Elliot Kessler

If you read my last blog post, you know I had a moment last weekend when I got distracted by another hobby, game development. However, I dedicated today to get myself back on track, and it seems to be working thus far. I’ve written more words than I usually do, and I’m still doing my hobby, getting school done, and completing chores. Here’s what I started doing differently.

Priorities

Sorting priorities is essential for writing a novel and life in general. When working on a large project, keeping it at a very high priority is essential, but it doesn’t need to be at the top. Your main priorities should still be spirituality, family, paying expenses, and other similar things. However, your long-term project should still be a high priority. It should be above recreational activities and maybe even above spending time with friends. I’m not saying you should never see your friends while working on your project. But it would help if you didn’t spend all your time hanging out with them. Friends are always good for encouragement, and relationships are, of course, very important.

Free Time

In the introduction, I mentioned that I am still doing my hobby (game development) while working on my novel. This is because I have managed to find a small window of time to squeeze it in. While writing and doing all my other activities, I often take breaks, and during those breaks, I can study game development and practice what I learn.

Finding small opportunities to take my mind off my book for a little while is helpful, and I enjoy having a variety of activities to do. It helps keep me from being bored, which also helps me keep from mindlessly scrolling through Instagram and watching YouTube. Most of my time is spent productively now, and I’m not wasting all of it on recreational activities.

Outro

Today went well. I reached a higher word count than I did the last few days and escaped a rut I expected to be in for a while. I’m looking forward to the rest of this month, and I hope to write as much as possible. But maybe I’ll learn that NaNoWriMo is not for me. We’ll see.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.