Take that linear writing!

"The woman who work with her hands only is a Laborer. The woman who works with her hands and her head is a Craftswoman. The woman who works with her hands, her head, and her heart is an Artist."
~St. Francis of Assisi

So for the last two weeks I've struggled to write the way that I have been for the last six months. Nothing has been coming as easily as it has been. And then I discovered two things:

1. I'm not listening to the voice within that says "Write from this point today." Which means that yes I'm jumping around in the novel but the more I try to make myself write from Chapter 1 to 2 to 3 and so forth, the less able I feel to write at all. I just end up writing and laboring on the piece maybe even doing a job of craftswoman a bit, but it isn't fun, it feels like a job. And I have a hard time making myself sit down and do it. Not what I want to be doing right now.

2. I'm trying TOO hard to make it perfect. (Especially first go around.) Again, another issue I've had in the past that has made me stop writing altogether.

Okay so number 1 is easily fixed. I just stop trying to be linear here and I start jumping around again. No problem. I know exactly where I need to be writing then today. I got to listen to that. But number 2? Pulling a blank? Maybe if I go with number 1 it will remedy itself because I'll be writing from the heart and that's a pretty big pull for me. This whole learning your writing process thing can be both fun and perplexing. But you gotta love it right? And telling yourself to not be a perfectionist, yeah, I've been saying that to myself for years and has it ever helped?

*laughs and looks around with shifty eyes*