Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Taking the Easy Way Out

I have a daily word goal of writing 1,000 words a day. (Now you know why I never blog.) A few days ago I'd hit the 700 word mark, took a break, came back to the computer when Word encountered a "fatal error." Basically my words were lost and they weren't coming back. Even auto save wouldn't kick in.

At that point, I realized I had two choices. Choice one: get angry, stop writing, and go through the rest of my day feeling bitter. Choice two: Re-write those 700 words and 300 more after that.

Obviously, choice one would have been easiest. But I have a daily word goal. I suppose I could have cheated, written 300 words and been done with it. But that wouldn't have counted in my book.

I started again, mad at first, but then found re-writing those words came pretty easily. When I'd finished, I'd written 1,100 words.

Lesson learned: Be persistent, even if the easy way out means less work, is more appealing, and takes less time. I don't think anyone can finish writing a book by taking the easy way out.