I've never been big on New Year's resolutions, but this year I'm taking the opportunity to goal set and start up a writing routine. No more excuses. If I want to call myself a writer, then I need to write! (And regularly, not just when the mood strikes me.)
Between now and April is the most free time I will get all year. No grad classes. No reading lists to get ahead on. Just me and my time. I've already said that I relish this time of year because I get to read what I want to read, but this year, I'm setting a goal to start and complete a first draft of a new novel...by April 1st. (April is when I get started on my reading list for summer, hence the April 1st deadline.)
It's no NaNo (writing 50,000 words in a single month), but considering there's some research that needs to be done, I think 3 months is a tough but realistic time frame.
Now here's where I had to do some troubleshooting. I wanted to set up a specific time of day where I could productively write. I've struggled with this in the past. I get out of school around 3pm each day. And while afternoons would be the preferred time to write because I'm not dragging tired yet... it's not realistic considering after school I could have meetings, parent conferences, errands, etc. So 3-5pm is out.
And 8pm is prime TV hour. So 8-9pm is out of the picture. And then to be totally honest, any time after that I'm too tired to be productive. And I need to start winding down around that time or else I suffer from insomnia.
So, I've decided prime writing time is going to be after fixing dinner, while drinking tea, from 6-8pm. My goal will be 500-1000 words per day which will place me at perfect first draft range of 45,000-90,000 words over a 3 month time frame.
So if anyone would like to join me in gluing their butt to their chair from 6-8pm every night and cranking out some words. Let me know. We can exchange word counts or something.
Here's to a new year filled with the click clacking of freshly typed words!
Good for you! Hell, my goal is to have a finished draft of my WIP done by the end of January... but we'll see how that goes. I'd be all for writing now but things are still working out in my head and I'm gathering advice on up coming events from a number of people (really just three) and so I'm being lazy and putting writing off....
ReplyDeleteI hope to join you! I think it would be super fun!