I have spent the entire school year in the Christmassy atmosphere of good health, watching all others around me come down with some type of bug and wringing my hands ‘neath the cool comfort of the GermX dispenser.
At last I have succumbed to one of the dangers of teaching teens: getting sick.
Today is the day I am supposed to write my 1000 words, like it or not, and I am seriously considering taking a break. Unfortunately, if I take a break, the fear arises that I won’t keep it up after I get well. I guess it depends on how determined I am to finish this book… and that is when I pull out my laptop to write this blog. My throat is on fire, my body is aching, I have a cough that has given me a headache, and all the energy was used up in front of my classroom.
I suppose I could take a break today, but then I would have to push back my deadline for the completion of the rough draft. If I push that deadline back then I have to push the rest of them back, and since I don’t want to go to all that trouble because I’m such a type “A” person, I will write the 1000 words anyway. After all, I have the outline ready, so writing this daily amount will not be that much of a chore, and I can rest afterward anyway, and probably lay in bed to write as well.
The point is that writers need not let things like sickness or life get in the way of writing. That book is not going to write itself. I always put writing on the agenda ahead of everything else I do because if I don’t then I end up putting it off and not doing it. If you are a writer, then your priority should be writing. It should be all you think about, and it should be all you talk to your friends about because you are so excited about what you are doing. If writing is not your top priority, then you are simply a teacher or a mailman or a doctor or a homemaker who writes as a hobby.
Of course, this is just an opinion piece, and besides it might just be the cold medicine talking.
Writing Is Hard Work 