On Writing Every Day

The other day I came downstairs for dinner and announced, "I still haven't gotten my writing done for the day," by which I meant my novel writing. After dinner I was going to have to go back upstairs and finish it.My partner said, "I should really treat guitar practice the way that you treat writing. You always know whether you've gotten your writing done. I play guitar when I'm in the mood for it, or when inspiration hits, but I should make a point to practice every day. I should keep a log."My writing practice is always shifting. My current goal is 500 words a day on the novel. I can do this in about half an hour if I actually do it. The main obstacle is finding ways to avoid sitting down in front of a word processor and doing the writing, so for the last few days I've added an additional goal: The first thing I do when I sit down at my computer should be to put on my Writing Playlist and set a timer for 20 minutes and I'm not allowed to do anything else except look at the draft…