Yoda Doesn’t Know Everything

We’re pretty close to being completely unpacked. Some stuff we took out of boxes and put on the floor knowing we’ll have to put it away to avoid tripping over it for the next couple of years. It says something about my cooking that most of our cookware is still sitting on the living room floor.

One of the items sitting on John’s desk is a talking Yoda action figure from Star Wars. The box says he has 24 phrases, so as a way to procrastinate for another five seconds, I pressed his hand. Yoda told me to ask him a question and he’d tell me the answer.

Laughing, I asked him if I was going to finish my last 1500 words for the day.

I pressed his hand.

“No.”

Remember in junior high when people would make fun of you and you’d laugh as if it were all a big joke, but on the inside it got to you? That’s how I laughed at Yoda.

Doesn’t the toy maker know that “No” is not a phrase? It’s a word, I grumbled to myself. So it shouldn’t be advertised that he can say 24 phrases.

And what does “No” mean, anyway?

“No, not if you keep playing with me.” Now there’s a phrase that would’ve worked for me!

“No, not in the next hour.” It takes me longer than an hour to write 1500 words. This is an acceptable phrase.

“No, not if The Force is not with you.” Duh. That would be so Yoda.

But just “No”? I don’t think so!

You know what, Yoda? I’m over my junior high hurt laughter phase. I’m an adult and I’ll do as I please. And I’m going to write the stupid 1500 words. Today. Before dinner. Just to show you.

Stupid toy.

And by the way, I’m not going to play with you anymore either. You aren’t any fun anyway.

There. That’ll show him.

Who says I can’t be mature?

What’s the take-away for you? Don’t – DO NOT – let other people (or inanimate objects) sway you or take your energy from you when you are writing. It is so easy to lose your confidence, and much more difficult to get it back. When you feel that sickening junior high feeling coming on, admit that it’s affecting you and then fight back! For me, that meant reacting in a way that made me laugh honestly. And then working hard enough to prove I could do it.

Yup, Yoda was wrong! I wrote 1594 words after that incident. Take that, oh plastic toy with only 24 phrases!

P.S. I’m adding this note at the 11th hour in case it helps anyone besides me. On your Tuesday, my Wednesday, I barely got a few hundred words written. Strangely, I didn’t feel “bad” about it. I usually hit the “guilt” button quickly, early, sure that there is always something to feel guilty about – like not writing enough.

So I sat down and tried to figure out why I still feel peaceful and not stressed about being behind in my NaNo word count. I realized it’s because this morning I awoke with a specific focus in mind. I wanted to be sure I was writing this book with all of the love and joy and creativity I had in me rather than to “win” an international word count war.

Huh.

The very few words I wrote absolutely belong with this book. I could’ve just started typing any old thing, trying to jump-start myself into some scenes that may or may not work when I begin editing. But for once I wasn’t competing; I was just enjoying the process of writing a book. And apparently, my process decided that a couple hundred words would do on this one particular day.

Wow. For me, that is a very worthwhile epiphany. (Thanks, God!)