This week, I feel like the Little Engine That Could, when he’s right on the precipice and needs one more push to get himself over the mountain. My goal was to finish my novel draft by November 30. It’s currently at 104,000 words– which is almost 15,000 words than I’d planned for– but I’m still not done. I have about 10,000 words needed to finish the story, and only five days left to do it. I would have been a lot closer today, except that on Thanksgiving, I stumbled. My Little Engine halted, and I lost momentum. 

The reason I stumbled was because I stopped writing for one day.

Yes, just one day. And that made it so much harder to write the next day that I wasn’t able to meet my word count. I’ve been writing less in the three days since Thanksgiving than I have in weeks. All because I decided to take a holiday. 

It’s a lesson I’ve learned before, but apparently have to learn again: when I want a project to succeed, I MUST write every day. There can be no exceptions. It’s infinitely harder for me to pick up something after a lost day than it is to keep the thread going. It would have been perfectly fine if I’d just lowered my bar and written 100 or 200 words on Thanksgiving; I would have been able to start back up with a lot less effort the next day. Instead, I chose not to touch the manuscript at all, which turned my holiday into a big stumbling block. 

I’ve been having the same sort of problem here on the blog. For awhile now, I’ve been posting about once a month. I also publish my newsletter once a month, and write a DIY MFA post once a month. That’s a reasonable schedule for me while I’m focusing my writing energy on a novel. But it’s hard to write blog posts on that schedule– harder than it is to write every day. Back in April, when I blogged for two weeks straight, the ideas just kept coming. Those posts were a joy to write, and I didn’t think too hard about each one, because I knew there’d be a new one the next day. But ever since I went back to monthly posts, each post feels like it has to be really good because it’s the only one my readers will get. It’s a lot more pressure, and consequently I think my blog writing is worse. I’m not sure how to solve the problem, because I really don’t have time to blog daily or even weekly, but when I can’t write every day, it’s harder. 

What I can’t figure out is WHY it’s harder.

The ideas are still in my head, the materials are just as available, and I haven’t measurably changed in the day since I last wrote. Why is it so much harder to write after a one-day break than it is the next morning? Is 24 hours the threshold for losing the thread of a story? And why don’t other writers seem to have the same problem? “Write Every Day” is conventional writer wisdom, yet I know plenty of writers who bristle when you suggest it to them. This rule isn’t true for everyone. But I’ve learned that it’s true for me.

It’s a mystery of the universe. Why must I write every day?

Until I figure it out, I’m going to keep doing it. My “holidays” will consist of writing a paragraph or two instead of nothing. I won’t drop the thread, because picking it up will be so much harder. 

And right now, I need to write like mad, because I have a novel to finish and a November 30 deadline. 

I’ll see you on the other side!