Day 87: Who would join me?

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 87: Who would join me?

Would anyone join me at this cottage? I'll get to the why later.

We’re halfway through the NaNoWriMo challenge and for several people, it’s going really well. Every day I read about people who write 3,000 – 5,000 or even 7,000 words per day. I sit and wonder … where do these people find the time?

Don’t any of these writers have jobs? And if they are stay-at-home people, don’t they have work to do around the house? There’s always something to do: 

making/changing the beds, dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, polishing, laundry, ironing, washing the bathroom, washing the kitchen, washing windows, washing floors, cleaning the deck, shopping, tending to the garden, cleaning gutters, cleaning the car, cooking, doing dishes, and more. Am I to assume that these writers neglect their homes for the sake of writing?

I also wonder what these people write about. I know from experience that the first couple of chapters flow easily. Chapters one to three or five practically write themselves, but then the trouble starts … how to continue. 

Inspiration doesn’t come on command, plenty of good writers sit at their computer, staring at the screen, their fingers motionless on the keyboard. Eventually, they write something, only to delete it. They write something else and that too gets rejected.

In between, there are a ton of distractions: the cat needs petting, the dog needs walking, cups of coffee or tea are made, emails need answering, friends drop by for a chat, Facebook games need playing, etc. etc. etc.

Few will be willing to admit it, but writers are notorious procrastinators. They will start writing tomorrow, or they will start writing after … well, any excuse will do.

A friend of mine took a writing course and while it made her a better writer, it also made her a slower writer. She once told me that, in order to create the perfect sentence, she often plays with the words for 10 or even 20 minutes. Safe to say, my friend won’t write 3,000 words per day. Which begs the question, what is the quality of some writers’ work?

As for NaNoWriMo, it’s a nice incentive for writers to get their bud in gear, but what happens at the end of November. From what I’ve been told … nothing. There are no prices to be won and nobody looks at the manuscripts.

If writers can produce the required 50,000 words in November, why can’t they do the same in any other month? Do writers really need an incentive? Ask most writers why they write and they will say … because I have to. A day without writing is a day wasted.

That’s how I feel. Every morning I wake up with plans to write, but as I mentioned earlier … any number of things get in the way. 

Ideally, I need to hole up in a cottage somewhere, with no WiFi. So, I wonder, when looking at the cottage above, how many writers would join me for a writing getaway.