WRITER'S BLOCK: A GOOD DAY

What is a good writing day for you?  Is it when you've written a certain amount, or you've written for a certain length of time?  Is it when you've produced something you set out to produce?  Is it simply sitting down to write?  Is it when you've finished something you feel ready to show others?

We writers all have ideas about what constitutes a good writing day for us.  One of the things I've discovered over the years I've worked with writers is that when they do NOT have a good writing day it's either because

* They've set their expectations too high.  That is, they had unrealistic expectations based on past experience, or

* They refused to readjust their expectations.  That is, they insisted on being critical of themselves.

There may be times, especially for writers who make their living writing, that deadlines must be met.  In my experience, professional writers are capable of meeting their deadlines unless

*they've taken on a writing assignment that they sensed would not be doable — and they ignored their intuition about it,

*life got in the way.  It happens to all of us.

* they got depressed.

So, even for the professional writer,  if you do NOT have a good writing day, either

*you set your expectations too high, or

*you were unwilling to readjust your expectations.

It is a life long process to have both appropriate writing expectations and to be willing to readjust our writing expectations.  So, good writing days can become more frequent with our commitment to be mindful of our expectations.