If Only All Days Could Be Like This One!

1467 words today. I love days like this, when the writing goes really well. It makes you feel productive, like you have really accomplished something. It more than makes up for the days where you have to struggle so much just to write a single sentence. If only all days could be so easy.

My story is coming along well. I'm beginning to really like how my characters are starting to interact with one another. I just hope I can finish writing this book soon, so that I can start to edit it and try for publication before the year is out.

Well, one thing at a time, right?

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How Do You Manage Your Writing?

Well, after my daughter FINALLY settled down and went to bed (it wasn't easy getting her to fall asleep tonight, let me tell you), I managed to write some more. My word count for today is 552! Yay me! I met my yearly writing goal again for the first time in a while. It feels good to accomplish something.

All of this made me wonder about the writing habits of other writers, though. How do you get your work done? Do you have a schedule that you follow? If so, what is it? Do you set page or word goals? Do you make yourself sit down for a certain length of time, and whatever you accomplish is what you accomplish?

I'm very interested to know these and other tidbits of information about your own writing habits!

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To Write, or Not to Write? There is No Question!

I am really tired today. I don't know why. I got plenty of sleep. Maybe it's because I've been working so hard on my editing the last couple of days (no, I haven't deprived myself of sleep. That would just be stupid. I can't imagine trying to edit anything, much less well or even coherently, without plenty of sleep) and that's taken a toll on me. Or maybe it's just the pregnancy hormones doing a number on me today. Whatever it is, I feel mentally sluggish and physically exhausted. I just want to go back to sleep, and I know that would be very, very bad for me. Even if I told myself it would be a short nap, it wouldn't. I know myself, and it never is. I don't desire to waste a couple hours of my day that could be spent more profitably, so to speak.

So, here I am, blinking at my computer screen as if I've never seen it before in my life--even as I type this. I don't think I'm going to edit today. Not unless I wake up, anyway. But I think maybe I should take a break from it for a day, maybe two. I need to finish the story and turn it in on the 29th, however. I go out of town at the end of the month for my baby shower, and since the deadline is the 31st, I need to make sure my story is edited and polished and turned in before I leave town.

Maybe I'll try to write some poetry today. I'm not sure whether it will be any good or not, but then, I never am. At least I would be writing something and not feeling like I'm wasting the whole day away, writing-wise. The most productive I've been today is research. If you can call it that. I'm reading some articles on how to better promote yourself as a writer, and things of that nature. I'm learning some useful stuff.

Ever since I took some of the Writer's Digest Writing Workshops (www.writersonlineworkshops.com), I've been getting offers in the mail for subscriptions to writing magazines and publications--at a professional writer's discount. The only one I've signed up for is Writer's Digest, and that was early on when we weren't so short on money yet. However, I've recently received another offer that looks interesting. And while it's cheap, I'm not sure I can bring myself to do it right now. Maybe I'll treat myself to something like that after I get something published at a paying publication or in writing contest. Although, who knows when that will be. I'm hoping it's soon, but who knows. If there's anything a writer has to learn to deal with, it's waiting and rejections. And I've had experience doing both for some time now. It's nothing new.

Still, at least I feel like I'm moving forward a bit in my writing career. The writing goals help. It keeps me on track, and I feel like I'm accomplishing a lot more than I used to, in some ways. This blog also helps. Accountability to someone or some thing (both, if you can get it!) helps.

I'm off to write now. I feel a bit more alert after typing this.

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A Feeling of Accomplishment

Aaaah, I'm done! I started a rough draft rewrite of that autobiographical piece that I wanted to fictionalize and turn into a short story today, and I actually finished it today. Of course, I have a lot of editing and rewrites to do, but the point is, I managed to get the whole rough draft done in one day. This makes me very happy. I feel like I accomplished something big today, even if some of the material was only somewhat rewritten and inserted alongside the totally new material I wrote for it.

Better still, I think I managed to capture the essence of the autobiographical piece without losing any of its power in the fictionalized setting and story. I was afraid the ending and emotions wouldn't be as powerful, but as I wrote the ending to the story just a few moments ago, I found myself smiling. Actually smiling. I'm pleased with it in terms of its conclusion, I think. And when I go back to edit and tweak, I think this could really turn out to be an excellent piece. I just hope it wins the contest. Besides kind of wanting the money I'd get for winning (it wouldn't be much), I just want to start getting somewhere with my writing.

And perhaps it's the adrenaline rush from producing something with a lot of great potential, but I feel excited about my writing for the first time in a long time. Don't get me wrong, I love writing. I always have. But for a long time now, even back before NaNoWriMo, I've been in a writing rut. Besides having trouble writing at all, or totally not liking anything that I did write, I just felt very blah, uncreative, and unenthusiastic. I'm not sure what it was, but it seems like (I hope!) I'm getting a reprieve from it now, at least for a little while.

I think I'm going to go write some poetry now. I've been producing more of that lately, although slowly, in bits and pieces. But the only way to improve any kind of writing is to write.

Today was a good day. Produced a lot. Way more than 500 words. I'm tired, excited, and happy. It gives me hope for the future, and that's something I need very much right now.

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