One of my professional role models–Dean Wesley Smith–refers to the Critical and Creative Voices.

The Critical Voice is the parental voice that exists solely to keep you safe. It’s the voice you develop either through your parents’ intervention or touching a hot pan on the stove too many times.

He likens the Creative Voice to a rambunctious two-year-old. All eager and playful and totally unaware of things like making a fool out of yourself. His belief is that we should all write from the Creative Voice… that we should just have fun and go play when we sit down to write.

I have come to agree with him, by and large.

Which means when I struggled to meet my desired word count for the second day in a row, I started looking for where my Critical Voice was tripping me up. I’m not sure I’ve found it yet, but as soon as finish this post, I’m digging out my notes on his “Killing the Critical Voice” workshop.

To anyone else–or almost any other goal–today was a good day. I’m sure there are a lot of writers who’d simply love to have 2,800-word day. In terms of my overall goal of teaching myself to write everyday, the challenge is–so far–a success.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I wanted a 25,000-word week.

Daily Word Count: 2,803
Weekly Word Count: 14,222
Words Needed for 25,000: 10,778