“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out,” – Robert Collier, American author.

Hello everybody, I’m back! It’s been about four months since my last weekly rant, and you might have thought that you’ve seen the last of me.

However, in the words of the famous late comedian John Pinette, “I say nay nay!”

It’s been a busy four months, and that’s part of the reason why I haven’t written a Mastering the Craft during that time. Normally, I’ll write this column on Friday morning before I head into my main job, but my second job shifted into Fridays. That knocked things around and jumbled my routine. Every week since then, I’ve been telling myself that I need to sit down and write one on Thursdays. It never happens though. For one reason or another when Thursday comes, there’s always something else to do. I could blame it on the COVID pandemic or all the other things that have been happening in 2020, but in all honesty, it’s simply my own laziness.

It’s time to get back to the grind.

I wrote a 50,587-word novel during the month of November. It was for National Novel Writer’s Month, an annual challenge that tasks people with writing 50,000 words during the month of November. Out of seven years, this is the second time I’ve actually accomplished it.

Covering the election, the pandemic, and having additional work responsibilities for half of November hasn’t really helped me in hitting that 50k target.

Even though November was a very crazy time for me, I managed to finish the project on Tuesday Nov. 24 with six days to spare. You want to know how I did it?

I put my nose to the grindstone and made sure to attempt to write every single day. I didn’t have a daily minimum word count. I didn’t have a set timeframe. My only goal each day was to increase the total word count as much as possible. Out of those 24 days, I only had two days where I didn’t accomplish that goal. Both days were because I was busy working my main job for most of the day.

It was tough. There were times when I had to stay at home and concentrate on writing. Which, in all honesty, staying at home in 2020 isn’t too difficult. I also only read three books that month when, on average, I’ve read about ten per month.

When I finished on Nov. 24, I took a break from writing for the rest of the month. It was the perfect timing because it was Thanksgiving. I did some reading, I bought a new computer printer, I even watched some television.

It was nice.

However, Dec. 1 rolled around, and I had two options. The first was to get back to work on my writing career or avoid it by playing video games, reading books, or procrastinating in other ways. Option two won’t get my books out there. So, it’s not really an option.

That only leaves the other option of ending the break and getting back to the grind. And what better way to get back into a writing schedule than to restart this weekly column.

Mainly, I’m using this column as a way to keep myself accountable and stay on task. Will I do it? Will I quit and you’ll never see me again? Who knows, but hopefully we’ll find out together, haha.

Here begins a new journey of discovery for me and possibly for you as well. Maybe you’re reading this and find out that you are procrastinating about something in your life. If this triggers you, then maybe it’s time to join me in getting back into the grind. Maybe it’s time to continue your journey in mastering the craft (sorry, I just had to end it like this).