"The human individual lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum. In elementary faculty, in coordination, in power of inhibition and control, in ever conceivable way, his life is contracted like the field of vision of an hysteric subject--but with less excuse, for the poor hysteric is diseased, while in the rest of us, it is only an inveterate habit--the habit of inferiority to our full self--that is bad." ~ William James, Energies of Man, 1907
Why am I posting this quote? Because, as I get ready to face 2023 (I know, but it's already mid-November!!), I want to remind myself that it's too easy to let routine (or whatever other life event might be hitting me at one point or another) take over and sap my momentum.
Steven Kotler says in his book, The Art of Impossible, that we "lose by not trying to play full out, by not trying to do the impossible."
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| *Not a true representation of my writing desk |
The key for me, I believe, is to figure out how to get into the flow, where I can spend hours uninterrupted plunged into my own stories. As Kristine Kathryn Rusch wrote in one of her newsletters, "[r]eally good writers binge-write, the way many of us binge-read an author or binge-watch a really good show." That's what I want to work up to.
As Kotler stated, "the only real way to discover if you are capable of pulling off the impossible--whatever that is for you--is by attempting to pull off the impossible." And if I can't pull it off? Well, at least I'd be failing upwards. Right?
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Don't beat yourself up too much. Remember, you've already published a trilogy. You did that! You did the work. You set yourself a goal and stuck to it.
ReplyDeleteIt's not always easy finding time to write as you're juggling a full-time job and other responsibilities. Even 500 words are still 500 words extra.
Good luck!