A Matter of Perspective...

Social media, for all of its interactive benefits and hilarious memes, has done more to reinforce my feelings of worthlessness than five years of elementary school, three years of middle school, and four years of high school combined.  I know it's me - how my psyche is wired.  I could win a Nobel Prize, an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony, a Grammy (assuming I achieved anything worthy of those awards) and hit multiple bestsellers' lists with each book I write, and still not recognize my accomplishments.  It's a battle I fight every day - sometimes I'm victorious and other times not.  Recently, the scales have been tipping towards the 'not'.

I can list a multitude of reasons as to why my WIP is still 'in progress'.  Some would be legitimate; some would be nothing more than me whining like a three-year-old.  The result is the same - the book's not finished.  Now, dependant upon the story I'm writing, my word count on any given day fluctuates between 'not being able to complete a sentence' to 'take a look at that lottery jackpot - I have to buy a ticket'.  (Okay, maybe just the Pick-Four winnings, but it still counts.)  With this particular manuscript, it's been weeks to months of the former.  I'm making progress but at a snail's pace.

So, what do I do?  I turn to Facebook.

As if being online is a constructive way to spend my time, I log into my account and see post after post of authors citing what seem to be unattainable (for me) daily word counts.  5700K, 6300K, 9100K - EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Now, I know there are some who can knock out those kinds of numbers easily.  I'm not saying it can't be done, and kudos to those out there who have both the discipline and ability (are you available to be cloned?), but I'm not one of them.  On either count. 

So, since my story's going nowhere and my brain can't come up with anything clever to write, I roll the dice and take my turn playing the comparison game, losing miserably.  Then I see it - a mention of dictation software.  Then another.  And another.  And, suddenly, it becomes clear.  Some of those authors who are achieving consistently high word counts have found an alternative way to do so.  What's that mean for me?  Hope.

Now, before you say it, I understand that I'm still going to have to put in the time and effort.  The words aren't going to magically appear on the page - though wouldn't it be cool if they could?  I'm going to have to stay offline and WORK, but that's not the point of this post.  The point is, I was so busy feeding my insecurities that I lost my perspective.  High daily word counts are achievable with the right tools at my disposal, and with that knowledge, I wage today's battle feeling a little less worthless.

 Amazon Prime, here I come!