Not satisfied with your writing progress? Here's something that can help.

Several weeks back, I had an epiphany – I can DECIDE to be happy with my progress as a writer.
As a SAHM of two – a homeschooled six year old and a three year old - I am not prone to being satisfied with how much I get to write. But I am learning to prioritize writing to the point that it is actually happening consistently, and when it hit me that the fantasy story I started imagining up in May of last year now has 21,000 words and 10 chapters to it, I decided I could be happy with that. All of that would not exist if I hadn’t kept my very "slow" [steady] progress!

Do I get to live the author life I daydream about? Write for 3 leisurely hours in the morning, take a walk, have some brunch, then go to a coffee shop and write two more hours in the afternoon, do some housework, start dinner, and squeeze in another hour while it cooks? No. That is not even close to realistic for most of us, especially for those of us who have brought little humans into the world.

For me, it’s more like this: get up at 5:15am and spend 30 minutes to an hour writing a couple hundred words that I will not remember when I go back to it the next day. Or squeeze in an hour during nap time while I ignore the clutter we often don’t get cleaned up, or the extra laundry that appeared when I wasn’t looking. And when the kids wake up sick in the night or won’t go to sleep when they are supposed to, I have to sleep in or take a nap, so I miss my writing time. And it feels really slow. And sometimes I get discouraged.

Sometimes I think to myself, “When the kids are older, it’ll be less chaotic and I’ll have more time/be more organized/whatever.” And then I realize I’m fooling myself. I will probably be doing even more with my kids as they get more involved in activities, and there won’t suddenly be more hours in a day. I have to find ways to make this work NOW if I want to make it work at all.

In almost 15 years of writing off and on, I haven’t been successful at consistency – before or after children. Only since June of last year when I discovered Quill & Cup have I been able to keep writing and not let it get swept away during setbacks of any and every kind. Suddenly, I have the power to make slow progress and accept that slow progress. My connection with the Quill & Cup women gives me the accountability I need in order to write a little every week, and do it in a way that is sustainable for my lifestyle. I’m learning that writing slowly is so much better than not writing at all just because I can’t have it the way I want. I can be satisfied with slow, and I will be!

This is a reflection written by Quill & Cup member Hannah Trigg. 

In Quill & Cup, we believe that steady progress -- the kind that often does feel "slow" by hustle culture standards -- is sustainable. Rather than ride momentum straight to burnout, we make rest a non-negotiable so that we can be both present to our dreams as writers and to our families and daily obligations. We offer over 60 scheduled writing times per week and, if you can't make THAT time work, we have PUPs (Pop Up Prickles). It's okay if you "only" show up to one writing session (what we lovingly call "Prickles") per week -- that's four hours more than you might have put in had you not had that standing time and meeting with yourself and your characters! 

Would you like to be held accountable to ACTUALLY write your book? We can't wait to meet you and the story on your heart.  Start your free 7 day trial today!