It's funny that I've written consecutively for a hundred and twenty some odd days now and it seems that my personal blog is the hardest thing for me to write. I often think during the course of the day that I'll update the blog that night or just that I'll blog more frequently, but all too often those plans fall through.
Most of the time when its time to write, something else almost always gets the love and the blog gets the cold shoulder. "Why is that?" is a question that I've been asking myself and the answer is pretty clear. It's that I don't think anyone cares. Most of the time, when I sit down to update my personal blog I hesitate and often close the blogger tab in favor of a Word document because of this. Yep, I've got a bad attitude, but I'm trying to deal and I'll be trying to do better in the future. If you catch me slacking call me out. That's only fair.
The good news is that I'm still writing, and I mean everyday. If you don't know, I use The Magic Spreadsheet to keep me going and it works great! I've written all about it before, so I won't bother you with those details. Instead I'll leave links to those articles at the bottom of this article. Check 'em out! The spreadsheet truly is magic.
The kind of bad news is that the writing I've done has been all over the place. Trying to find a style that works for me has been a bit more challenging than I had originally anticipated. So far I've got a novella length witch detective story which is in bad need of a rewrite, a short story that I'm pretty happy with but needs a few more edits, and several starts to stories that I'm either still thinking about or have scrapped until I grow enough as a writer to use the ideas properly.
My style has been developing through all of this, and I think I'm going to end up being a discovery writer that writes very rough through a plot and then fleshes things out later, after the very basic frame work is in place. My latest ideas are developing like this and I like the way its going at the moment.
Taking a step away from the writing side of things before I wrap this up, I want to mention that I'm doing my best to stay healthy and active as well as write. One of the biggest changes I've made is to my diet, specifically the breakfast part of it. I've found that having smoothies for breakfast is a great way to start the day. They are delicious and nutritious, not to mention easy to make in the Ninja Blender that I received as a birthday gift. This coupled with exercise that in reality should be a bit more regular, will hopefully propel me to my fitness goals sooner rather than later.
That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by and come back anytime! I'll just be hanging out, write 'n stuff!
Oh yeah, those Magic Spreadsheet post links are here and here. Hope they help!
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
The Decision to Cut Words
Today marks 114 days in a row of writing. I know this because of the words I’ve logged
in the magic spreadsheet very diligently over the past 114 days. The spreadsheet has been a blessing because
there is no way I would have kept up this pace for so long without it. Over those days, I have reached level four
and now have a daily goal of 400 words.
That daily goal though, has unfortunately become somewhat of a problem.
Let me explain. It’s
not a problem because it’s an unachievable goal or anything like that; it’s a
problem because of me and my time limits and priorities. Not to mention my lack of writing skill. (Sometimes it takes me a lot longer than it
should to pump out 400 words) See, I’m
not a professional writer, even though that would be great. I like to think that if I was, I would knock
out 400 words by breakfast, but that’s probably unrealistic too, so I digress. So I've got work and then family and
everything else. It gets crazy
sometimes, so I had to make a decision.
My decision is to maintain my chain in the magic spreadsheet
by writing 250 words a day. (250 words is the minimum you can write and keep
your chain alive) Only writing 250 words
a day will cause me to lose those, oh so valuable points, but I believe I can
deal with that as long as my chain lives.
Keeping the chain alive will insure the life of my writing habit and the
lower word count will free up some time during my busy days or nights.
I am still excited about writing, and I am still enjoying it
greatly as I learn by doing. I am also
excited to free up some time to do some other things. I’ll be posting about those other things
soon, so stay tuned!
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
100 Days Down
Yesterday, I reached a milestone. One that I had worked toward for 100 days and reaching it makes me extremely happy and also just a little frustrated. What milestone is it? Well, yesterday marked the 100th day of consecutive writing that I had logged in The Magic Spreadsheet.
One hundred days was one of the first goals that I had set for myself when I began The Magic Spreadsheet and to be honest, I never really felt like I would reach that goal. I was absolutely positive that life would get in the way and prevent me from writing one of those days and just as suspected, life did try. There were long hours at work (over 16 hours a day in some cases), family trips where writing just was not convenient or near the top of the to do list, and then there were the days that I just did not want to write for whatever reason. Anyone who knows me can attest to the funks I can put myself in. Through all of these thing though, I persevered and looking forward to the goal, sat down at some point everyday to write.
This perseverance makes me extremely happy with myself. I now feel that I can do it. I can write. That maybe one day I can tell people that I know that I am a writer without that nagging piece inside of me that's wondering what they think about it. When it comes right down to it though, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about it because I write for me. At the end of the day, The Magic Spreadsheet helped me to do something that I wanted to do, and it doesn't matter what my peers or parents or anyone else for that matter thinks about it. That sounds harsh though, so I should clarify and say that I have not been discouraged in my goals. My immediate family understands that I write everyday even though I don't think they really get it. I just don't feel real comfortable talking about it, and I blame that on being an introvert.
That's where a little of the frustration comes from. I want to celebrate but then I don't want to celebrate because if I'm celebrating people will want to know why and I'll have to talk about it and I can't talk about it. Does that make sense? Probably not, but anyway, I can't help that. It's really hard to explain. Maybe I'll celebrate this weekend without telling anyone that I'm celebrating. That sounds good to me!
There is one other thing that's a little frustrating, but at the same time it's a little encouraging. It's the fact that now that I've reach 100 days, all that is ahead is more days. That's both good and bad! It's good that I know that I can do it, have done it, and can continue to do it, but it's bad in that you never have a day off. That is probably a good thing too though, because if I took a day off I may not make it back. So I'll keep plugging away and maybe someday I can write for someone who is not me.
Until then, I'll be right here write 'n stuff!
One hundred days was one of the first goals that I had set for myself when I began The Magic Spreadsheet and to be honest, I never really felt like I would reach that goal. I was absolutely positive that life would get in the way and prevent me from writing one of those days and just as suspected, life did try. There were long hours at work (over 16 hours a day in some cases), family trips where writing just was not convenient or near the top of the to do list, and then there were the days that I just did not want to write for whatever reason. Anyone who knows me can attest to the funks I can put myself in. Through all of these thing though, I persevered and looking forward to the goal, sat down at some point everyday to write.
This perseverance makes me extremely happy with myself. I now feel that I can do it. I can write. That maybe one day I can tell people that I know that I am a writer without that nagging piece inside of me that's wondering what they think about it. When it comes right down to it though, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks about it because I write for me. At the end of the day, The Magic Spreadsheet helped me to do something that I wanted to do, and it doesn't matter what my peers or parents or anyone else for that matter thinks about it. That sounds harsh though, so I should clarify and say that I have not been discouraged in my goals. My immediate family understands that I write everyday even though I don't think they really get it. I just don't feel real comfortable talking about it, and I blame that on being an introvert.
That's where a little of the frustration comes from. I want to celebrate but then I don't want to celebrate because if I'm celebrating people will want to know why and I'll have to talk about it and I can't talk about it. Does that make sense? Probably not, but anyway, I can't help that. It's really hard to explain. Maybe I'll celebrate this weekend without telling anyone that I'm celebrating. That sounds good to me!
There is one other thing that's a little frustrating, but at the same time it's a little encouraging. It's the fact that now that I've reach 100 days, all that is ahead is more days. That's both good and bad! It's good that I know that I can do it, have done it, and can continue to do it, but it's bad in that you never have a day off. That is probably a good thing too though, because if I took a day off I may not make it back. So I'll keep plugging away and maybe someday I can write for someone who is not me.
Until then, I'll be right here write 'n stuff!
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