What's Your Writing Intensity Level?

A Post By Jonathan

I know it's NaNoWriMo and a lot of writing motivation has been flung around the internet lately, but I wanted to add a little more with a video I found on YouTube recently. It definitely gave me a shot in the arm, and helped me write for the first time in a while. Especially the "running after your destiny" part. I challenge you not to write a sentence or two after that, or get out of your desk chair and run a mile or two...

But after I was done writing, and thought about it for a little while, I wondered if something this intense would be needed for every writer out there, or is it just for those of us with low self esteem and bad writing habits...

I guess depending on where you are in your writing journey determines the intensity with which you approach the craft. I've been out of practice for a while, so it seems to take an act of God to get me to sit down and write a hundred words. But when I was pre-kid, pre-move, pre-new-job and writing on a weekly basis, I was banging out 1,000 words a night Monday through Thursday, then taking the weekends off unless I found some spare time. At that point in time, I don't remember feeling like I needed to go all Rocky Balboa on my writing sessions to get them started/finished. It was habit, so I didn't need a mountain of motivation. Now it seems like the longer I'm away from writing, the further my destiny is running away from me.

So now my writing intensity level is at an 11 on a one to ten scale (or a zero when I'm not writing at all...). But I imagine a lot of seasoned writers out there like to keep the intensity level around a 5 to 7. You don't want to turn it down too low because you're probably not getting much done, but you also don't want to be too high and start hanging on every sentence as make or break. And maybe you NaNoites out there are somewhere between 8 and 10? Gotta get those words in!

I'm hoping to bring the word count up and the intensity level down at some point, but it comes and goes I guess. So what is your writing intensity level set at lately, dear reader? Would love to hear from you in the comments.