Timed Writing.

Andrea is a fountain of good ideas, I’m so glad we’re friends. This blog is in her honor, because it gave me a wonderful idea. It’s time to put my money where my mouth is. A member of the Internet Writing Workshop whose name is Rick has the best signature I’ve ever seen. It says “The only rule: writers write! Everything else is a guideline.” This is going to be my motto from now until May 31st.

With the help of Write or Die, I’m going to make a commitment to myself to write. Not the half hearted ‘all writing counts’ lie I’ve been selling myself for the past year. I know I can write 1666 words per day thanks to NanoWrimo. So, for my self imposed writing challenge, I’m going to write double that. (almost) I will make a goal of 3250 words per day.

Here’s how I plan on breaking it down so that I’m not overwhelmed. This is also where Write or Die comes in. I read somewhere that writing in 45 minute increments and 15 minutes of goofing off made it easier to stick to two hours of writing. So, I will write in 48 minute increments. (don’t ask me why Write or Die has 48 minute increments, I have no idea) Once in the morning, once after work, and once after the kids go to bed. The threat of deletion of my words freaks me out, so this does actually help.

I vow, to myself and anyone reading this, that I’ll use this at least 5 days a week from now until May 31st. It took me six months to write Divine Touch, for someone who sits on her butt at the computer daily that’s patently ridiculous. I can blow 2 hours a day just reading what other people write on face book or emails. I owe it to myself to take this seriously, I made the choice to try and be an author.

So, here’s the breakdown. 5 weeks… 5 days… 3250 words. Ideally I’ll have written 81,250 words by May 31st. I’ll take off Mondays because they are the worst day of the week to begin with. There you have it, my timed writing personal challenge. If  you’d like to join me, leave a comment, send an email, we can swap stories of how we had to force ourselves to look away from face book, stop reading email, quit reading Perez… etc.

My writing will be atrocious, so I’ll need the following five weeks to edit.

I, Kristy Bock, vow to write at least 3250 words for 5 days a week for the next five weeks because I’m tired of living with my own excuses for not writing. I chose to be a writer, a publisher believe in me enough to publish something I’d written. It’s time to make writing a priority in my life.

Signed,

Kristy Denice Bock.