WIPs and Chains

Edited to add: Once again Blogger has failed me and failed to post my scheduled post when it was supposed to. I really must learn to check these things. Here it is anyway.

Well I've been busily and happily writing away this week on my WIP, back into delicious and exciting creativity!  I've been so happily tracking my progress, because sometimes writing seems so slow. When you start those first few pages and know you have three or four hundred more to go, it's kind of intimidating.

Which got me thinking about word counts and writing goals.

I know some writers have a word count goal for every day - they make themselves write that many words. I've never been one that does that. I guess it was mostly because when I started writing I was fitting it in around everything else in  my life - my day job and my family. But it was also because I never had to force msyelf to write - I had to force myself to stop writing. (What do you mean you want dinnner?Why do you have to eat?)

Although I've had to balance the writing with other things, I have to be honest and say that family comes first. Even though my kids are older now, which is in part why I finally got to do this - I never could have done it when they were younger, because they took up MY WHOLE LIFE - they still are important. When my daughter comes down to tell me about the party she went to last night or the argument she had with her best friend, that takes priority over writing. When my husband needs help with something or my son needs a ride over to a friend's place, that takes priority over writing.

And so, I've never set a word count goal because I know there are days I'm not going to be able to do it - when there's homework to be done, a band concert to go to or my kids want to go to a movie (when they're teenagers and they want to go to a  movie with their parents, we don't say no!).

My goal has always been to write as much as I can. Whenever I can. And so far, that's working out pretty well.