Not #samplesunday

Hi kids, it's me, Nicole. So...listen right...

All of my best stories start with those three words, haha. If you'll notice it's been a couple weeks since i've done a Sample Sunday. It wasn't purposeful, but it wasn't happenstance either. See for the past few weeks I've put together a little writing schedule for myself that includes daily and weekly word count goals and I've been toiling tirelessly to adhere to those goals. But then the day after Labor Day my last class in my graduate school program began--the capstone. A goal I've been working toward sine July 2015 was finally here...and coinciding with the same period in which I promised myself that I would complete and release a book.

Talk about bad luck. Sheesh.

So...I was all discombobulated, y'all. Off my game and completely unsure that I would finish this book on the time table that I'd given myself given that I was certain that this capstone will monopolize my time. Hell I still am certain that it will, but I decided to dedicate this weekend to adding a sizable amount of words to my current in progress doc. On Thursday I told myself that I wanted to write ten thousand words by Sunday evening. Then on Friday I went over to my best friend's house and watched Greenleaf while drinking red wine and scotch. Clearly I wasn't about that life.

But Saturday morning I woke up with renewed purpose. I told a couple friends who checked in on me intermittently. Then of course I got on my instastories being ridiculous as I raced toward the first day's finish line of five thousand words. It was a hard fought battle, but I emerged victorious. I woke up this morning with...a lack of the same fighting spirit that I'd had on Saturday. I even lamented that I'd probably fall short of my goal because I had lost my way a bit and wasn't sure where this story was going. 

I went outside, groced some groceries, and then came back in the house to settle into this word doc. I sat here for about two hours and bupkis. I grew irritated quickly, mind shifting completely from the positive can do spirit to negative down talk about how I was stupid to even try to challenge myself to do such a thing. Before Saturday, the most words I'd written in one day was somewhere around the twenty-six hundred mark and those were hard wrought. Instead of celebrating the victory of having smoked my previous one day word count record, I stewed in the pit of possibility that I wouldn't make the big goal I'd set for myself on the outset.

But then I remembered the words of a friend about the way we approach tasks and how our mindset actively affects the manner in which we tackle challenges. (Shoutout to Sarah!) I kept the Word doc open, sang along to the Wine and Dine playlist on spotify and slowly, the words began to trickle in. Five hundred words turned to one thousand which turned to three thousand which turned to forty seven hundred words written and I saw that finish line so close that I could taste it and I persevered.

And then I made it. I wrote ten thousand words in two days. What the eff is my life even about right now? I'm exhilarated and feeling invincible. Y'all, this book...these characters, I like them a lot. Really like them. And I hope y'all do, too. Because I have taken careful consideration in crafting their story, the choices made within and the consequences of those decisions. I'm striving to write a book that is filled with not only the patented Nicole Falls humor, but also a bit more depth than previous works as I work tirelessly to make each book better than the last.

I ain't done with it quite yet. These folks are still talking. But today I leveled up as a writer. And I'm just riding high off the feeling of accomplishment and wanted to share it with y'all. Sorry there's no sample this week, maybe next Sunday will be the jam and the samples will commence. We shall see. : )

Til then...