Setting Up a New Year's Writing Resolution

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!

Life Gets in the Way

Life has been getting in the way of the more important things in life.  My more important things are reading and writing.

Life includes:

• Returning to my home that was abandoned for 8 weeks
• An earthquake
• Hurricane Irene
• Two power outages
• The beginning of a school year that included more meetings and technology issues than any other start of year EVER

Between the largest earthquake the East Coast has seen in 100 years and a hurricane that did billions of dollars in damage and closed schools throughout Maryland.  Between replacing the entire contents of my refrigerator... TWICE.  And negotiating new traffic patterns around downed wires and trees.  And then getting organized for a new school year with a record breaking number of students... (We don't have enough lockers for our current enrollment.)

I've been BUSY.

So on this Labor Day weekend, I'm going to make some time to do the labor I love.  My main goals:

1. Finish the last book in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series.
2. Do some writing exercises from LeGuin's Steering the Craft
3. Make a 3000 word dent in one of my manuscripts

Other things that may interfere with my main goals:

1. Online class coursework
2. Lesson Planning
3. Recycling
4. Laundry
5. Grocery shopping

We'll see how this weekend goes.  Here's to hoping it's a CALM one.

Establishing Routine

This is my final week before school starts back up.  And I'm using this week for three things all of which fall under one larger category: establishing routine.

My goals for this week are:

1. Get my place clean and organized.
2. Spend 1-3 hours writing every day.
3. Get up early and begin the day with exercise.

The cleaning is necessary for me to be sane.  This is the first time since June 18 that I've been at my place for more than 2 consecutive days.  I need to pitch, donate, and recycle.  I need to vacuum and dust.  And I want to reorganize things so that my environment is more writing focused instead of teaching focused.  I'm going to try to keep teaching at school this year.  We shall see if I accomplish that or not...

I think it's crucial that I get into the habit of writing every day now that I'm settled back at home.  Whether it's writing exercises from Le Guin's Steering the Craft or working on a WIP, I need to make time to write.  By establishing that routine now, I'm hoping it will stick once school rolls around.

And exercise.  I have this plan to read on the stationary bike.  So it will serve the dual purpose of exercise and reading time.  But I've never been an early morning exerciser... so we'll see how this goes...

Countdown Tip

My home page is iGoogle, which allows me to have all these lovely little gadgets.

I love the countdown gadget the most because it lets me countdown the days to awesome things like vacations, last day of school, Deathly Hallows...

But I've also discovered a fantastic other use for it.  I'm inputting important conference registration dates and grant application dates.  For example, there's a local conference that fills up quickly in the fall, so I put in the registration date, and now I can keep track of how many days until I can start checking of registration info (still 87 days to go).  There's also a grant I want to apply for through SCBWI, but I can't submit the application til February, so I put in a countdown for that too.

And yes, I could just do this on a calendar or in a planner.  But I'm not terribly good at using either.  I try.  I use my computer every single day.  I figured this was an excellent way to keep these dates in my sphere of attention.

Anyone else struggle with keeping track of dates?