(via Ravelry)
Just Say No.
(via Ravelry)
Category: Goals
What I Did This Weekend
I made some satisfying progress my continuing struggle to be an organized person this weekend.
Friday:
– took back library books, early
– finally upgraded my credit card to one with better benefits
– FINALLY changed my name at the bank (after being married a year this past May)
– scheduled another banking appointment to set up some new investments (holy shit! I’m a grownup!)
Saturday:
– bought more storage/organization bins and, y’know, actually used them for their intended purposes
– stocked up on sale pharmacy items AND took advantage of a one-day-only deal for store points
Sunday:
– got up early, bought and assembled a laundry-sorting hamper
– revised my daily to-do’s for this shift
– customized our Quicken program
I feel pretty good about things right now. I didn’t manage to get any writing done, but now that some of these niggling tasks are dealt with I feel like I can get further ahead this week than usual.
A Counterintuitive Solution
I figured out why I was having problems meeting my daily word quotas.
It wasn’t hard enough.
I’m a hugely competitive person, and I tend to only really enjoy things that at first seem insurmountable. Looking back, I think I set my initial word goals too low. I had decided on an arbitrary number, that I knew I could accomplish, so as not to get frustrated and give up.
Instead, the opposite happened: it was too easy to reach my goal, which made my subconscious decide it was not worth doing. Something done by rote becomes boring, and what’s the point of doing something boring?
Way to screw me, Brain.
SO: my solution is to increase the number of words I expect out of myself. I’ve set my new goal at nearly double what it was before, and it seems to be working. Suddenly my brain is processing it as Shit! That’s a lot of words! Better work harder! and the ideas are back. The numbers are back.
Since there’s a worry now that I can’t possibly reach my new goal every day, I have to try harder, which makes me focus more.
My tip of the day: write scared.
Struggling with Time Management
Confession: I have not written nearly as much lately as I should.
I have a four-year fold out calendar in my Filofax meant to track and chart my daily writing output. This should have been a blog post with a photo of how I’ve set that up, but let’s face it: my output lately has been abysmal, and I don’t want you to see it.
I’ve been busy, sure. It feels like I’ve been running from one thing to the next for weeks. Part of it was working the Dreaded Morning Shift, wherein I start work at six and become human around noon. Part of it was crafty little things that (enjoyably) ate up my time. I have new ideas for new stories churning out of my head all the time but…I haven’t actually gotten anywhere with them.
I think I’m stuck, a little, on where I’m taking this series of stories. I knew where I wanted to go when I started, but the author of those plans feels like a different person. I tell myself it will take a lot more time to write a novel-length work. Of course it will. But I’ve been missing that high of publishing a new short every couple of weeks. Instead I’ve passed the honeymoon phase of this bigger project without readying myself for the long-term.
It sucks. It’s a bitch to have so many things pulling at the hem of my skirt and (what seems like) no time to get them all done. If I want to give my BIG PLAN a chance to succeed, I really need to work out a firm schedule for writing. Not just when I feel I’ve got time, because clearly nothing gets done that way.
I’ll be pulling out my well thumbed (but never finished) copy of Getting Things Done tonight. And I’m thinking about using a 24-hour timetable in my planner. Something’s gotta give if this thing is going to go anywhere.
Writers: when do you write?
Comic: So You Want to Be a Writer?
comic by Grant Snider (no relation)
(via WilliamLanday.com)
Never Give Up
I was sitting here, frustrated with how the story is going (or not going), and I got a notification on Facebook.
My dear ladyfriend LP sent me this:
…completely unbidden, not knowing how cranky I was. That’s what an awesome friend does. An awesome friend just knows.
It’s been printed, and now one copy hangs in my office and one copy is the front page of my Filofax.
I’ve said it before: how badly do you want it?
New Project Progress Report
So, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on a new project. This one is going to be a collection of short horror stories. Each will be a complete story, able to be read as a stand-alone piece, but the stories themselves share a common theme. I’m planning for this one to be book-length, as opposed to the single shorts I’ve been putting out, and I’m hoping to venture into paper territory (with e-book option, of course).
Pretty exciting stuff.
I’ve had a couple people asking, so I thought I’d throw out a little update on where it’s at:
The first story is complete: drafted, fleshed-out, edited and ready.
It fed into the second story, the one I’m working now, which is almost finished its second draft.
I have plans and loose outlines (the most I ever do) for the other stories, though at this point I’m not entirely certain in which order they will appear in the final work.
I have a firm title that I’m in love with, and some cover ideas.
All in all, if it goes according to schedule, you should see this one available for purchase by end of this summer. Hopefully I’ll be able to bump it up, but as it stands now it’s competing with a commission, so I’m giving myself some extra time just in case.
It’s going to be creepy, and gory, and really, really fun. More to follow; I think you guys will like this one.
My Filofax is Here!
Stationery nerds, your attention please: I have obtained the Holy Grail.
My Filofax Malden is here.
With all the time-management I’ve been attempting, I’m hoping this is The Answer. Mine and C’s work schedules, story notes, publication planning…I even bought a four-year-at-a-glance calendar to track my word counts. I’ve always been best with tactile information.
Plus, I’m a big fan of “permanent” things. Smart phones are nice; I have one and (mostly) love it. But if you get a big ol’ scratch on your cell phone, that could be the end of it. Five years from now your cell phone will be embarrassingly obsolete. I wanted something that will only gain character over time. Something made to last. I’m thinking this bad boy will see me through the next decade, at least, and I love the idea of seeing it age and change right along with me.
No rebooting, no charging. Room to doodle. The pleasing smell of leather. The ability to reorganize everything whenever life changes.
I am a very, very content little nerdling right now.
Write Your Words
(This is mostly me trying to motivate myself. But if you need a good kick in the pants, feel free to join me.)
So you wanna be a full-time author? Wanna get paid to do this all day? Wanna work from home, with your cats and your coffeemaker?
You’ve done the planning. You know where you’re going, and how to get there. Now what’s the first step?
Write your words.
Tired? Too bad, write your words.
Cat threw up? Clean it up, then write your words.
Feeling uninspired? Start with something, anything, and write your words.
Other things to do? Self-doubt? Not enough time in the day? Worrying about whether this whole thing will even work out? Just plain don’t feel like it today?
Too bad, so sad, get off your lazy ass and write your fucking words.
You don’t get there by being lazy. You don’t get there by being hesitant.
You get there by working your ass off, sacrificing, and then working some more.
You can sleep later. Now it is time to WRITE YOUR WORDS.
A Morning Person? Me??
Hah, bet that got your attention.
Seriously, though, I’m still trying to get into some sort of steady writing routine. My work schedule is kind of all over the place, so it’s been hard with this job to find a constant. I was finding that I’d come home from a long day at DayJob, and sit in front of the internet until it was time for bed. I’d write, sure, but I wasn’t getting either the quality or the volume I wanted.
I’ve always enjoyed staying up late, and I’ve always slept in. I decided to get up earlier and knock out a couple hours’ writing every morning before work. I used to think I could only be creative at night, but looking back that was a flawed assumption. Of course it seemed like I could only do stuff at night; I was sleeping in until the last possible moment before work.
I decided on this new morning plan a couple of weeks ago. Today was the first day it went according to plan.
The results? I grabbed a coffee and some breakfast, chowed while I caught up on time-wasters, and by the time I had finished breakfast I was ready to go.
I met my word-count goal for the entire day within an hour of waking.
Not only that, but already having accomplished my self-imposed goal for the day put me in a much better headspace for DayJob. I felt great.
My God, I think I’m becoming one of…those people.
sniderwriter 