I had an extended weekend from my day job to ring in the New Year. What I hadn't quite realized was the extent I needed that vacation or how close to burn-out I was. I did manage to write on Behind the Masque on Monday, the 1st. But that was the only day. I did write on Thursday and Friday of last week on Marked, a book that I'm writing longhand, generally at work, but it goes everywhere with me, so it's an anywhere sort of work in progress as my laptop is no longer portable. The screen has to be in just the right position so I can see what's on the monitor. I woke up late both Thursday and Friday and decided to forgo my normal morning routine. Again. It didn't bother me that I missed my routine, but I did notice that I wasn't as productive or focused on my goals, both the big picture and the monthly goals. I also had a headache that lasted from Wednesday when I woke up through Saturday, which meant writing would have been harder, but not impossible, it's not like I had a migraine or one of those extremely intense and painful headaches, this was more annoying - pain-wise, but added to the stress from work and it was an easy excuse to not write. Or do much of anything. And that's bad, because it was an excuse to not do something hard in favor of something easy. Since I'm having to re-establish my writing routine, anything that I allow to distract me from that routine, because it's easier, less messy, less whatever, means my goal of being able to write full time is no longer my priority.
I also didn't write over the weekend. I worked Saturday, then did laundry, which isn't bad, but I have to go to the laundromat and that seriously sucks. Sunday was a different story - furnace died sometime during the night on Saturday or early Sunday morning, and the pipes froze, which meant I didn't have heat or water. We had space heaters, but the furnace needed a part that the tech had to order. It was a long, cold day and night.
We should have heat today and the pipes should unthaw between the heat in the house and the heatwave - it's over freezing with extremely cold windchills (for Michigan). So, I have an extra day off. R's second semester at college started today, so s/he couldn't miss that.
I plan on writing today. My word goal for the year is 365000 words, which is 1,000 words a day. Writing in 15 minutes increments, with a daily goal of to only write 15 minutes a day, means on average, I may only write 250 words a day, which is a bit less than 1,000. But the 15 minute goal is really only a starting place. It's small enough that I'm not setting myself up to fail, but it also lets me challenge myself. So, if my word count for 15 minutes was only 87 words, then I've challenged myself to go again for another 15 minutes to get a more respectable word count. And by then, I'm at a point where I want to know what is going to happen. I'm a pantser, I have no idea what's going to happen before I write it.
This week's goals/tasks are:
+ Write 15 minutes everyday on Behind the Masque (working on Marked is fine, but doesn't go toward my goal because I want Behind the Masque finished by the end of January)
+ Work on my Series Bibles for Bissari Confederation and Smuggler's Cove. - I'm using One Note to create my Series Bibles, but I want to look into other options as I want to move Apple and I want something that I can use on that platform as well so I don't have to rebuild everything and I don't lose everything.
Blessings,
Simone.
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