Stamina

*FYI:  I had the urge to leave my dream again, but I stayed. I discovered that nothing beats the feeling of waking up and wondering what would have happen next...I never was a fan of cliff hangers, until now I guess?

I read not so long time ago a blog post by Nathan Bransford about how important is as a writer to have stamina. Writing a book is not as easy as it sounds (I'm talking to you writer-posers!) When you first start, and that idea is fresh out of your neurons, the process seems as simple as one word following the next. It all depends on each case, but in my case, as soon as I hit page fifty I felt I hated my story and started to have doubts about whether it worked or not— whether it was worth writing or not!

Funny thing is, the same thing happens to me with boyfriends. At the beginning I feel I can't live without them, and that I must have them. But once they are in "the net", I am bored bored bored, and I'm ready for the next one. This is exactly how I feel about my current book. I'm not even remotely close to being done, but I am already done. I want this to end.

So I took a break from writing. I stopped thinking about it, I did other things. I went for long bike rides with my boyfriend and the dog, watched movies, made cupcakes, stare into space. I did everything possible not to think about writing, or about the story. I made an effort not to read about technology, or watch TED videos, or browse Tesla's patent list.

After all that I feel disappointed, defeated...I wish I had the stamina to continue.

My life has gone through some changes recently. My job situation is not as solid as it used to be, and this I see as a blessing. I might not have stamina, but I do have motivation —from outside sources— to continue writing my book until the end. My new plan is to set —for the 100th time— a  daily quota of 2000 words. Is it too much? Too little? I don't think so. I work full time, and I drive one hour to and from work.

I've heard many times "it's about quality and not quantity" but listen: you can't say this to a writer who hasn't develop the will power to continue. We must continue even if we go back and discover that what we wrote was shit awful. We can always edit.

Just as a comment, not advertisement because I don't have any relation with them: I use scrivener and it's awesome, highly recommend it.

Ok, back to work-work.