Near mid-year update

It’s the beginning of May 2008. I made clear goals for this year and, as a checkpoint, I shall review progress thus far.

My goals were:

Complete the first draft of my novel:
I estimated I would need to write another 80,000 words. I’m now at the 55,000 word mark with an expected end point of 120,000 words. So, apparently I have written 15,000 words in four months. That’s 3,750 words a month. Hmmm… I somewhat doubt the accuracy of that, but I’m not in a rush to complain. However, in order to reach my goal by the end of the year I must write (on average) 8,125 words per month. Well, geez, looks like I better get busy!

Write nine (original) short stories (in addition to Iris):
I seem to recall that I’ve written two. One a short story composed entirely of dialogue, and another written as a prompt at the Best Friend’s Holiday Retreat. Neither are competition-worthy.

Submit Iris to the Alan Marshall Short Story Award:
Well, yay, I have done that. I haven’t heard anything yet, and I’m not holding my breath.

Submit five short stories to competitions:
See note above. Can’t submit what doesn’t exist. *smacks own hand*

Enter The Age short story competition:
Again, as above. Anyone seeing a pattern here!?

Read 60 (fiction) books (and blog-review each one):
I’ve read 18 (an average of 4.5 per month). That’s not bad considering that there was one month when I read just one. So, I just need to up that by one book a month and I’ll meet my goal. That’s easy! I love reading! And, as my earlier blog illustrates, I have no shortage of reading material!

Read 10 (non-fiction) books:
I can’t recall that I’ve read even one, at least not through to completion. This may not have been a realistic goal, given that I read for research but rarely information gathering requires reading an entire book from cover to cover. Most non-fiction books fail to hold my interest for that long, and reading just so I can tick off from a list does not seem a good use of time.


Anything else to be added that has been missed:

This is a good time to consider whether my goals are comprehensive enough. I didn’t include anything around time management, though that has been a troubling issue for quite some time. For much of last year I rolled out of bed anywhere between 6am and 8am (or later), and staggered into work anywhere between 8:30am and 11am (if I got there at all). Some days I wrote, most days I didn’t.

Since Emily left at the end of March, I have established a routine of waking to an alarm at 5am, either getting up (or, if I’m feeling unwell, then snoozing for another 30 to 45 minutes), and leaving for work at 7am. I work through until 4pm and am home at 5pm. Most nights I’m in bed by 9pm. It’s a routine that works, makes me feel good and has ample time for writing and reading.

It’s a great achievement, one I thought impossible given my long-established distaste of anything that resembles routine. It’s to be celebrated, rejoiced, spoken of with much pride! However, now that I have this great new habit, am I using it to write?

*shuffles feet, chews fingernails, avoids eye contact*

The fact of the matter is that I’ve managed to turn my 2 hours of a morning into even more procrastination time. I get up, turn on the computer, check emails, reply to any I’ve received (or make new ones if I’ve not received any), then (because it’s normally gone 6am by this time and I’ve not showered, gotten lunch ready or done anything else I have to do before I leave), I procrastinate for another 15 minutes (web-surfing, reading media websites, etc) before finally heading off to the shower and then rushing around because I’m running late.

Great little habit that one. *rolls eyes* I really am my own worst enemy.

So, instead of beating myself up over this, I shall focus on how great it is that I have established a habit of getting up early. *pats self on back* And recognise that I need to fine-tune that so that it is productive time. That’s the easy part, and this webpage has given me some great ideas: Create a Morning Writing Ritual

With appropriate credit to Leo Babauta, here’s my plan:

1. Prepare the night before:

- tidy desk, remove all unrelated material, leave only items needed for writing
- set out hot chocolate, mug, spoon, small saucepan for boiling milk
- prepare lunch/snacks for work and set aside clothes for next working day
- pre-writing prep (notes, connections, a basic idea of what I’ll write in the morning)
- Aim to be asleep by 9 pm

2. Set a time to start:

I set my alarm for 5am, so I will stick with that and then see if I can make it earlier. Maybe I’ll set it ten minutes earlier each week and see how that goes. To start things off though, tomorrow morning I shall rise at 5am, get everything ready for work, make my hot chocolate (Haighs, I’m spoiling myself!) and sit down at the computer and force myself to write.

3. Get your coffee first:

I don’t drink coffee, so I’ve bought some Haigh’s hot chocolate. Yum!! That on its own will be enough to get me out of bed!

4. Don’t check email or RSS feeds:

This is going to be harder. I LOVE hearing from my friends, especially Emily, but... *deep sigh* I mostly receive emails during the day, and I can easily respond to them of an evening. There’s no real reason for me to be focussing on emails of a morning. It’s just willpower, and keeping my eye on the goal of my novel completed to full first draft by December 31.

5. Clear away all distractions:

Since I’ve moved my study into the old spare room, this is a lot easier to achieve. I look at a beautiful big green wall. As long as the desk is tidy, then there are no distractions (aside from the ones I find online, and the ones that my dog present to me in the form of toys, balls, a hairy butt to be scratched).

6. Just write:

Thirty minute blocks work well for me, so I shall do that. The breaks between the blocks must be small though. A break to get a drink, go to the toilet, find more food, that’s all. No more than five minutes each time, preferably even less than that. I have to be strict about this because I am so easily distracted.

7. Celebrate when you’re done!

Woo hoo, once I’ve spent and hour and a half writing, I get to go to work! *groans* However, I do get to walk to the station and then read my book on the train, so I guess that constitutes some form of a reward. Best of all though, I get to have a sense of achievement, and the knowledge that even if I do absolutely no writing for the remainder of the day it won't be a major travesty.

8. Practice

Every day, regardless of what day it is, this must be my routine. This will be broken only by social activities where I’m up too late the previous night to wake up early the following day. Unfortunately, I need 8 hours of sleep or else my immune system starts eating itself, literally. I am such a nerdy hermit though that there will be a rare day when this habit is broken.

I'll report back in a week or so to say how I'm going. I trust I'll bring good news and an improved word count (maybe even a new chapter!)