Making Decisions
Sometimes I get stuck. I'm a thinker and frequently
over think, over analyze, etc. I call this getting in my own way. It's
also an aspect of the twin demons I've talked about in the past here
can bring the best of intentions to an abrupt halt. I found a way out
of that mess this week in several places. The first one was actually a
sermon titled, Direction Without Doubt by Dr. Charles Stanley and you can listen to it here if interested. The second one was here at The Creative Penn where Joanna Penn is talking about, How To Write More And Create A Daily Writing Habit.
What I loved and gave me great encouragement was thinking about how much work I wanted to complete this year before I watched that big ball in New York city bring in 2014. Time goes so fast and I don't want to waste it. I decided to shoot for 100,00 words. That's an 80,000 word novel and either two short stories or possibly a novella. When I divided 100,000 words by the number of days left in the year, 318, I got 314.4 words a day that I had to write. That's only a bit more than one page. ONE PAGE! Well I know I can do better without overwhelming myself. So I doubled it. That's 628.9 words a day and that equals (drum roll) 200,000 WORDS!
I work full time and have multiple family responsibilities and still I know I can do this if I don't procrastinate. That means not worrying
about being perfect, no one is so why try. But do the best I can do and
even if I only end up with 150,000 words that's amazing.
So don't count yourself out in making some awesome word counts this year. You know some days are better than others and even with a crisis or two we should be able to write a book a year. And once that habit is formed there is no holding you back.
And speaking of habits. You can use a calendar to track your progress or you can use whatever encourages you. I like Habit Forge. Maybe you will too. If you think this post was helpful please tweet it or Facebook it and spread the word.
All comments are welcomed and encouraged.
Have an awesome week.
Jillian
2 comments:
Thanks for the encouragement, Jillian. You know what's funny? Now that I have retired so that I can write full time, I'm not making that much more progress than when I worked full time and held down a Saturday church calling. It really is a matter of self-discipline, isn't it? It's so easy to let outside distractions get in the way no matter how much or how little time you have.
Hi Darrel,
That's probably why so many authors recommend getting our writing done early in the morning. I'm not a morning person. I've tried. Really. I think my ideal hours are when I'm at the day job and from about 10:00- 2:00pm. But I can't write then. :( Although I should try to get my lunch time writing back. Time can be very elusive. Guess we'll just have to find ways to tame the monster.
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