Writing Every Day Revisited

Topic Re-Write: also known as, me revisiting the concept of writing every day


In fact, the first blog post I ever wrote for this blog, back on May 1, 2009, was about the concept of writing every day. The blog post is here: http://dawnembers.blogspot.com/2009/05/every-day.html. And really, I wasn't a fan back then. Though also at that point, 2008 was my first and only success at getting 50,000 words in a month and it was the longest thing I'd written. I hadn't finished much else and I still wrote poetry. So yeah. And I only did a few attempts at picture books that week cause I'm not really a children's book writer.

I talked again about the topic, more with questioning it in August of 2009. http://dawnembers.blogspot.com/2009/08/write-every-day.html  And in that one I was less into the idea of writing every day even more. But that was also the last time I really focused on the topic, so all the way back in 2009.

We're in 2014 now. After almost 5 years, has my opinion changed? Some.

I still don't think it's necessary to write every single day of the year. It's okay to take breaks and it's okay to have other priorities. I still think that treating writing as a job is a good idea, but it can be a part time job or even a full time job, but even with full time jobs people take days off. And I still agree that what you need to do is find out what works best for you. However, I am now more capable of writing almost every day.

What has changed? Well, I've spent 2009-now often writing. Back then, the longest thing I'd written was 50,000 words of a struggled romance/erotica attempt. I had written a number of little scenes and poems but not much in the way of long fiction. Now, my longest draft is at around 170,000 words (it's almost done, really, I promise) and I've gotten at least 3 novel first drafts done, rewritten a novel and tackled editing. Been a long 5 years (someone remind me to do a 5 year reflection post for May 1) which didn't always include writing. I had months where I wrote not much at all, but it all adds up over time whether it's 250 words a day consistently or binges of 5k a day and some with 0.

Last year, I started the year saying I wanted to see how much I wrote in a year and that lasted a couple weeks max. This year, I'm trying again but I have a different approach. Thanks to a friend who had access to a shared spreadsheet, I have an easier way to keep track on google docs, so every day I write, I add my total words for that day onto the spreadsheet and it adds it all up. It's not the excitement of the "magic spreadsheet" as discussed on I Should Be Writing because there are no levels or points but there are colors. And more words mean different shades so that is kind of fun.

This month, I've written at least 250 words every day and plan to for the whole month. Even if it's just 250 on some days that is okay. I started part way in January with the spreadsheet and have gotten to almost 40,000 words for the year already. Off to a good start and while I won't write every single day of the year (already missed a couple in January), I will write very many days. And some months, it just might be every day.


How often do you write?
Do you keep track? If so, how?

G is for Goals and Growing Up

Goals

I like to make goals. I am not often successful at achieving those goals, but I am definitely a goal-maker. Over on Writing.com I have a group called NaNoWriMo Plus and almost every month I post goals for the month. On my other blog, I often post month goals and in January usually will post some year goals as well.

My Goals for April:

1. Finish reading 4 books.
2. Move (or get closer at least).
3. A to Z Blog Challenge: Post almost every day on both blogs for the challenge.
4. Write a couple story entries on WDC, highlight more chapters for editing, and maybe write another chapter in a novel.
5. Get book blog up and running again and revamp book group here on WDC.


Last month I had similar goals and actually accomplished a few of them but I think I'm missing something. It's something that can either start with an I or an R. Incentive/Reward is something I have never been good at. I can make a goal with no problem but giving myself anything for succeeding, terrible. I never know what to pick either. Can't do food as trying to lose weight. Can't do much that takes money cause I'm trying to move and don't have much money. That is what I need to work on and maybe I'll succeed even more with my goals.


Growing Up

I had a hard time picking for today's post, so here is a second topic that I considered. This was inspired by a friend's blog post for E. Sometimes I don't really feel grown up, but that may be because I live with my parents currently, though I used to live on my own. But I also don't want to grow up too much anyways. I hope to always be discovering, learning and dreaming.

On Writing.com I have a quote I made up. I'm sure others before have said things much like it, but it's one a friend of mine made into a cute picture signature for me and I even had someone ask permission to quote me with it. The quote is: "The greatest toy a child can have is an imagination."

I always liked to use my imagination as a child and while I may be growing up, I never want to lose that. I even want to get a tattoo that reminds me to not grow up too much. It will have dandelions (the white one and the yellow one) and say Stay Gold. Not the most original in content and all but my first tattoo was a fairy so I pick what I want and usually don't pay too much attention to what others pick.

I love dandelions. They were my favorite flower as a kid, back when I could see them as flowers. A couple of years ago, when gardening, I had to pull the dandelions and keep on a lookout for them because they were weeds. When did I start seeing them as weed?

Here is a dorky poem I wrote about dandelions back in 2006:


Adults never understood
Childish games upon the lawn
Joy tumbling downhill
Skipping along, light kicks stirring
White fluff into the air
All they saw was an infestation
Dotting their precious lawn

A weed flower
Dandelion



Do you make goals?
What are your goals?
Are you growing up too fast?

Reflection and New Year

The year 2011 is gone and the time has come to reflect on the year I've had with this wonderful blog. This year was a bit more off and on with blogging than the year before.  In 2010 I had 110 blog posts and for 2011 this will make number 65. That smaller number of posts has included a variety of writing topics, challenges, a couple blogfests, new blog announced, a month long event and other stuff included.

Beginning of the year started, as many do, with promise and goals. I started getting together the book review blog, Reading at Dawn. I discussed my internship a little, though I know a few people are hoping to hear even more about that part.

March brought about a couple of writing challenges and a couple of interesting topics including "gay character versus gay story" and an author interview. Which was then followed in April by the great blogging challenge of blogging from A to Z. Quite fun to take part in and I may consider it again this year.

The next months were much slower, with only 1 to 5 posts per month. Work got in the way and my idea of the epic giveaway had such promise but since I still have prizes to mail out when I gather the money and get to the post office, it was more of an epic fail than success. Yes, I still have all the emails and what not and I'll probably re-email those that are still waiting in case anyone moved. I will get those prizes out, I promise.

And it didn't get much better from there. Nanowrimo was very distracting since I ended up write 125,000 words for the month. In fact, the last month I blogged was September. Kind of sad, but no worries, I am back to blogging and my goal is to blog at least 4 times a month all year long. I shall keep going and have some topics in mind for January.

So, that was 2011 and I look forward to a more successful blogging year for 2012.