Books are arduous things. They can start off with the thrill of a new idea or, if this is your first book, the thrill of seeing your words on the page. The beginning can be the best.

However sooner or later we arrive in that messy middle. Either a life event or work gets in the way or the book becomes difficult. This is the place where questions start.

Am I good enough?

This idea is stupid, right?

Then statements follow.

No one would read this. I am not a writer. The End.

The fact is, the middle is where novels and dreams die.

But we can stop this. We can continue. It starts with a recommit.

Today I am restarting in the middle. I am allotting time to my book that went to conference planning, blog writing for conference website, and developing my talk. I am going to write at least 7000 words in 7 days on my YA novel.

Why 1000 words? Because that’s a bit of a stretch for me to do daily while prepping for my workshop in three weeks at Breathe Writers Conference and keeping up with my blog.

A novel is a struggle but its also like lifting weights. If you can do 80 lbs don’t try to do 150lbs the next day. Try 85 or 90 and work your way up from there so your body can handle the stress.

If you plan on joining me this week please comment below. Also, share your word count goal. I like a good challenge. Write well today. I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

How about you? How can you recommit to your novel? What word count or goal is a little more than your current output?