![\"1-writer\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/1-writer.jpeg?resize=245%2C205\")
Confession time.<\/p>\nConfession time.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been about a month since I sent in my most recent story submission to a publisher and I haven\u2019t written a single word of fiction since that day. I can make a bunch of excuses, like I\u2019ve been working on edits for three different stories, or I wrote a non-fiction book during that time, or I was sick, or gone for a week at GRL.<\/p>\n
The fact is they are just excuses. I\u2019m shocked how many days go by without sitting down to focus on writing a story I love and can\u2019t wait to put down on paper. And there are plenty of stories acting themselves out in my head at any moment in time. That may be a scary thought, but for me it\u2019s comforting.<\/p>\n
How many stories are in your head trying to get your attention? Have you also been promising yourself you\u2019ll get some words down and you\u2019re also falling short of your goals?<\/p>\n
So, I\u2019m going to stop making excuses for myself and I\u2019m making a pact with you that I\u2019m going to get at least 500 words down every day on fiction. No matter how many edits I have or financial articles I write, I promise to spend some time writing something I love every day. I\u2019d love for you to join me in that goal. I\u2019ll do a post a week with how I measured up, and I would love for you to stop by and let me know how you did. Maybe we can get an active group together, just like I did when I tried to lose weight.<\/p>\n
It worked for weight loss, so it can work for writing too.<\/p>\n
![\"1-happy](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/1-happy-writer.jpeg?resize=200%2C252\")
November is NaNoWriMo, and I plan to participate. I can sit down and crank out my 2000 words per day and finish a novel. But why stop there? After November 30 I still want to keep my promise to myself\u2014and to you\u2014that I\u2019ll keep writing at least those 500 words every day.<\/p>\n
500 words doesn\u2019t sound like much, but I know it adds up. If you only get 500 words a day, you\u2019ll have 15,000 at the end of a month, and that\u2019s a novella, or a big chunk of a novel. If you\u2019re like me, just sitting down and starting gets the words flowing and I sail right past 500 to 750 or 1000 without noticing. That\u2019s the beauty of writing regularly. It becomes second nature and ideas form without conscious thought. It\u2019s a beautiful thing. It awes and inspires me every time it happens.<\/p>\n
But it doesn\u2019t happen unless we sit down and start with that very first word each day. Every day.<\/p>\n
Who wants to sign up for the 500 words a day pact? Let\u2019s try to do it until the end of the year. I know holidays are coming and family commitments, but if we stand together, we can find ways to cram in a few words here and there. I promise to share some of my own tips to find time to write and I want to hear yours. I\u2019ll put them all down in a special post and link to it from every weekly posting.<\/p>\n
Ready. Set. Write 500 words with me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Confession time. It\u2019s been about a month since I sent in my most recent story submission to a publisher and I haven\u2019t written a single word of fiction since that day. I can make a bunch of excuses, like I\u2019ve been working on edits for three different stories, or I wrote a non-fiction book during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":3092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[517,506,52,587,374,17,237],"tags":[673,917,18,674,675,676,911],"class_list":["post-3149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-blog-post","category-event","category-feature-article","category-nanowrimo","category-writing","category-writing-tips","tag-500-words-a-day","tag-event","tag-nano","tag-naonowrimo","tag-no-excuses","tag-pact","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/1-happy-writer.jpeg?fit=200%2C252","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pzLgx-ON","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}