I track my productivity on a word count basis. However, my current output is nowhere near three thousand words. Not yet anyway. My present production level is much less than Cassandra’s. When I first began along this path, I was lucky to manage one hundred words. My work was sporadic, and it was rare for me to write on consecutive days.

I have made progress. Now, missing a scheduled writing session is unthinkable. If I skip a day, I make up the difference. My daily word count has tripled and keeps increasing. I surpassed 2018’s total word count during the second week of June. Continuing my trend, within the next two weeks, I will be double what I previously wrote.

I also plan on attempting NaNoWriMo in November which I expect will to add another fifty thousand words to my tally. If I am successful, 2019 may reach triple my word count from last year. It is a feat I never imagined was possible. But it is a testament to the power of small, incremental and regular changes.

What will you attempt today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

When the going gets tough when the odds seem stacked against us, home is our refuge. Home is our haven, our shelter, the place we heal our wounds and gather the courage to battle and defeat the odds.

We are only human, weak, feeble creatures struggling to make our way. But it’s the struggle that forms the basis for the adventurous. The valiant know the joy of attaining their dream, the satisfaction of reaching for the stars, and the merit in the journey.

How will you fight for your dream today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I can’t imagine attempting to complete an entire first draft, sixty to a hundred thousand words, by hand. I feel a cramp developing just thinking about it. Then there is my speed, which I would need to slow dramatically, to make it legible. I have combined printing with cursive, creating my unique format, which allows me to read my thoughts later.

The joy of using the keyboard is in my proficiency. With touch-typing skills, my fingers fly at a pace fast enough for me to transcribe the concepts pouring from my head. Thankfully, my laptop is portable, and I can drag it from my desk to my oversized leather chair positions next to the wood-burning fireplace.

However, I refuse to move one exercise to a digital format. Filling in my calendar is a manual process. Every Sunday, I sit with my planner and record each assignment, schedule my writing sessions, and slotting in work I must accomplish to hit my deadlines. I write out shopping lists and important questions I don’t want to forget.

Each hour’s line receives a stroke from my favorite pen. It is a ritual I look forward to and won’t abandon. It is relaxing, and it etches my commitments into my brain. The process works so well, I remember what I am supposed to be doing without my book.

What things do you write by hand?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Everyone is so serious. Acting mature is a prerequisite if you want to call yourself an adult. We dismiss childish notions, eschew the joy of playing, and abandon a realm of wonder and magic. Instead, we focus on work, maximize our productivity, accept the inevitable side hustle, and concentrate on attaining our goals. Work, work, work.

The need to pay bills, cover the rent, and maintain reliable transportation, sets the pace of our days. Desiring independence and self-reliance, we struggle to decode the formula that leads us to success. We embrace philosophy, critical thinking, analytical analysis, and statistical probabilities. We view the world as a machine, a system of cogs, gears, and programing we must decipher and dominate.

The term “magical thinking” is used in a derogatory manner to describe flaws in logic and denotes incorrect thought processes. We eradicate the possibility of chance and deem adults who entertain those ideas as borderline pathological.

Where children acknowledge magic’s existence in everyday events, grownups fail to even consider the thought of serendipity. I think we are better served by allowing a little magic to seep into our life and granting ourselves the freedom to follow where its call.

Where will you find magic today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I think most fiction is intelligent. To my mind, good stories have a core that addresses an underlying human question. The question can be personal, specific to a group, or broadly applied to the entire human race. Writers bravely tackle how it feels to love someone who doesn’t return the emotion. They explore death, and why someone might consider murder or even suicide. Stories of love, and bravery and human perseverance inspire us to become better individuals.

The story’s question may consider why we wage war, how power corrupts men, or what hardships people can endure when survival lies in the balance. However abstract the question, when a story presents the question in a world similar to ours, and a flawed, but believable character responds, the question becomes tangible. Stories allow us to consider how we might respond in the same situation. They may open hearts, and minds and reveal alternate possibilities that change our perspective.

How do you weave questions and answers into your stories?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Is it strange that I like spider webs? I am none too fond of spiders themselves, but the webs they create are often spectacular.  Add misty morning dew reflecting the first gentle rays of sunlight, and you have something straight from a fairy tale. They are like snowflakes, perfect, pristine, and beautiful. If you are foolhardy and attempt to touch them, hold them, they dissolve as if they were a figment of the imagination.

I love Virginia’s perspective and the idea that fiction must have even a tenuous connection to reality. Fiction, at its best, approaches perfection, pristine stories, expressed with beautiful words. They are true figments, with each reader conjuring a version, shaped, and colored by the totality of the reader’s personal experiences. The reader creates a rendition of the story that is unique to them.

How do you attach your stories to reality?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The youngest old person I ever knew, was my grandfather. He was a lifelong learner. When his children left home, he started painting and even sold his work. He became a master gardener after he retired, and learned how to swim when he turned eighty.

He was big on healthy eating, exercising, vitamin supplements, and the healing benefits of massage and reflexology, long before any of that was a thing. Benjamin Franklin’s maxim of early to bed early to rise was a practice he adopted. And he read. I remember him saving articles for me and recommending good books. One of his favorite authors was Louis L’Amour. The latest releases he stacked next to his chair.

His example touched everyone who met him, and it leaves me inspired to be like him. I have seen people get stuck, who have given up, lost hope and let their dreams slip away. The light in their eyes fade and they drift, shuffling through daily activities, aimless, afraid and beaten.

Life can crush the unwary, dealing trials and tribulations that test our resolve. Reading exposes us to stories of heroes. Those rare individuals who persevere, triumph over difficulties and forge meaning and joy from whatever circumstances dealt them. In doing so, they maintain their youth and live forever.

How do you stay young?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Another new month presents and one more chance to renew my commitment to reaching this year’s objective. October is roaring in reminding me the end of the year will be here in a little over ninety days. I am fighting back, refusing to relinquish my desire to reach my 2019 goals. While I have fallen a little behind, there is still time to make progress.

There are thirty-one chances to move thirty-one steps closer to success. I dusted off the goal list, checked my progress to date and identified the areas where I want to focus. I plotted and prepared an agenda for every day in October. It only remains to execute the daily plan.

Have you planned your month?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The path I am following has become a well-worn rut. My intuition is telling me, I need to up the ante. What was once difficult to compete, has now become a no-brainer. Over the last several months, I have taken my word count from an average of a hundred words to five hundred. That gives me about thirty-six hundred words per week. The start of a new month is a great reason to set a fresh intention.

Tomorrow, I am increasing my daily target. For seven days, I will shoot to write fifteen hundred words every day, or ten thousand words. It sounds like a lot. I am pushing myself for a few reasons. First, I have projects I want to move towards the finish line. My dream is to complete two short stories. Second, I am using it as a warmup exercise for NaNoWriMo. In November the goal is fifty thousand words for the month.

The most important incentive for completing the challenge is to boost my overall productivity. I love finding creative ways to drive myself to a higher level, and I make it a priority. Its time cuts a new route and venture into the unknown.

What challenges are you setting for yourself?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The weather is rainy, and the evening air is chilly. While the trees haven’t shed their chlorophyll to reveal their brilliant foliage, leaf-peeping people will soon busy. The other season harbinger has hit the streets – Pumpkin Spice Lattes.

They make me laugh since there is no pumpkin in Pumpkin Spice. They should just call it Spiced Coffee. The seasonal seasonings typically include cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove, and allspice, or some combination. The other trick they play to create an olfactory illusion is to mix in the aroma of a browning butter and sugar mixture.

It turns out that we learn to recognize odors through associations. The traditional spices used to highlight the taste of pumpkin pie, link our memories to warm cozy fires, gatherings of family and friends, and the bounty of an autumn harvest.

They say eighty percent of flavor is smell. Maybe that is what I love about autumn, the perfume of leaves, a crackling fire, fresh-baked treats, spiced candles and my morning cup of hot, black coffee. It must be time to enjoy a brisk walk and maybe a Pumpkin Spiced sugar cookie.

What is your favorite part of fall?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer