If you've ever attended a Weight Watcher's meeting, then you're familiar with this phrase: Own the number.
It means that the first thing you need to do in your weight loss efforts is to step on the scale, look at the number and stop making excuses for it. Believe it. Accept it. This is where you are for whatever reason. Just own the number and go from there.
You could use that philosophy in any number of areas in your life. I'm using it in my writing.
See, I'm battling my way back from an unfamiliar case of writer's block. Yesterday I woke up around 5 a.m. with that phrase running through my brain. Own the number. Own the number. I realized as I was lying there that one of my mental blocks with my current WIP is that I'm actually unclear on where I'm really at in the book. I made so many changes two months ago in a last-minute dash to meet a contest deadline that I don't even remember which scenes I kept and which I abandoned. Not the best place to be when you're trying to revise your book.
Bottom line: I realized that a good portion of my writer's block stems from a fear of the unknown.
So I got up yesterday, loaded paper into the printer, and made a hard copy. And now I'm reading it. Page one to page 380-something. In the process, I'm OWNING the manuscript. I accept where I am with the book. This is my starting point. Now I can figure out what needs to be done.
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