Writing Is A Lot Like Exercising. If You Miss A Day, Don’t Give Up.

McKenzie Lynn Tozan
7 min readOct 27, 2021
image by brenkee via pixabay

I’ve always been two kinds of people: a hard worker and a celebrator of all-or-nothing success.

While we’re not all designated “hard workers,” I guarantee you’ve been the second type of person at least once in your life.

You know the feeling: you make a plan to start working out on Monday (going to the gym, working out at home, doesn’t matter). Until then, you do nothing to prepare your body for the change. Then when Monday finally comes, something — anything — comes up that leads you to not start working out. And since you had it all planned out, somehow picking up where you left off on Tuesday just won’t work. So, you figure instead of making the best of the rest of your week, you’ll wait again until the following Monday.

Not all of us are going to be on this loop with exercise, but we’ve all put off something indefinitely due to not feeling ready to face the task.

Maybe your hiccup is with cleaning, or replying to those important emails, or getting started on that new project. But if you’re reading this, my guess is that your tough spot has something to do with your writing life.

Here are a few scenarios I see all too often (some of which I’ve done myself!):

  1. You come up with a great concept for a…

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McKenzie Lynn Tozan

A Dino Poet, Novelist, Book Reviewer, Double EIC, & Midwestern Girl in Croatia. THE DUPLEX out now! https://beacons.ai/mckenzielynntozanwrites