Just to give you an idea of my first day’s progress: I got home from work just after 5pm, read today’s chapter in BIAM and read the last chapter I wrote for AT&Gw; I then wrote from 6pm until 8pm today, had an hour off for dinner and to call my Dad for his birthday, then I wrote again from 9pm until 10:20pm. I didn’t find it nearly as difficult to get my head down and actually write as I thought I would and I’m really pleased to say that I wrote 2,327 words today!
That’s a pleasant surprise – I really thought I’d struggle to write 500 words today, considering it’s my first day writing in over a year. But I just made myself sit and do it. No excuses. I didn’t let myself get up from the computer or go online, I had to write, even if I found it hard to write something scintillating or maintain my focus.
This was a slightly non-representative day as I finished work slightly later than usual (I’d normally be finished about by 4:30, rather than 5), but I also had nothing I needed to do this evening. Starting next week, I’m going to be teaching an evening class on Tuesday nights and I’ll be learning at one on Wednesday nights, so that’s two evenings taken out of the week, plus I have another group activity on Monday nights, so I’ll really have to play catch-up on my Fridays off and at the weekend.
But anyway, yay for reaching my word count aim on the first day – may this be the first of many!
Wonderful! Daily word count is a challenge for me–some days I can go far beyond my goals and others I just stagnate. I’m beginning to think I need to have more than one project going at different stages–so when I stagnate on writing I can go edit something
Glad BIAM is inspiring and useful!
That sounds like a good idea! In the past, I’ve found it hard to switch my inner editor on and off, so I tend to write like a demon to get it all on the page, then go into editor mode once it’s all down. I wish I could switch between the two more easily, though – if you can, you should embrace it!