Or something like that. Sorry, my brain hurts. It’s Thursday June 25th as I write this and I’m on day four of a “Book in a Week” writing challenge sponsored by a fellow writer in my local chapter. I pledged to write 15,000 words this week and I’m now at (let me check) 11,913. Not bad, considering it’s summer break and all four of my sons are home from school.

In fact, I’m not sure I would’ve written as much if I hadn’t had their support. Crazy, right? I’d had concerns that I would’ve spent the entire time at my computer listening to arguing and tattle-taling and whining and begging and, well, you get the picture. And, of course, I have experienced some of that but, for the most part, they’ve kept themselves busy.

But what surprises me most is how they’ve been cheering me on. I announced this writing challenge to them last week, thinking I’d get some eye rolls and some complaining, but they jumped right on board with the idea. My two youngest sons have gone so far as to keep track of my word count each day. I had a personal goal to write 3,000 words for 5 days straight, but yesterday I’d stopped at around 1,300. When my son found out I hadn’t met my goal, he said, “Mom, go finish. I want you to win!”

Competitive, much? Not sure where he gets that from. Hmm… Seriously, I didn’t set out on this challenge to win a Starbucks gift card (although that would be nice!). I joined up to challenge myself, to see if I could push myself out of a slump. And I think I’ve accomplished that. I’ve fallen back in love with my WIP (work in progress), especially the hero. Yowza. I’ve got a new sense of accomplishment and confidence. And, after I went back upstairs last night to crank out another thousand words after being scolded by a 10 year old, I think I made my kiddos proud.

Now, back to work! And, yes, I’m adding the words from this post to my word count. No, I’m not competitive in the least. Why would you think that?

Viola Estrella

www.violaestrella.com

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