I’m halfway through the month, but yesterday, I realized there was an experiment I needed to do, so I’m starting it now, even if it’s a bit late into the month.
I’ve been writing for most of my life. I’ve been self-publishing for over 14 years now. I thought I’d be further along by now, but I can pretty definitively say that the reason I’m not is because I’ve struggled so long with trying to get faster in a way that hasn’t worked for me. I may never get faster, and I’m tired of that struggle, to be honest. I think pushing so hard for it at various times has led to burn out and blocks and other struggles that have really affected my desire to write when I most needed to do it to keep up my momentum. I don’t think I’ll ever be faster than I am now—or at least I don’t think me consciously pushing for it is going to make it happen. Who knows what the future will bring?
Anyway, my point is that I’ve decided to eliminate some of the things that get in my way, things that make me having feelings that affect my joy in writing, and that aren’t helpful. These things might be tied to perfectionism. (Isn’t everything?)
I often use timers to keep me focused while I write. They work. They work really well. And then I see the WPH that my spreadsheet usually calculates for me (because once I’m using timers I can’t seem to avoid tracking them), and it jump-starts that internal critic. That’s all you did? You should try for more words next time! Didn’t you focus? Why aren’t you faster? Why can so-and-so write so many words in a sprint/session/hour but you can’t? What’s wrong with you?
Yeah.
That kind of criticism isn’t good for anyone. It certainly isn’t good for me.
So this experiment for January came to mind.
I’m going to use my timers and (gasp) not track a single one of them. Total word counts for the day is all I’ll pay attention to. It’s all I ever should pay attention to, anyway. I won’t stop tracking that, because it keeps me moving forward and it is important to me. I’ve been tracking my daily word count since August 2012. I like having that record of my progress.
But as for the rest? I don’t need it.
At the end of January in about two weeks, I’ll see how I feel about the experiment and if I want to make it permanent. Or if I’ve managed to pick up a habit of not caring about those sessions metrics. :D That’d be nice.