So, after giving it a little more thought, but not wanting to veer too far from the plans I’ve already worked out for the one million words challenge, I’ve made myself a new schedule for 2014 that’s turned out to be a bit different than I expected. Better, I hope, but not quite what I laid out in the previous post about it. :D
7am–9:36am
11am–1:36pm
4pm–6:36pm
There’s a somewhat complicated reason for the odd numbers that I won’t bore you with, but I like it. I’ve tried it out today and it’s working really well for me. (Except that I’m getting about an hour and a half of a late start on the last session.)
On the weekends, I’m just going to eliminate the middle session and move the last session to 7pm (8pm when needed). That means most of my weekend days will be completely free from around 9:36am–7pm for getting out, reading, or taking up a new hobby if I want. :D And of course, if I have other plans, I’ll just pick the two most convenient session times for the day.
This is actually going to lead to more writing time in a day than I usually ever come close to, so it’s going to be interesting to see how much actual timed writing I get.
Theoretically, this schedule could allow me to average about 24,700 words a week. That means I could not write for eleven and a half weeks out of the year and still make the one million. So … breathing room! Which we all know is a definite necessity.
I am sincerely hoping this schedule will help me stay on track in 2014.
I’m making a commitment here and now to stick to this schedule in 2014—no rethinking, reconfiguring, recalculating—getting rid of all the baggage that comes with having to make decisions every single day* about how and when I’m going to get to my writing. This is a near perfect schedule for what’s going on in my life right now. I think this is going to be grand. :)
Still, I’m very afraid this goal is way too huge for me, and I’m not going to allow myself to feel like a failure if I only get partway there. :D But boy, I love this huge goal!
*I struggle with this kind of thing all the time. 2014 is the year I tackle this head on! I plan to come up with more rules for myself and my life this year to eliminate as much of this needless, repetitive decision-making as possible. I’m actually thinking of setting alarms on my phone to trigger me to do certain things at certain times—you know, train myself, lol. :D I’ve already set the alarms for the writing times. :)
Oh boy. The “eliminate all that pointless decision-making” dream. I’m right there with ya, except when I’m not.
I mean: that sort of thinking ought to mean I could write a story according to an outline, right? But mostly they shut me down, and do so quite unmercifully. I often try to have a few one-sentence scene summaries handy to start my day (about one day in three here), but an overall plot summary or similar creature? I have trouble focusing on the bits I’m “supposed” to be writing when I have one of those. Too bad, ’cause from time to time I think it might be nice to boil the job down to a series of one-scene writing assignments. Maybe someday? It sounds sorta nice. Maybe.
OTOH I completely agree about having a regular schedule. Occasionally I can pretend I’m doing that, and the results are outstanding. Until something comes along. I’d view this as a weakness of mine, ‘cept that I also used to buy the notion that what others called my “procrastination” was a character flaw, and it took me too many years to realize that my basic inability to do much of anything just ’cause other people thought I should was actually rather useful.
So I’m conflicted. But I’m looking forward to reading more about how this goes for you. I hope it goes very well indeed–and only partly ’cause I am, in spite of all this kvetching, trying to do something very similar! {8′>
-D
I’m conflicted. :) There are many days when I wake up and think “what’s the point of a schedule?” and I truly believe in that moment that having a schedule is ruining all the fun in life. Then there are the days when I look at a week gone by where I can hardly remember what I’ve done and I think I have to have a schedule or I’m just whiling away my days one lost hour at a time.
I don’t outline; I gave that up years ago. :D If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be where I’m at now and I know it. Outlining sucked all the joy out of finishing a book for me and as soon as I stopped, I started finishing things—whereas in all the years before, I rarely finished anything.
You should tell me about this realization you had that your procrastination was rather useful. I’m still not there and I often feel like it’s a terrible character flaw I’m never going to overcome. Or just point me to a post you’ve written. I’d like to know more.