Self-Encouragement
Because this journal is about inspiration, I feel it's appropriate to give myself a few short words of encouragement. November is marching forward, and reach 50k words is looking less and less likely, and certainly less enjoyable. I hate myself each moment that I'm not writing, and I dread each moment that I sit down to try again, feeling like I'm getting nowhere.
But just now, I asked myself, as many of the naysayers have done: why am I doing this if I hate it so much?
The answer is that I'm doing it because I have something I want to say, something inside me that can't be expressed any other way. And like any other birth, it's painful, but hopefully worthwhile in the end. I don't always hate it. I hate it when it's going poorly, but that's all a matter of perspective.
That being said, when I reach a place where I'm stuck, where the story so far seems to be nothing but a pile of rotting garbage, I should ask myself what it was that I wanted to say. Take a deep breath, or two, or five. Ignore all the places where I strayed from my path. Say something kind to myself. And then try again with fresh eyes.
But just now, I asked myself, as many of the naysayers have done: why am I doing this if I hate it so much?
The answer is that I'm doing it because I have something I want to say, something inside me that can't be expressed any other way. And like any other birth, it's painful, but hopefully worthwhile in the end. I don't always hate it. I hate it when it's going poorly, but that's all a matter of perspective.
That being said, when I reach a place where I'm stuck, where the story so far seems to be nothing but a pile of rotting garbage, I should ask myself what it was that I wanted to say. Take a deep breath, or two, or five. Ignore all the places where I strayed from my path. Say something kind to myself. And then try again with fresh eyes.