Back on the 6th of January, I wrote a post about keeping the fires burning, and how I was going to use Seinfeld’s method to write every day. Now that the month is over, I thought I would post a photo showing my progress, and in all honesty, I find it a little depressing. I mean, I’m a writer, yet I only managed to write on 6 days out of the month. (The red crosses mean writing, the green crosses mean exercise)

So does this mean this method doesn’t work for me? Well, not necessarily. I think perhaps if I managed to get a few more crosses in a row I would be less likely to want to break the chain. But it does feel like my usual methods to motivate myself to write aren’t working anymore.

Now you may be reading this and thinking – ‘Well perhaps you shouldn’t be a writer then’, and I wouldn’t blame you, to be honest. I have questioned my choice to write books many times, even though deep down, I have always known that it wasn’t really a choice. I am a writer. There is no way out of it. But that doesn’t mean that it’s always easy.

I will continue to cross off the days that I write (and exercise), because it is good to have a visual reminder of what I have achieved each month. And I hope that by the end of February, I will have created a longer chain. I will post a photo in 27 days!

And if I find any other methods for motivating myself that work, I will let you know what they are.

(Just to clarify, the only writing I am counting as part of my chain-making is writing my new novel. I don’t count any other writing towards this goal.)