The dark side
In January of this year, I set a goal of writing at least twice a month. Shockingly, I haven’t met that goal over the past three months. I tried. I really did. I jotted down several ideas, outlined a bunch of drafts, and took a stab at finishing & publishing a few of them. So what happened?
It wasn’t for lack of ideas – I had plenty of them. The problem was that I was forcing it. I was working to meet an artificial quota that I’d arbitrarily created. The process felt rushed, and nothing that I wrote left me feeling any satisfaction. The craft was being suffocated by the timeline.
The light side
I’ve removed the quota, hoping it will allow my writing room to breathe. Like any craft, it should be given a chance to mature on its own. Deadlines of any sort, even the most informal, have the potential to harm craft.
It feels like a baby step, as if I should have accomplished more in three months. That being said, it will have been entirely worth it if this leads to more satisfying writing.
