Back on the wagon

Yep, quiet blog month from me.

I've read a few books but nothing screamed for a post. I'll probably try a catch-all summary if anything. Other personal things are keeping me busy.

The writing wagon. Get back on it.

Part of that busy-ness is writing. Specifically, establishing a daily writing habit. I know the lack of a daily writing habit is my Achilles' heel. I've finally leveraged my cat's help.

Yes, seriously.

She wakes us up way before the morning alarm, now that the days start early. Instead of being tired, grumpy and half-sleeping my way until the alarm rings, I've decided to leverage the issue in my favor.

I am now writing in the morning, first thing (after I feed the cats) before my regular day starts. I write for 40-60 minutes, with a daily session goal of 750 words. I never thought of myself as a 'morning person' but the fact is, waiting until evening is real hit-or-miss. Half the time I can't motivate myself to write.

The morning slot is working. I output an average of 700 words or so nearly every morning last week. I finished a rough draft short story in that time.

My motivational coach

If I go to bed an hour earlier now, so what? It's generally not an hour I used for writing. Most of that hour is just spent online or watching news, anyway. No loss there.

The other neat thing is that once I've done 750 words, I don't feel guilty if I can't get anything more out in the evening. On the other hand, after you've done 750 words 300 doesn't seem so hard and on some nights, I can push to that goal and have a 1000 words for the entire day.

And, if I can't reach the 750 in the morning, I can get some portion done and it seems much more manageable and believable that I will complete at least the 750 by bedtime.

I also know that I probably need outlines to do this. Part of my initial success was knowing what a scene needed to do. That early in the morning, I do need that.

Once the days grow shorter, and the cat stops her morning obnoxiousness, I will switch to using the alarm. By then I hope to have my habit firmly established.

A daily habit will be the only way to get novel(s) done, and I know I need to get there.