Yesterday, the first day of the new beat strategy, didn’t feel very productive. I didn’t make it through the whole first beat and I didn’t write any faster or any better than I usually do. That said, I wrote three blog posts, plus just under 1000 words on the nameless story, plus revised and tweaked the words from New Year’s Day, plus set up a Goodreads giveaway for A Gift of Time and so I got a lot done. But not finishing the beat made it seem like not enough.

Today’s goal: 1000 words, finish the first beat, start the second. And, I hope, feel better about my writing as I’m doing it. Yesterday was one of those days when every word felt sticky, hard to let go of. One paragraph in particular, I knew so well what I meant, but I just couldn’t get the words to express the idea. A beautiful image in my head of a conversation rich with undercurrents and secret messages turned out clunky as anything on the screen. C’est la vie. More words today with the firm reminder in the back of my head that I’m still working on my first million words, still learning. If they’re not good enough today, maybe in another 100,000 words they’ll be better.