First time posting in Goals and Accomplishments. Hopefully I'm doing this right.
I'm going to start with accomplishments because...
Today I finished the midpoint chapter of the novel I'm working on.
I figure this is a nice milestone to celebrate on here. I have a lot of things to be grateful for. The process is feeling good right now. Getting into a flow state has been easier than usual. My stats are looking good. I don’t feel like my prose is terrible. (Not that I think it's brilliant or anything.) I'm getting high daily word counts (high for me). I'm feeling excited about the overall project--where it's going and where it's been.
This is not always how I feel.
A few chapters back, I had some terrible days. I was feeling hopeless and lost. But I was able to recover from that faster than in previous circumstances. This also feels like a huge accomplishment.
I feel like I'm really growing.
Here's a comparison between stats for my last project and my current project:
All but the last two stats got better this go-round. I'm most proud of the difference in non-writing days! And my all-day average (the stat I'm purposefully working on) has almost doubled. I'm so grateful that I've been able to find my way to this point.
My original total word count goal for the project was 60K. Looks likely that it will bloat to 80K. But I'm just taking that in stride and accepting that projections are often wrong.
My goals going forward:
In case any of this might be helpful I'll list out some of the strategies that are working for me:
Focusing on my all-day average.
I'm defining "all-day average" as the average words for all days (including days I don't write at all) between the beginning and end of the draft. On the previous project I focused only on maximizing my words on writing days. I think either strategy can be fine, but this has been really working for me.
Timed writing sessions.
Focusing on time spent writing instead of on words has been productive for me. I've noticed that when the timer is running I get a nice motivation and focus boost.
Super low daily minimums.
My objective started out at minimum 300 words a day. Now it's a minimum of one 30-minute writing session daily (which often equates to 300 words). It's basically always possible to find 30 minutes in my day. That's the objective with goal setting I think: to create a goal that's small enough that you almost have to succeed. And hey, 300 words x 365 days = 109K!
Working with an outline.
This has really been surprising me because it's very new and (in the past) outlines have been my kryptonite. But for me, at this moment in my life, the outline is really working.
Managing my emotions about my writing.
I've had some really bad days when I realized that a scene or a plan for a scene was "broken" or not working. This honestly feels so grim and scary when it happens. But I'm learning that the problem isn't the broken outline/scene. The problem is the ensuing melt down. I'm figuring out how to keep problems in perspective, work through them, and just keep going. This sounds obvious as I type it but it has been a real struggle.
This last strat is a big one. I remember pretty clearly the moments on my last project when I felt like my story was broken. I remember freaking out and feeling terrible and shrinking away from the project. And I can see the consequences in my spreadsheet! I went sometimes as long as a month without writing just because I let that feeling take hold of me.
Looking at problems as mundane and ordinary has been huge for me.
I'm going to start with accomplishments because...
Today I finished the midpoint chapter of the novel I'm working on.
I figure this is a nice milestone to celebrate on here. I have a lot of things to be grateful for. The process is feeling good right now. Getting into a flow state has been easier than usual. My stats are looking good. I don’t feel like my prose is terrible. (Not that I think it's brilliant or anything.) I'm getting high daily word counts (high for me). I'm feeling excited about the overall project--where it's going and where it's been.
This is not always how I feel.
A few chapters back, I had some terrible days. I was feeling hopeless and lost. But I was able to recover from that faster than in previous circumstances. This also feels like a huge accomplishment.
I feel like I'm really growing.
Here's a comparison between stats for my last project and my current project:
Project 1 (completed draft) | Project 2 (incomplete draft) | |
Total words: | 62234 | 39342 |
Total days elapsed: | 138 | 45 |
Total writing days: | 51 | 37 |
Total non-writing days: | 87 | 8 |
All-day average words: | 451 | 874 |
Writing day average words: | 1220 | 1063 |
1 day max words: | 2465 | 2090 |
All but the last two stats got better this go-round. I'm most proud of the difference in non-writing days! And my all-day average (the stat I'm purposefully working on) has almost doubled. I'm so grateful that I've been able to find my way to this point.
My original total word count goal for the project was 60K. Looks likely that it will bloat to 80K. But I'm just taking that in stride and accepting that projections are often wrong.
My goals going forward:
- Write minimum 30 minutes/300 words every day. Ideally 60 minutes.
- Finish before the end of the year. Ideally before the end of November.
In case any of this might be helpful I'll list out some of the strategies that are working for me:
Focusing on my all-day average.
I'm defining "all-day average" as the average words for all days (including days I don't write at all) between the beginning and end of the draft. On the previous project I focused only on maximizing my words on writing days. I think either strategy can be fine, but this has been really working for me.
Timed writing sessions.
Focusing on time spent writing instead of on words has been productive for me. I've noticed that when the timer is running I get a nice motivation and focus boost.
Super low daily minimums.
My objective started out at minimum 300 words a day. Now it's a minimum of one 30-minute writing session daily (which often equates to 300 words). It's basically always possible to find 30 minutes in my day. That's the objective with goal setting I think: to create a goal that's small enough that you almost have to succeed. And hey, 300 words x 365 days = 109K!
Working with an outline.
This has really been surprising me because it's very new and (in the past) outlines have been my kryptonite. But for me, at this moment in my life, the outline is really working.
Managing my emotions about my writing.
I've had some really bad days when I realized that a scene or a plan for a scene was "broken" or not working. This honestly feels so grim and scary when it happens. But I'm learning that the problem isn't the broken outline/scene. The problem is the ensuing melt down. I'm figuring out how to keep problems in perspective, work through them, and just keep going. This sounds obvious as I type it but it has been a real struggle.
This last strat is a big one. I remember pretty clearly the moments on my last project when I felt like my story was broken. I remember freaking out and feeling terrible and shrinking away from the project. And I can see the consequences in my spreadsheet! I went sometimes as long as a month without writing just because I let that feeling take hold of me.
Looking at problems as mundane and ordinary has been huge for me.