it on Saturday, I wasn't able to get into a rhythm until the weekend was over. This year's NaNoWriMo has taught me that I have to try to keep up a writing routine every day if I can. It will actually make my writing easier.
No comments:
Post a Comment