Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Summer? What summer?

This is what it looks like outside my window right now. Not very summery, right? Apparently it's 6.4°C at the moment, so it doesn't feel very summery either. But that's ok, it's not going to stop me from participating in Beth's Second Summer in the City blogfest (which I am a tad late for, by the way).

Since the idea behind this blogfest is to make writerly goals for summer (or dreary winter holidays) and I kinda already did that on the weekend, I thought I'd look at how I'm going to try to keep those goals.

In February I wrote a post about creating a writing habit. I am the sort of person who finds it very hard to stick to goals. I have so little self-discipline I wonder if it even exists. I am easily distracted.

When I wrote the writing habit post I had very good intentions, but you know what they say (and at the risk of sounding cliche): the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Today is the seventh day of June. I've done no writing or revisions. I have read four books. Three out of four were very good books. (Read Divergent, Poison Study and Crown Duel if you haven't already!) Now I have to put reading on hold for a while, because I know myself, and I know if I keep going through my new books no writing will get done.

It's time to try out the writing habit again.

To summarise the five steps to building a writing habit:

  1. Commit to thirty days of writing (or in my case, revising). No skipping days.
  2. Make it a ritual. Do the writing/revising first thing in the day.
  3. If my self discipline really isn't doing it for me (it hasn't got the best track record), remove temptation.
  4. Write it down and put it somewhere I can see it.
  5. Have a buddy.


And here is my June 'To Do' list (ugh... goals... maybe I'll stop using that word).

Those words of wisdom at the bottom are from my CP Maggie. Told you I was going to put them on my wall!

 
So, who wants to be my writing/revising buddy for the next 30 days? I'll keep you accountable if you do the same for me! Head on over to Beth's blog and encourage all the other goal setters, too.

29 comments:

  1. I'm the same with writing goals, I tell myself I have these things I need to do but I never get around to it. I pull open the program to work on it and it just sits minimized while I putz in iTunes. What ends up happening is I read something looking for inspiration and when I'm done I sit and work for hours on my book. Then my determination fades...it's a vicious cycle.

    I won't mind being your buddy. I need the push to start writing. I do like your whiteboard list!

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  2. Good luck with your daily writing goals. I'm doing something similar for June (JuNoWriMo). Revising for 1 hour per day and planning/writing for 1 hour per day. So far, so good (except for a little slip over the weekend).

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  3. Good luck with your To Do list ( I hate the word goals too ;) And I love that 'awesome' quote, thanks for reminding me about it.

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  4. A daily writing goal sounds like a great idea!  You can do it!  (I'll join you in a bit... I'm still in the pre-writing stage.)

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  5. Id love to do this with you! Need to be kept accountable.

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  6. Thanks for the award, Catherine! It's nice to know I make people smile. :)

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  7. Wow. Awesome list of summer goals! Thirty days of writing/revising sounds totally achievable. I'd offer to buddy you, but I'm taking things slowly at the moment. Hang on - maybe I should, and then I'll get my ass in gear!

    Ellie
    Garratt

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  8. Lol. That's the plan for me. I need to give myself a kick up the bum in order to get anything done!

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  9. Well, I wouldn't say you haven't done -any- writing. You have done some blog posts, and that counts as writing. Practice is practice.

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  10. I'll buddy you! I've got a goal to finish my current manuscript by mid-August. Which would be record breaking pace for me. 30 days of writing with DEADLINES would be awesome.

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  11. I need to write some of these things down, too. I've been a slacker. I'll be your buddy, if you still need one, 'cause I could sure use one. That's for sure!

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  12. *Applause, applause!*

    I'm once again, enspired by your dedication! Now I'm off to do a little goal writing of my own...

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  13. I'm so jealous of your window there ;) I love winter.

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  14. I will be your writing buddy! I definitely need some encouragement

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  15. I love the 30 days goal. That's how I started journaling every day, except it was a 1000 day goal, and every time I missed one day I had to start over again. Only took 4 or 5 years to make happen. =)

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  16. Hi! I've left you an award here: http://wordsworldandwings.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-award.html

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  17. Would love to do this with you! I need to be kept accountable sometimes.

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  18. That's true, I can count the blog posts. Although, even those aren't as regular as I would want.

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  19. Sounds good, Anonymeet. Few finishing a novel in 30 days would be hard work! I'm glad I'm just revising. ;)

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  20. Hey Shari, that'd be great. The more disapproving virtual stares I get if I miss a day the better!

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  21. Oh yea, I open the doc thinking at least I've done that step, and then the next few hours on Twitter and facebook and reading blogs! Not good.

    Great, another buddy! :)

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  22. Glad I inspired you, Julie! Let me know how your goals go.

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  23. I love certain things about winter. Like snow. And skiing!

    Our house has some great floor to ceiling windows in it! Great for sun in summer and being glad I'm inside when it's raining in winter. ;)

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  24. Lani, you definitely have to be one of my writing buddies! I will be quizzing you on progress tonight. ;)

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  25. Lol. Four to five years... I have a long way to go. O_o

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  26. Thanks, Stephanie! You could do a daily planning goal. :)

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  27. Good luck with the goals, Kari Marie! :)

    Those are good solid goals. Very measurable. Mine's more a quantity target, and since I'm revising which sometimes involves complete rewrites of scenes, the time it takes me each day varies quite a bit.

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  28. Great, another writing buddy! You can definitely join in. ;) I think we need to figure out a forum or blog or something for people to check in with their daily updates.

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  29. Considering that I'm going out of town, I don't think I can be your buddy online, so I'll settle for being your buddy in spirit!  We won't be able to keep each other accountable, but I am still planning to write every day.  I think my mom is going to have to be my accountability buddy for the two weeks of vacation, since she's the only one who will be around consistently (I'm probably not going to go online except when necessary).  And I have a great place to post my goal!  Thank you for posting this.

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