Writing habits

For the last 10 days or so, I have been writing. Each session has produced 500-750 words, which is pretty good. Last week I managed 2900 words in total and so far this week the total has increased to 4500 words.

I did start off with the goal of 100 words a day, or 700 words for the entire first week, so I blew that goal completely out of the water. As I completed almost 3000 words last week, my new goal for this week is 3500 words to give a total of 6500 over the two weeks. Only 2000 words to go...

In terms of progress on the novel, I would like to get to 5000 words a week. This is eminently doable, but as always it is me that is holding it back. So far this week, I'm not doing too badly. Last night I was ill so I didn't write, I slept instead. However I have no excuse for tonight.

I should add that I was seriously ill at the end of last week due to a viral infection. The doctor was worried it was even worse than it turned out to be, but I was still very sick. I'm still feeling the effects now and that is why I slept for so long yesterday.

I will admit that this is a new story I'm writing. I decided to take some time away from the other one as I was getting more and more confused where it was headed. I haven't completely abandoned it and I will go back to it when I've finished writing the first draft of this story. At that point I will then make a decision as to either continue with it or abandon it for good.

Of course I could be a serial first drafter, never getting any further with anything, but somehow I doubt it.

So slow

Not doing so well. No surprise there. I just don't seem to have the energy, but that's just an excuse. I also forgot to recharge my mini laptop. That's an excuse too. Not to mention that not plugging it in is probably an unconscious way of avoiding writing.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. Trouble is I know myself very well and I know I'm doing my best to avoid writing. I do similar things to avoid housework too. I am lazy.

Tonight, as soon as I get home, I will plug in the mini laptop. I will. And I will write using pen and paper while it's recharging.

Habits

I no longer write every day. I've managed to drop the habit and I am having some trouble trying to get it back. So yesterday I decided that I would not go to bed until I had written at least 100 words, with a goal to write a minimum of 100 words a day for the whole week.

The idea is to increase that to 200 words a day for the following week. And each week, up the daily total by a hundred, stopping at either 500 or 1000 words a day. I like the idea of 1000 words a day, but I need to see how practical it is to do.

And being practical, I have to allow for some days with no writing. Sometimes it won't be possible. But I could write extra on the days that follow, which I think is probably the best idea so that the week total remains unchanged.

This is, of course, more difficult if I go for 7000 words a week, but not impossible. I manage much more than that during NaNoWriMo. I'm just not sure it's realistic over such a long period. For 3500 words a week, it would be much easier.

So last night I sat down and wrote. In the end I had 1073 words, which is not bad. Tonight I still have my goal of a minimum of 100 words, but hopefully I will again write more. I'm going to force myself to write everyday until I have finished a draft.

Let's see what happens this time.