Who needs willpower anyway?
The answer is me. I do. I need all the willpower I can get (and then some). If willpower were tin cans, I’d be diving face first into people’s recycling bins on a nightly basis trying to find enough to tide me over and keep me from doing anything rash.
My current predicament is as follows: I’ve generated no less than 5 new story ideas in the past week (two of which came just today). As a result, I’ve had to fight a valiant fight to keep myself from trying to start them. The itch of newness grows more profound the further I delve into The Bad Ones (2014′s NaNoWriMo novel), and, as a result, it becomes harder to keep from scratching (and I really, really want to scratch). As of yesterday, I’m 51k words deep, up to my eyeballs in difficult characters, confusingly inconsistent plot, and downright poorly executed narrative that, when I reread the next day, makes me want to laugh or cry or eat Ben & Jerry’s (or all of the above simultaneously). When so overwhelmed by your own creation, it’s hard not to abandon it for greener pastures, for something new and fresh. But I’m fighting it, and I’m winning (for now).
In a completely unrelated Google search (laser tag franchises, if you must know - did I mention I aimlessly wander the internet when I should be writing?), I happened upon the July cover of Entrepreneur magazine entitled The Virtue & Vice Edition. The article front and center? The Successful Entrepreneur’s Secret Weapon: Willpower. In the V&V edition, there are several articles on willpower, including how to ‘build’ your willpower muscle. Being a writer, I don’t believe I fit the mold of a traditional entrepreneur (if there exists such a thing), but I find the articles they’ve provided to be helpful when applied to writing as well as many other pursuits in life. It’s the kind of stuff we all know innately, but it’s nice to be reminded every now and again so we can get back on the saddle of impassioned creativity.
Side note: following writing boards on Pinterest has also been quite helpful in motivating me... and just as distracting as the rest of the internet, if not more. Follow and pin at your own risk. You’ve been warned.
So, in a bid to put this refresher course on willpower to work, I’ll jot down my new ideas with a bit of a sulk (because I’m still in the honeymoon phase and they’ve yet to become a huge pain in my ass) and store them away for later. Meanwhile, I’ll accelerate toward the horizon with The Bad Ones and try not to hit so many potholes that I start a new story out of frustration and lament the whole ordeal when that story, too, gives me grief. It’s an inevitable cycle, I’ve found. And, well, I should probably try to break it at some point.
Now seems like as good a time as any.
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