As most of you know, I am participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. I’m also trying something a little different. I’m going to do a daily writing blog to talk about my writing schedule, what has worked and what hasn’t. The dailies won’t be as comprehensive as my normal weekly blog but I’m hoping that by doing so I’ll have a better understanding of my own writing and you might get a inside peek of how I do things.
I’ve noticed in the last while that when I’ve got a big project going, I’m able to focus on it and really get the work done. My problem always seems to be that when the project is finished, I sit back and relax too much. What I need to do (at least, what I think I need to do) is set a finite period of time to recover from the previous project and have a set date to start on the next one. If I’m able to do that, then I won’t waste quite as much time.
Case in point, I finished GalaxyBillies at the end of September. My intent was to write six new short stories in October and do the end-of-story show AND plot out my NaNoNovel. As it turned out, I didn’t write any new shorts nor did I do the end-of-story show. I did do some of the plotting. There were other things going on that I hadn’t planned for, but it still felt like I failed in achieving the things I needed to do (mostly because I had).
It didn’t feel very good. In fact, by the end of October, I was questioning whether I would have what it takes to actually achieve my NaNo goals and win again this year.
So far (this is ONLY day 3 after all), I’m on track to win again. Not in record time (for me), by any means but still win before the 30 days are up. That tells me that having the set goal is critical to my writing success. It means that I can’t afford to let myself off without setting time limits for relaxation and I definitely can’t finish a project without a date set to start the next one.
So the daily blogs (some will be extremely short) will help me track the things I do to keep going despite my crazy schedule. Don’t believe my schedule is crazy? Let me give you an example of this week.
Monday – Boy Scouts: I am a leader and Scouts starts at 18:15. I get home at 17:30 so I have 45 minutes to change, shower, eat and get to the meeting. The meetings go until 20:30 and I TRY to be in bed by 22:00.
Tuesday – Cub Scouts: Yes, I’m a leader for that too. Cubs start at 19:15 (still get home at 17:30) and runs until 20:30.
Wednesday – Language lessons. For the record, I’m taking Mandarin for fun. Class starts at 19:30 and goes until 21:00.
Thursday – night I record interviews for podcast “Get Published”. This week I am talking to Kimi Alexander of the SpecFicDB among other things.
Friday – actually nothing planned for a change
Saturday – Scout camp. Leave the house at about 07:30 and not back until Sunday afternoon.
Sunday – Scout camp day two.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy all the activities I’m involved in. The thing is, I’m up at 6AM every day for work and I don’t get home until 5:30PM. There’s not a lot of family time available and definitely not much for writing. During NaNo I’m not coming even close to going to bed for 10:00PM.
I’m not looking for any sympathy here, I’m just stating the fact that I’m a busy guy. Having said that, writing is very import so I’m willing to sacrifice a little sleep to make it happen.
Anyway, enough babbling on my part. I’ve got a book to write. For those of you doing NaNo, good luck and buddy me if you like. I’m mplested on the NaNo site. For everyone else, I hope you are doing well and continue to do so.
Personal Update
NaNo. Pretty much describes it all. I may have my Zombie Erotica story sold. When I know more, I’ll let you all know.
