too ambitious November 6, 2006

So I’ve realized my goal of 25,000 words is way too ambitious.  So far the only day I wrote at all was last Thursday, when DH was in charge of the kids for a bit.  I just can’t seem to get work done unless I have some uninterrupted time when someone else is in charge of them.  So that’s my new goal — 1,000 words on any day I can get someone else to be in charge of the kiddos for an hour or two.

Ideally this would still mean a lot of progress in the month of November.  Our babysitter is supposed to come for a few hours Tuesdays and Fridays, DH said he would be in charge of the kiddos for a couple of hours Thursday nights, and I can probably get him to be in charge for a couple of hours most Saturdays as well.  4,000 words a week would still be pretty good.

In reality, I don’t know that this is going to happen.  The babysitter didn’t come at all last week, and I haven’t heard from her, so I don’t know if she’s coming this week either.  Also, this Thursday night DH has a business meeting, and next Thursday night I have to go VT.  And then there’s the week of Thanksgiving.  I’m pretty sure I won’t manage to write on Thanksgiving itself.  If we have people over for Thanksgiving (a possibility, but not definite at this point) I likely won’t get any writing done for the whole week, what with cooking and cleaning.

So we’ll just have to see how the month goes.  But the new goal is 1,000 words any time I can get someone else to watch the kiddos.

my first progress November 3, 2006

DH did, in fact, watch the kiddos for a while last night, and I got some uninterrupted time to do some writing.  I didn’t make my 1000 word goal :(, but I did get 875 words written, so that’s pretty good.  I still don’t know if the babysitter’s coming today, so we’ll see how things go.

Oh, and for those who have asked, I write novels (sf/f novels, even).  I currently have none finished, but four started.  I’m working on one particular one this month, though, not going back and forth between different projects (which happens sometimes).

NaNoWriMo November 1, 2006

Well, I decided about a month ago that for NaNoWriMo this year I wanted to be especially productive again.  Not 50,000 words, ’cause I knew that was never going to happen.  But 25,000 words.  That’s a thousand words for each writing day (I don’t write on Sundays), with one extra day off.  That’s hard, but (should be) achievable.

So I didn’t write much in October, but I spent a lot of time doing other things that needed to be done (like some shopping I needed to do, etc.) so that all of that stuff would be done and I could concentrate on writing in November.  It was all planned so perfectly.  Then life happened.  The babysitter got sick yesterday, so I didn’t get the break I was expecting to take the younger kid to get immunizations, go to the library, get the house in order, and even get a little writing done.  None of these things happened.  Then of course it was Halloween, so we took the kids trick-or-treating at the medical school with some friends, and that was another 3 hours that was gone.  And the washing machine had some issues, so between that and being gone half the day the laundry didn’t get done (Tuesday is laundry day).  So I spent nap time today doing laundry and some dishes (so that we’d have clean bottles) rather than writing.  And Wednesdays aren’t an easy day to write anyway, since DH plays basketball Wed nights for a couple of hours.

So the first day of NaNoWriMo has come and gone, and I have written exactly nothing.  I don’t know how I’m ever going to get to 25,000 words at this rate.  But DH said that in return for getting to play basketball he would be in charge of the kiddos for a couple of hours tomorrow night so I could have some concentrated time to do some writing.  And on Friday the babysitter is supposed to be coming for a few hours, so I should be able to do some writing then.  Hopefully these things will actually happen, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

The start of a blog October 30, 2006

Well, so far I’ve resisted creating my own blog, but I’m trying to get back into writing, and I decided if I’m going to be successful at accomplishing anything I’m going to have to be accountable for my progress.  So that’s what this blog is — a way to tell the world what I have (or haven’t) accomplished, in an effort to actually get some work done on my writing.  Hopefully I’ll have a happy progress report soon.