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It's been a while.
So, I've been a bit more than lax in keeping up with the blog. I think both facebook and twitter have proven easier for the small thoughts I've had here and there along the year, whereas in the past I might have taken more time to write up a dream or a funny story from the boys. Going to have to decide how and if I want to change that approach.
I don't go in for New Year's Resolutions as a general thing. That's not to say I don't see a value in taking stock in the previous year, seeing what you've accomplished, and setting new goals for the year ahead. I do, but the idea that everyone has to do all that on this one day, just kind of irks me. I guess it springs out of the part of me that tends to resist things that everyone else does on principle. What principle, I haven't a clue, I've been trying to figure that out for over forty years now.
However, recently, just before the new year, I made a major push on finishing up the revision on my Not Quite A Super Hero novel. I'd been making slow progress, and kept setting myself goal dates, and then blowing right past them. Not a good thing. In some instances, I understand why it happened. In others, I can only conclude that sufficient motivation to keep the project moving wasn't there. For that, I have only one person to look at in regards to keeping things moving: the one see in the mirror every day.
So I embarked on a system to get myself moving again. And just about at the tail end of last year going on into New Years, I made a good push. And on New Year's day I remembered that I used to track how many words I wrote on a special writing Google Calendar I'd setup just for that purpose. I eventually stopped using that, because the obsession with a number, and what was or wasn't enough, etc, got me just as tangled up as anything else. Besides, I didn't understand how to use that on projects like this one where I'm not writing new text, but revising a first draft into something I can put in the hands of beta readers.
So I scraped all that. I liked the idea of a visual reminder, did I get to my writing that day. I often remember the idea of what I was originally told was attributed to Jerry Seinfeld. That he would have a calendar on the wall, and every day when he wrote new jokes, he would put an X through the day. After a while, he pushed himself to write new jokes because he had to keep his streak going. Self motivation at it's core. I wanted to have that, because it was simple. That's essentially what I'd been going for before, except that I got tangled up in numbers and specifics, and everything else. So this time around I wanted to make it simple. So I made this as straightforward and binary as I could: Did I write.
Below is the result.
Everyday, before I go to bed (or most often after I get up the next morning it seems, but the effect is close enough) I ask myself the question. Did I write today? And if the answer is Yes, I get to mark that down on my calendar. I use the phrase YES I WROTE as a way of reinforcing to myself what it is I'm doing. I'm writing.
Now, what am I counting as writing? I'm counting new material. Editing. Crafting a Query or Synopsis. Outlining and plotting. Free writing exercises, or character development work. Some of those are pre and post writing tasks, but they are necessary tasks, and they all involve the "writing muscles" to some degree or other. I'm not worrying about how much of each of this things, or how long I do it. It's a simple question: Did I do any of these? Yes or no. Yes gets the box filled in. No leaves it blank. Blank spots should become obvious.
There are many other tasks that a writer needs to do, and I might track those as well on the calendar as separate items. But this is my plan for this coming year, to see if I can keep this up. So far so good.
I don't go in for New Year's Resolutions as a general thing. That's not to say I don't see a value in taking stock in the previous year, seeing what you've accomplished, and setting new goals for the year ahead. I do, but the idea that everyone has to do all that on this one day, just kind of irks me. I guess it springs out of the part of me that tends to resist things that everyone else does on principle. What principle, I haven't a clue, I've been trying to figure that out for over forty years now.
However, recently, just before the new year, I made a major push on finishing up the revision on my Not Quite A Super Hero novel. I'd been making slow progress, and kept setting myself goal dates, and then blowing right past them. Not a good thing. In some instances, I understand why it happened. In others, I can only conclude that sufficient motivation to keep the project moving wasn't there. For that, I have only one person to look at in regards to keeping things moving: the one see in the mirror every day.
So I embarked on a system to get myself moving again. And just about at the tail end of last year going on into New Years, I made a good push. And on New Year's day I remembered that I used to track how many words I wrote on a special writing Google Calendar I'd setup just for that purpose. I eventually stopped using that, because the obsession with a number, and what was or wasn't enough, etc, got me just as tangled up as anything else. Besides, I didn't understand how to use that on projects like this one where I'm not writing new text, but revising a first draft into something I can put in the hands of beta readers.
So I scraped all that. I liked the idea of a visual reminder, did I get to my writing that day. I often remember the idea of what I was originally told was attributed to Jerry Seinfeld. That he would have a calendar on the wall, and every day when he wrote new jokes, he would put an X through the day. After a while, he pushed himself to write new jokes because he had to keep his streak going. Self motivation at it's core. I wanted to have that, because it was simple. That's essentially what I'd been going for before, except that I got tangled up in numbers and specifics, and everything else. So this time around I wanted to make it simple. So I made this as straightforward and binary as I could: Did I write.
Below is the result.
Everyday, before I go to bed (or most often after I get up the next morning it seems, but the effect is close enough) I ask myself the question. Did I write today? And if the answer is Yes, I get to mark that down on my calendar. I use the phrase YES I WROTE as a way of reinforcing to myself what it is I'm doing. I'm writing.
Now, what am I counting as writing? I'm counting new material. Editing. Crafting a Query or Synopsis. Outlining and plotting. Free writing exercises, or character development work. Some of those are pre and post writing tasks, but they are necessary tasks, and they all involve the "writing muscles" to some degree or other. I'm not worrying about how much of each of this things, or how long I do it. It's a simple question: Did I do any of these? Yes or no. Yes gets the box filled in. No leaves it blank. Blank spots should become obvious.
There are many other tasks that a writer needs to do, and I might track those as well on the calendar as separate items. But this is my plan for this coming year, to see if I can keep this up. So far so good.
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