On Motivation

I don’t have kids, so when I hang out with them I’m always surprised by their absolute adorableness.

This weekend, my nephews and niece came to visit. (Their parents came, too.) So I’m sitting on the couch, legs up on the coffee table, and my 5-year-old nephew sits down next to me. He slouches so his feet reach the coffee table, and he clasps his hands behind his head.

After a good minute, he looks up at me and says, “This is nice. Relaxing.”

“Very relaxing,” I say.

He puts on this expression that I’ve only ever seen in adults. Even though he’s a pipsqueak, his expression was 40 years old and world-weary. “I never get to relax these days,” he says.

I die.

In other news, I’m currently bribing myself to finish revisions. I thought about going on a hunger strike, but A. I would probably pass out way before I could finish writing, and B. food is writer fuel, and C. I’m weak in the face of dinner. Instead, I picked a book I’ve been dying to read and told myself I couldn’t read it until I was done.

I heard about Divergent a while ago. I love Veronica Roth’s blog, and I’d been reading it in the days before Divergent was really Divergent. When everyone on earth was giving away an ARC, I entered over 1.2 billion contests. I lost them all. I read the first 100 pages online. Then I cursed myself because it only made me want to read more.

And then it happened. The book was delivered. I had it in front of me, ready to read whenever I felt like it. And I really wanted to. But…

But there were these revisions, see. They kinda sorta really need to get done. So I set a Law: no reading Divergent until this round of revisions is over.

(Am I the only one who hangs a carrot in front of them while they work?)

In other news, I’m 26 people away from 250 blog followers. Remember way back when I said there would be a contest at 250? Well that’s still on. But I’m adding to that. I’m 11 followers from 300 on Twitter. If I hit 300 by the time I hit 250 I’ll double the prize.

All sorts of insanity will ensue. There might be fireworks. And cupcakes. And a dance party.

Consider yourself warned.

Q: How do you motivate yourself to hit writing goals?

One more thing: On Friday, I’ll post a query letter for the story you guys have been creating. If you haven’t seen Friday’s post, check it out. We’re playing 

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What If.

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All you have to do is ask a question that follows up on the last commenter’s question.