Okay, so I think we've decided on See Me Write Month as the name for September's write-a-thon. I'll admit it didn't start out all wild horses here, but there are 29 more days to this month.
The plan for me... if I can manage to get off my dead ass... is to work on edits for Cinder Ugly in the daytime and then write new words at night. I can do this.
It's not like I have much else to do. I work maybe 4-5 hours a week on the pay-job, chores don't take much of my time, and activity/exercise might be a 30-60 minutes a day. That leaves scads of time. Edit for an hour, write for an hour - every day. Easy peasy.
I just need to crack the whip on my ol' gumption. Get 'er done. Yeehaw. Really the only thing holding me back... the only thing to ever hold me back... is me.
168 hours in a week.
56 hours for sleeping (even if I don't actually sleep all those hours)
5 hours for the pay job
7 hours for the exercising
That still leaves like 100 hours unaccounted for. What the hell am I doing with all those hours??? Surfing the net? Reading the news I really don't want to read anyway? When you think about it like that, there should be at least 14 hours a week I can set aside for writing and editing, eh? In fact, that seems like a piddlin' small amount to devote to my chosen profession.
Oh, sure, I know there aren't 100 free hours in my week. There's mealtimes, and showers, and bathroom breaks, and cat stuff... and sundry other things that take up minutes in every day. I read, I play poker, I watch TV. Everything can fit, if I want it to.
And that's what these write-a-thon things are doing. Training myself to look for the time and use it to do what I need to do - write and edit. That's all that the original NaNoWriMo was ever good for, in my opinion.
So, what are you doing with your 168 hours? Are you finding time to do what you need to do?
My first NaNoWriMo taught me to quit editing and just write. I'd write a chapter and then spend the next week editing, revision, re-editing, ad nauseum. If I was lucky, ten days later or so, I'd write another chapter. I'd hit that spot in my head where everything had to be perfect before moving on and WE ALL KNOW that never happens. So I signed up knowing 2 things: I'm competitive and there was no way I could write 50K words in 30 days if I stopped to edit. Granted, that first attempt took several years before it hit the shelves but that was because I actually wrote and sold other books. You probably remember but that first NaNo book? It became SEASON OF THE WITCH.
ReplyDeleteSadly, the stupid depression and other crap has filled my head again and for two years now, writing with any regularity is a struggle. These mini-WriMos are helping a lot. Glad you came up with the idea and I plan to keep it up, even if I only get 500 words a day. Those are words I didn't have before.
As for my 168 hours, most are wastedon stupid mind games on the computer (which add to my carpal tunnel which is the height of stupidity on my part) and staring at my Scrivener program trying to get words to appear on the page. I KNOW it's all in my head. And I'm working on that too.
So, good news is, I'm getting off the internet now, closing the game program so I'm not tempted, and I'm going to shoot for at least 2500 words today. That's a chapter. Actually, I hope to finish a chapter and write a new one so more than 2500. I'm off!