Yesterday, I was feeling down about how slowly my new manuscript is coming along. When I write, I write separate scenes, so I decided to add together how many pages I had written in total. I discovered that when I stepped back from my writing and really looked at it, that I had written 67 pages in two months! I was far from the twenty pages that I still felt I was at.

As authors, we have a tendency to compare ourselves to others. We hear about people who manage to write ten pages a day and think to ourselves, wow, I wish that was me! When in actuality, we don’t even know if those ten pages are written well, or just churned out in a factory like style with no heart to it. Even if you only write one page a day, or stare at a blank Office document with glazed over eyes and donut crumbs on your chin, you’re still doing something! You’re thinking about it, you’re brainstorming, you’re formulating a plot.

When I walk my dog, I listen to Spotify and imagine scenes of my book playing out as if I’m watching a movie. Then, after I formulate the details, I sit down for two hours and write. No, I don’t write every day. But I think about it, I plan, and that makes my writing more productive than if I had written five pages for the sake of saying I did, and then had to scrap them all because they were uninspired or out of character.

Did you spend time thinking of a title today? Did you decide your main character’s favorite food is Skittles? Congratulations, you made progress! Eventually all of it will come together, and every moment you’ve spent thinking about that novel will become something you can be proud of, and show to your friends. Don’t give up because the process seems intimidating. Truthfully, where there’s a will, there is always a way.