I am a pretty free and easy sort of bloke. I usually don’t like to push myself too hard. I tend to take each day as it comes. I could be accused of wandering through life without a lot of thought or planning. I don’t mind. I have always found that this is the way I operate most effectively. I don’t think I’ve ever written a paragraph before where every sentence begins with the word I. I suppose that’s one of the consequences of such an unplanned attitude to life and everything else.

Every so often, however, I find the need to break myself out of that routine (and did you see what I did there? – this sentence doesn’t start with I). I realise that, much as that laissez-faire attitude generally suits me, there are times when I need to give myself a bit of focus and push myself a little harder. In short, I need to give myself a good kick in the bum.

The last few weeks have provided a good example of one of those instances. As I mentioned in my post from a few weeks ago, I recently began a new job. It seems to be going pretty well. After almost a month, I’m still trying to get a feel for the lie of the land, but generally progress has been good. I’m hoping to stick around here for a while.

Now, as all you dedicated readers will know, this is the second time this year when I’ve changed employment. The first time this happened, I felt so overwhelmed by the situation that I ended up putting my writing aside. I didn’t get back to the novel I’d started on (you remember the one – the romantic comedy fantasy adventure satire) until over a month had passed. It was a major block to my momentum, and it took me a while to get back into the flow of writing again.

This time, I was determined not to let that happen. On the evening when I got home from the first day at this new job, I forced myself to sit down and pump out 500 words. They might not have been great words. They might not have even been particularly good words. But they were words and they were on the page and that’s the main thing. I made sure that starting a new job would not slow down the momentum of my writing progress.

Since then, it’s been full steam ahead. I haven’t managed to write every day – some evenings, I’m just too wrecked after a day at work. But I have made sure to force myself to write at least a couple of times during the week, and on the weekend as well. I’ve kept the story moving forward. I’ve actually managed to hit the 50K mark this week, which feels like a major achievement.

So there you have it. The kick in the bum is working. All I have to do is keep it going, keep forcing myself to write for the rest of the year, and I can hopefully hit that goal of a first draft (or at least most of a first draft), by year’s end.