What that means is that for the length of time you designate (half an hour, 45 minutes, an hour, etc.), you will write by hand (on actual paper). You will turn off all of your Internet-connected devices (or put them away/get away from them). And you will find a remote spot in which to work—in other words, don’t do this at the same place where you usually write. Go into a different room. Go outside. If you can, get out of the house and go work somewhere else, like your public library or a coffee shop.

Well, this time has been no different than the few times I’ve tried this before—ever since completing my last contracted book in 2013, I’ve been unable to overcome the procrastination and laziness that overwhelms me whenever I think about sitting down to write.

It’s not that I don’t want to write—or at least do something creative. As most of you well know, I deal with depression on a daily basis. Not only am I wired for it, but I also take medication that exacerbates it. (And medication to try to counteract that.) I work from home so I don’t really feel much accountability to keep a regular daily schedule, despite telling myself every weekend that this week I’m going to make myself get up at a regular time and sit at the work computer for eight hours—with breaks, of course—and focus on my job instead of allowing myself to get distracted with other stuff, which just makes the work day extend well into the evening; and then I don’t feel like doing anything else. And it just becomes a vicious loop of distraction and procrastination and wallowing in the “blah” feeling of unmotivation that the depression brings on, instead of working to overcome it.

In the past couple of months, I’ve found myself returning more and more frequently to that outlet and losing myself in it for hours at a time. It isn’t writing—it’s both analytical (scouring websites for events that “we” could go to/be involved with and setting up a calendar of events) and visual (creating virtual paper dolls of me and the template for the imaginary husband—a guy I found on a stock photo site—choosing outfits, which means lots of virtual shopping for the clothes and accessories, and even down to choosing restaurants and “ordering” our meals at each one from viewing their menus online). It’s something that uses many of my skills: analytical, creative, graphic, design. However, it isn’t really productive, and it’s really just more procrastination.

So, my “imaginary husband” project has created an object-at-rest state for me. It’s a lot like overeating junk food—it’s satisfying in the moment, but then as soon as it’s over, I feel guilty for not making better choices. Which just makes overcoming the mental/emotional hurdles that much harder.

It’s so easy to sit here, while writing this post, and tell myself this time it’ll be different. This time, I’ll actually stick to my commitment to write daily. This time, I’m really going to do it. But those are just words. And words are easy to say (type). Action is harder.

But then, thinking about everything that I need to change (work schedule, writing schedule, being a better housekeeper, making healthier food choices, etc.), it becomes overwhelming. So I know I need to make smaller changes. Getting up 20 minute earlier every day until I’m back on a normal work schedule. Setting a timer for one hour and making myself focus on work before taking a 10-minute break. Writing 50 words. Then 100 words. Then 200 words. Taking it in small chunks until I’ve built up the INERTIA needed to be an object that stays in motion.

It’s 4 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. I’ve already done most of my work for today (just need to send in my daily report). So that means the rest of the evening is mine to do with what I will. So here’s what I’m going to accomplish tonight:

1. Write/publish a blog post. (DONE!)
2. Write at least 200 words on my novel between now and the time I go to bed.
3. Take the trash out (trash-pickup is early Thursday morning on my street).
4. Unload the dishwasher and put the dishes currently in the sink into it.
5. Put the couple of boxes of stuff that need to go to Goodwill in the car.

Now we’re back on schedule and ready to get our (writing)motors started for a new week of possibilities, goals, and untold story waiting to be written.

I don’t know how many of you have been around since I was actively writing my books under contract. But if you’ve been here that long, you know that I wrote most of them on very short-turnaround deadlines, which is what happens when you sign contracts to write three 100,000-word books per year. Of course, the fact that I’m a professional procrastinator doesn’t help, either. So I ended up writing most of them in an adrenaline-fueled panic mere weeks before the deadline, most right up to (literally) the last second before emailing the manuscripts to my editors. I quickly had to learn to write final-draft quality, because I never had time to go back and even re-read the full manuscript after finishing the last chapter (I did re-read in pieces, and kept up-to-date scene cards with a summary of what happened in each chapter I’d written so I’d know what I’d covered and what I hadn’t), much less do any revision.

But I wanted to reassure you all that FirstDraft120 isn’t finished, nor have I given up on it. I’ll be back with daily posts on Monday, 11/28/16.

In the meantime, I hope if you weren’t also taking a break this week, you followed the schedule of . . .

• Motivating yourself on Monday.
• Doing a 1k1hr sprint on Tuesday.
• Reviewing and updating your story bible on Wednesday.
• Having a THORsday on Thursday.
• And reviewing your successes, word count totals, awesome accomplishments, and sharing some tidbits on Friday.

Take the time on Saturday to do any catching up you need to in order to meet your weekly goal(s) or to update your story bible or do some brainstorming. Sunday, reflect on what it means to have an attitude of gratitude as you write and how that can impact your writing.