I used to think that if I didn’t write every day in order to be a “real” writer. Or write a certain number of words per day, or hours per day. I believe it was Stephen King who writes 2000 words every day without fail, including holidays (I have his book On Writing here somewhere but am too lazy to go look up an exact quote).

Nothing makes me more eager to clean my house than the prospect of actually having to work on a writing project I’ve set aside for a while. Household projects that have lingered on my to-do list for months suddenly take on new urgency. Errands must be run. Friends must be contacted – preferably for a long, two-hour chat. Oh, is that the time? Guess I’m not writing today.

It happens to all of us, despite the best intentions. We make plans, we set writing goals – and next thing you know, we’re staring at the end of another week where we haven’t done as much writing as we’d hoped (maybe even none at all).  

I used to have a sign in my office. It was a photo of a cat lazing on a sunny windowsill, and the caption read, “The fun isn’t in doing nothing. It’s in having lots to do and not doing any of it.”

I admit, I’m certainly contrary that way. I’ll spend time doing anything I’m not supposed to be doing, but when you tell me I have to relax, or laze around in bed – whaddaya know, all I feel like doing is jumping up and getting stuff done.

It’s reverse psychology at its finest. A well-known human paradox that as soon as we have to do something, that’s the very thing we resist doing.

But still, you may be asking, Why would I want to spend LESS time writing?

I heard this from a writer the other day, and she’s not the only one. She thinks she’s lazy, unmotivated, or worse – not a “real” writer. I’ve heard all this before. I’ve even felt it at times.

Lately I’ve seen so many writers on social media fretting about sales, wondering when they’ll be able to write full time and make a living from it. They may have written one book, or several, but they seem tormented by the fact that they aren’t seeing “success” like they envisioned.

This mostly is true of indie writers, but a fair number of trad-pubbed or wanna-be trad-pubbed writers seem to think that earning a full time living from your writing is a norm, or at least a strong possibliity.

Let’s have a reality check for a moment: earning a living as a full-time writer has always been rare. Even more so if you write fiction (I’m really talking about book writers here, not freelance writers).

That’s not a bad thing, in my view.