Daily Diary, Day 705:
This past week reminded me of why I decided to make my writing week start on Saturdays, because Saturday and Sunday are the days I am most likely to have fewer outside demands on my time, but as the week progresses, these demands seem to increase and my writing time decreases accordingly.
This is certainly what happened this week. As I shared earlier, Monday through Wednesday, I averaged slightly more than 1400 words a day. Thursday, I only got in 718 words. Yesterday, Friday, I got no fiction writing done at all.
This was a conscious decision I made. What happened was that when I finally got around to writing, it was after two in the afternoon. The morning (beyond usual walk and cleaning the upstairs) had been taken up with a series of phone calls and listening to the podcast interview. I got the podcast link in the morning and I knew I needed to listen to it before sharing the link. So there I was, starting late in the day, and starting a new chapter with characters who I was going to have to refamiliarize myself with.
I looked at my to-do list and made an executive decision to work on that, rather than writing. The good progress I had made earlier in the week made this decision easier. Most of the stuff on the list I had dutifully pushed to the bottom each day, so I could write. But I didn’t want to go into the next week with them all sitting there.
So, I spent the next few hours trying to knock off as many of these things as I could. This included updating of my books on Kobo, writing a couple of emails to authors who are starting to work on Paradisi Chronicles stories, and checking to see how a promotion of Maids of Misfortune that had been running had done in terms of downloads and rankings.
So, with most of those to-do things done, here it is Saturday. I’ve done my walk, I am about to finish this post, and I should be able to start writing soon. My writing intentions for this coming week are the same as last week. I will put the writing first, I will use the method of doing 25 min sprints and not taking the time to fill in details, and my goal is to average of 1000 words a day (and of course more, if possible.)
Wish me luck!
My one rose bush suddenly pushed out a blossom, so here it is.
Yes! Sometimes you have to make a "conscious decision" and that does make it "just fine." It's when a day passes in some frantic way--then it does not feel so good.
But such decision is significant. I always feel in doing so that my writing knows it's time to slink off into the backroom of the sub-conscious, and work quietly there.
And then the next day blooms, and we're ready to go!
What an incredible rose, Mary Lou! Thank you--