It's not that I haven't been aware of what's keeping me from meeting my writing goals. I know. And I'm going to tell you in this blog, which is why I'm still somewhat hesitant to publish it. Because my problem is not awareness--it's about the next step--commitment, and publishing is nearly like asking for accountability.
In honor of the new year, Writer's Digest had an article about revamping your writing routine--check if what you're doing is working for you, and adjust as necessary. Then last week, I went to a writer's retreat with author Susan Gregg Gilmore (Searching for Salvation at the Dairy Queen and The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove) and she asked what do all writers have in common? Her answer was, a routine. I remember her photo in the power point presentation: an alarm clock with six o'clock blazing. It happens to be the time I used to get up at regularly.
So I confess, this is a problem. I went through many changes last fall. My husband changed his work schedule and that affected mine. Illness and back pain thrown in, and I lost a lot of time. I used to write during 2 scheduled times a day. I got up at 6 and could get an hour of writing in before the kids were up. I wrote again during nap time. I thought, when my husband started a job that required more travel, that I'd get more writing done during the evening hours when he was off somewhere else in the world and my kids were asleep. However, that hasn't really happened. Not only have I not accomplished extra writing, I haven't even been sticking to my two scheduled times when my husband is home. Sometimes I just didn't want to get up, or was honestly not well and needed to sleep. (I also went through bout of insomnia, and I knew I had to sleep in to compensate in order to survive the day of being, essentially, a single parent.)
My husband is currently not traveling, but his new job has flexible hours. Instead of having to get up at 6, he can decide to not go in until an hour later, and turn off his alarm and sleep until 7. Sounds nice in the moment, but then, when I get up with him later, the kids are up, and that's it for any hopes of mine at getting any writing done.
My other problem is my afternoon habits. I appreciated when Gilmore talked about how she starts with facebook, twitter, email, etc. "A warm-up," she called it. I get that. I can't go from the stress of putting two (usually) cranky kids down to nap, immediatley into typing words for my novel. I need a way to decompress and switch gears. I have been checking facebook and answering email to do that. The problem is, an hour slips by, the kids can be up in 30 minutes, and my writing time has just been squandered. I did the same often when I had opportunity to write in the evenings when my husband was traveling.
If I'm ever going to meet my deadline of finishing a first draft of the novel in July, I've got to get a handle on this again. I've got to commit to getting up early when my husband is home, evne if it means I respond to the alarm when he just turns it off for his own purposes. And during nap-time, I've got to limit myself by time. I need to allow myself the facebooking, but, honestly, I get kinda numb and keep scrolling down mindlessly. I even start searching for mindless things to do just because I feel fried and don't know how to transition to the real writing. But I need to limit all that, even if it means setting a timer for15 minutes!
So that's one of the biggest things I got from my writing retreat at Aaron's Books in Lititz. It's not earth-shattering. It's not some great writer's trick to cut in half the amount of work my novel needs. But it's fundamental, crucial. My level of self-discipline will make or break my writing career.
At least that's half my problem. The other half, I'll save for another post. That one's even harder to confess because I'm not sure I have the strength to attempt holding myself to it.
Other writing I've published:
Natural Deodorants: Do Any Work as Effectively as Popular Commercial Brands?
Organic Food: Eight Benefits for You and Your Children
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Thirteen Reasons to Avoid It
Job Search: How to Make Your Application Climb to The Top of The Pile
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