Yesterday was kind of a weird day. I had an appointment in the afternoon dead in the middle of my writing time which almost never happens. I had a bunch of stuff I needed to do in the morning. The manuscript for The Great Northern War came back from its final typo check so I did a final tweak on that. I’ll upload the first chapter to its book page after I finish this if you want to take a look.

Sorting the manuscript out, including fixes and formatting, took most of the morning. After a nice lunch, I watched the rest of season 5 of Shetland, which was excellent.

Once I got back from my appointment it was dinner time, so I ended up getting no writing done.

Which brings me to the main subject I wanted to talk about today. In an earlier post I mentioned that consistency was the most important thing for a writer. And it is, but second most important is not being too hard on yourself when you don’t get your words done. Sometimes where will be days that stuff happens and you can’t get to the writing. Life happens, whether we like it or not. Being able to accept that and not blame yourself for missing a day here and there is really important. Beating yourself up will kill your voice and make it had to get back into it when you can.

I had two zero days this month, but I also had eight days over 1,200 which is pretty good. I’m still on track to finish when I planned and that’s all that really matters.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that thought with you all. It also applies to more than writing. Being hard on yourself in general accomplishes little.

We end with the second to last preorder update for The Hidden Tower. We broke 600. Right now we’re at 607 with less than a day to go. That’s so cool. Thanks everyone for making it happen.

Talk to you tomorrow.