Write more

Since I wrote that last entry five months ago I’ve been writing on average a little over thirty minutes a day. This is good because this was the goal I set myself. I now want to increase to forty-five minutes a day, if I can.

I had a piece of travel writing published on the net in the autumn and three poems published this winter. I also managed to get to my poets’ group for critique on a couple of poems I wrote earlier this year, which I now want to redraft again.

I’ve also decided to embark on my second attempt to write a novel (I abandoned my first attempt). For the last couple of months I’ve been working on preliminary research and am getting some good ideas about what I want to write about. Very excited!

Over the last three months I’ve done 22.9 hours of writing. That’s actually only about three working days. Hm. Doesn’t sound like much when I put it that way. It works out to just over fifteen minutes per day. Which is actually the goal I set myself as the minimum amount to do each day, so that’s okay.

I finished a piece of travel writing which is getting published in an internet journal in the autumn. And I wrote two new poems (which have yet to be submitted to my poetry group for merciless criticism) and am currently working on another piece of travel writing.

Time to step it up, I think. But gradually, realistically enough so that I don’t resent it. The new minimum per day is half an hour. Let’s go!

So far, it’s working. Since I formed this goal three weeks ago I’ve spent 16 hours and 40 minutes writing. Not bad. That works out to be almost an hour a day so I’m pleased.

I finished a piece of travel writing and have submitted it to a literary journal on the web. I also finished and submitted two poems and have made a first draft of a new one which I’ll submit for feedback at my poetry writing group. And I’ve done a lot of market research of different publications I want to write for and have started a new travel piece. Yay!

My writing routine is kind of varied at the moment. On days when I don’t feel pressured to do a million other things (work, housework, errands, woking on my other goals…) I’m starting the day with an hour-long session. Other days I’m managing to get a few shorter scattered sessions in here and there. Sometimes they add up to an hour, sometimes not. I confess that I’ve hardly been writing on the weekends because I don’t get so much time to myself but as of next weekend I’m going to try and get at least half an hour in over the two days.

Writing is one of the BIG THINGS in my life. I love reading, I studied literature at university and books are so important to me. Good writing impacts my life on a grand scale. A couple of years ago I started writing seriously. I want my words to make people feel things. I want to write something that will make someone cry or laugh or be astonished or think to themselves ‘I know exactly what she means!’.

I started off writing poems, then moved onto short stories and now I’m doing some travel writing. I’ve had some poems and short stories published in literary journals on the web and in print, which was a great feeling.

But lately I’m not writing so much. It’s not like I’m not writing, but my writing is sporadic. I’ll spend a day doing nothing but write and then I’ll spend a month writing nothing. A few months ago I had a goal to write for an hour every day but I slipped out of it.

I’m still not sure if a straight hour of writing every single day is a realistic priority right now. I have a feeling it will become one soon but I’m going to ease myself in more gradually. For now I’m going to at least try and attempt a straight hour. I’ll try and do it first thing in the morning before other things arise to distract me.

If for any reason I can’t do this I’ll be happy with writing for an hour, but that hour may be spread throughout the day: twenty minutes here, ten minutes there, whenever I have ten minutes or more of free time. I know this will take quite a lot of discipline but I’m ready to give it a shot. I know that it works for many people.

If even that’s not possible I’ll settle for some writing, any amount of writing, per day. Some is a whole lot better than none.

Write more project starts tomorrow!