A Round of Words in 80 Days round up:Sunday, Day 7 - 76 minutes. Beginning to decompress. That was the problem with the previous book, it was in a state which really required a lot of close attention. And this book seemed similar, because it started life as a tightly plotted novella -- but it's beginning to let out the corset and feel like a novel. Mick and Casey stories have a natural flow to them anyway. I think the Starling and Marquette stories will too, next time.
It really helps reading Rex Stout and other really well established mystery series, though (even modern ones like Archer Mayor) to feel the relaxed pace, and how a mystery is often about the parts you skip in other kinds of books.
Monday, Day 8 - 122 minutes. In keeping with my new goal set, I worked on art and design work today, since this turned out to be more of a day at the day job than it was supposed to be. (It's the first day of the semester, so I "stopped in" to put out fires. Turned out to take a whole lot longer than I expected.)
Tuesday, Day 9 - 71 minutes. I had too much other kerfuffle today and didn't get to writing until late. I did more outlining than writing, partly because there are a couple of directions I could go, and I don't want to burn my steps on some of the clues. But I am finding the relaxed rhythm of Mick's voice allows me to slow down easily and still have fun.
Shifting My Schedule - New Goals
As I mentioned in previous posts: my work schedule has changed, and I'm kind of excited about it. In the past, this sort of shift hasn't helped, but I think this is a very good time to try it this way again. As I mentioned in the "Weekend Writing" post, my day job work week is all shoved together at the end of the week now. Which leaves my writing week in a four day block.
For the sake of my sanity, I am going to split my week, so that I don't write on Wednesday through Friday. I will, however, do other things. Particularly art and layout work. Maybe some editing or other formatting work. Normally that work is off the clock to keep it from crowding out the writing work -- however, since there is a separation by calendar going on, I'm going to put this work on the clock. An hour a day Wed-Thur-Fri.
So here are the new goals:
- Saturday to Tuesday: 120 minutes a day, writing.
- Wednesday to Friday: 60 minutes as day, art and layout.
That comes to 11 hours a week, which is actually a slightly higher goal than I was going for. So for the total, let's round it off to: 7000 minutes!
This is going to be a bear this week, though (and perhaps other weeks ) because Wednesday is my looong day, and I really would like to get to the stuff I only just started tonight -- but I doubt I will be able to. It's frustrating.
Last time I posted about the disadvantages (and advantages) of what I'm doing now -- Weekend Writing -- and Friday I'll post about the opposite method of managing your writing time: Workday Writing (with a nod to Every Day Writing). Then next week I'll talk about the bigger issue -- making the transition to full time writing, and why habits matter as much as money.
See you in the funny papers.
6 comments:
I certainly hope the work schedule change works out for the best. Change is hard. Good luck!
Like Ryan, I'm wishing you luck on your changed goals - I'd be completely distracted from my WIP if I allowed myself the sexy graphics and design work which I find much less of a bind than actually scratching out the novel.
I'll be interested to read your upcoming post on weekly writing - that's my current process through necessity, keeping the weekends free.
Thanks Ryan and Hunter:
Because the art stuff is so relaxing, it's particularly good to do after a hard day's work. And you can just lose yourself in it, like playing a computer game. So it's a good thing to separate from the writing days.
I'll be getting that post up tonight.
I like the way you've got your schedule...not the 8/8/8, but something that works for you. Art is so very addictive. And that feeling seems to happen whether you are the creator or the observer.
Best to you and your passions.
It's working out well so far. We'll see how it goes when I get into the writing week, but I do like doing different things -- getting to secondary priorities -- during the short week.
That is the beauty of ROW80 you can change and adapt it to your new daily routine. I'm hoping the new schedule works for you. :)
I can see why you have spilt the times between the two as both demand your time and once you start it's probably difficult to stop and move onto something else. Keep up the good work!
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