challenge

Riding High

/ JoHawkTheWriter
Photo credit: lars hammar via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC-SA

Photo credit: lars hammar via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC-SA

You know climbing back into the saddle is not always the easiest thing to do. But, at long last I have managed to do just that.

Friday was a stellar day. The payoff for all those days where I felt like I was just grinding it out and not making any progress. Friday I added just over 2,000 words.

In one day, I was able to write more than the combined total for the entire week!

Sadly, life intruded this weekend, so no time logged at the keyboard. The good news is that the story is demanding to be written. I am off to obey.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Knocked Out

/ JoHawkTheWriter
Photo credit: melderomero.com via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-SA

Photo credit: melderomero.com via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-SA

Getting stuck sucks. Some would say that I have failed in achieving my writing goals.

Here’s the question:

“My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure.” – Abraham Lincoln

The answer: I might be down but I am not out. I won’t be content until I finish what I have set out to do. This is what I have managed:

  • Monday research and a little writing, a whopping total of 200 words.
  • Tuesday more research and few more words. 330 words to be exact.
  • Wednesday got me another 400 words.

Then there was yesterday. A little bit of fact checking and word count of just over 1,100. In the last four days I have added just over 2,000 words to the total. It’s not much. But the story is now demanding that I get fingers on the keyboard.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Discouraged

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 2 Comments

Things are not going as planned.

untitled-7Part of the issue might be that I needed to figure out the next progression of the story. That took some time and the solution demanded that I do some additional research. Research is often a rabbit hole that sucks you in and only releases you after hours of trekking through the labyrinth. It is done now and the information that I found fits well in the story.

Then I had a computer Snafu and I lost some words. I do save and back up often, but sometimes these things happen. It wasn’t many words and I was able to go in and recreate what I had written, but it was a little discouraging all the same.

I have also been dealing with a lingering cough. A cough that from time to time insists that one of my lungs can be dislodged from my body. The struggle to prove the cough wrong leaves me lightheaded and weak. Prime condition for getting more words written, wouldn’t you agree?

The result is that I have only added about 3,000 words to my total. That too is discouraging, since I had wanted to finish this by the end of the month. With numbers like that it is easy to feel like a failure.

But failure is not an option, I will get this draft finished.

Today I begin again.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

In Defense of Procrastination

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 4 Comments
Photo credit: RussellReno via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC

Photo credit: RussellReno via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC

Procrastination is not all bad. Especially when it is done well.

Today nothing I attempted could get me to sit down and write. A problem with how to proceed with the story resulted in a mega case of consternation and I didn’t have the answer. Nothing I had come up with felt authentic to the story.

I could have continued banging my head on the keyboard or wasted time surfing the net during my “writing” time. Instead I embraced my desire to procrastinate. Yep, turn on the music and completely ignore the writing full blown procrastination. I was determined to do anything and everything other than write.

Boy, did I get a lot done!

Every week I have a list of things to accomplish during the week. As of right now, more than half of them have been marked off the list. D-O-N-E, done. I also managed to get a few things done that were not even on the list. How cool is that? I have found that there is nothing like a little indulgence in avoidance to get me moving and shaking. I don’t want to write so I will go clean the kitchen. Darn that’s done, should I go write? No way Jose. How can you write when there is laundry to do? Laundry done, well then let’s go make a tasty desert. You get the picture.

The funny thing was that even as I pointedly avoided my story and the real issue, the little do-gooder in my brain was having none of it. Behind the scenes where I couldn’t see, someone was going over the list of possibilities while I sang to the music and scrubbed dishes.

Suddenly, little miss goody two-shoes slapped me in the face with the solution.

Viva Procrastination! I really do need to read that book someday.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Tug of War

/ JoHawkTheWriter
Photo credit: aftab. via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC

Photo credit: aftab. via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC

Friday’s review of the semi-coherent attempt at writing on Thursday reveled that it wasn’t that bad. It also wasn’t that good. After some minor surgery, the nasty bits were cut away and I managed to add about 600 words onto the word count pile.

That progress was hard won however. The section that I was working on involves the antagonist. To be honest, he is a bit of a twit. I had given in to his demands that we needed a scene with him and then he gave me the silent treatment.

Fine. I am more than capable of writing the passage on my own and so I started putting it all down. Let me tell you that got his attention. Of course, I was doing it all wrong, and what ensued was less than pleasant. Some say that I wrote the book on stubborn (oops where did I put that manuscript?), so I dug in my heels and we hashed it out. Can you say excruciating? I needed to get this written and he was not going to stop me. In the end, he actually helped.

Yesterday, it was determined that no matter what, I needed to do something different. A Watson Adventures Scavenger Hunt at the Art Institute was the ticket. It was exactly what I needed, great art, great friends and a little “friendly” competition. Our team, true to form, won. Sweet!

I must be feeling better, because I am getting back in touch with the competitor in me. You know the one? The one that expects that the only place to finish is anything better than second.

Keep on Writing

Jo Hawk The Writer

A Great Disturbance in the Force

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 6 Comments
Photo credit: Frank.Li via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA

Photo credit: Frank.Li via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA

This year is off on an interesting trajectory.

Monday greeted me with a terrible sore throat which I decided to treat aggressively with a tea made of apple cider vinegar and honey followed by lots of fluids. That normally does the trick and by the end of the day my throat felt much better.

Alas, the full onslaught arrived on Tuesday with a full-blown head cold, complete with screaming headache to accompany the nasal congestion and hacking cough. I have been here before and know that the best defense is to retreat to the safety of my bed with a heavy dose of medicine and sleep. The next 48 hours were a blur of Kleenex, cough drops, medication, forcing fluids and blissful sleep.

Yesterday I almost felt human. Sick and tired of being sick and tired, I determined that I was done with this head cold and forced myself to resume what I hoped would resemble my normal schedule. Although a carnage of tissues and the empty shells of cough drop wrappers marked the day’s path, I still somehow managed to eke out 500 words on my novel.

What remains to be seen is if those 500 words are worth the storage space they are occupying. Today’s goal is to carry on and see if I can start to make up the dent that this onslaught has made in my projected word count goal.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Happy New Year

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 1 Comment
Photo credit: Alan O'Rourke via Visualhunt / CC BY

Photo credit: Alan O’Rourke via Visualhunt / CC BY

I hope you all enjoyed your New Year’s Eve celebrations. I know I did. Good friends and a couple of champagne toasts are the only way to say goodbye to the old year.

I am very excited about starting 2017 and plan to spend some time with family, football and food. Tomorrow will begin a new schedule and new possibilities. In thirty days, I am anticipating having my fist draft completed. The prospect is sending chills down my spine. Or many I just need to turn the heat up. Regardless, I will be soaking up everything that today offers, because tomorrow I get down to business.

Welcome 2017!

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

 

Out with a Bang

/ JoHawkTheWriter / 3 Comments
Photo via LoSchmi via VisualHunt.com

Photo via LoSchmi via VisualHunt.com

Despite everything, yesterday turned out to be a good day for writing.

It had been a while since visiting my MC so I went back to re-read. But I soon found that I was wanting to make changes. The huge sensor monster wanted to commandeer the keyboard and “fix” things. It was a battle with me insisting that I only needed to see where I had left the story to move ahead. I forced myself to keep reading.

“Really? You are not going to fix THAT?” he demanded as he pointed at a glaring error where an entire word had been left out.

“Fine. I will fix that one, but no more. If I start now I won’t ever get this written. Please come back when I am in Edit mode.” I slammed on the keys as I added the missing word.

But holding the sensor monster at bay is hard work. Finally, after resorting to subterfuge, and misdirection I managed to stuff him back in his box. Knowing that if I kept reading he would manage to escape, so I gave up and decided just to write.

By this time, I had it all planned in my head. I knew exactly what I wanted to get down, but that didn’t happen. Nope, the story was highjacked by the MC and we took a detour that wasn’t on the map. He insisted on a flashback. The session ended up with him dictating and me writing. Normally I hate flashbacks. If this was something that I needed to know in the story, then why didn’t you tell me earlier?

But this one was kind of cool. It was sort of like having a tour guide give you an account on how the place came into existence. To be honest I didn’t mind being the stenographer since I really didn’t have to come up with much. Nope. Just write.

When we were done, the tally came to just over 1,200 words.

Keep on Writing

Jo Hawk The Writer

The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades

/ JoHawkTheWriter
Photo credit: Pensiero via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

Photo credit: Pensiero via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

Yesterday I dusted off my crystal ball and saw some amazing things.

Lists are king. At least in my world they are. They are how I get things done, keep track of all the minor details and have all the ingredients I need to fix a wonderful meal without having to go back to the store because I forgot something. To say that I am a list junkie is a bit of an understatement, but they do keep me focused. They are also a bit of a ritual.

I don’t make New Year resolutions per se. Instead I make out a list of all the things I want to accomplish in the coming year and I don’t stop there. That list then gets prioritized and broken down into Little Goals and Big Goals. Little Goals are things I can get done in a couple of days to a couple of weeks. Big Goals are those things that take much longer, months, years even. Big Goals are treated much differently than Little Goals.

First, I only take on one Big Goal at a time. This is the thing that I will spend 80% of my time working on. Everything else gets the remaining 20%. You see the key to my lists is that I want to get things D-O-N-E, done. In the past, I have tried working on multiple Big Goals and nothing seems to ever get done. There is a reason for that. It has to do with time and the perception of success.

Consider the table below. Say I have 160 hours to work on my goals in a month. So, working on five goals that each take a month to complete if I work on them evenly, I will be 20% done with each goal at the end of the first month. At the end of five months all five goals are 100% complete. In theory.

table-1

But I will guarantee you, I know how my little pea brain works and by the end of Month #2, I will have given up on a couple of them. Working this way, I will be lucky to have two of the goals 100% complete by Month #5.

Now consider this table.

table-2

Same five goals that each take a month to complete. But here I only work on one goal in the first month. At the end of the month I have one goal D-O-N-E, done. Success! Then the same thing happens in Month #2, D-O-N-E, done. Success! Using this approach I am a goal obliterating superstar! At the end of Month #5 you had better believe that all five goals will be 100% complete. (Since I am a now a goal obliterating superstar I may have even added a goal or two.)

They say success breeds success and I am here to tell you that is absolutely correct. So, what happens when the one Big Goal that I am working on is going to take five months? Easy Pease. I just break that down into what I want to accomplish in each of the five months.

And then I take it one step further. Those monthly goals are broken down by week and day. Just like with Nano. How do you write 50,000 words in one month? You schedule to write 1,667 words every day. In theory.

I know that I am not a machine and there is no way I am going to be able to keep up with that schedule. Life gets in the way and your best friend who you haven’t seen in ages comes to spend the weekend. Do you think I am going to tell her “No”, “Don’t come I have to write 1,667 words”? Absolutely not. She is going to come and we will be up past our normal bedtimes doing girl stuff and I won’t write a word.

To make sure that life can happen and I still reach my goals, I schedule buffers, and catch-up days. For Nano I scheduled 2,500 words per day for 20 days. Still very do-able, and it gave me 10 days for life and to catch-up on those days that I couldn’t come up with even 500 words.

Yesterday’s gaze into the crystal ball reached well into 2019. Three whole years! Amazing! To get there I must take care of what is on the list for today. What happens in the future depends on what I do today.

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer