Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Ahhh, Summer!


My kids are away for 3.5 weeks, and that means 3.5 weeks of nothing but writing! Usually I jam this time with house projects, get-togethers with friends and mini vacations with my husband.

But this summer, I decided to do something different. The school year was crazy and the coming one looks to be just as busy. Weekends have been full of my children’s social activities—I now understand why my mother used to say she wanted to be buried in her car! My time to write has been severely diminished.

So I decided to take a page from my February activity and devote the entire time to writing. Back in February, I did a 30k challenge and I was so productive! This summer, I’m doing a less-formal, independent version of the same thing. Every day, I’m writing at least 1,000 words in each of my manuscripts. I can take a break during weekends, because I really do want to spend some alone time with my husband (and we really do need to get some house projects done), but otherwise, I write.

So far, I’ve been very successful. I’ve kept a running tally of how many words I’ve written—it’s in my computerized to-do list, so it pops up on my screen everyday (talk about motivation!). I’ve written 6,415 words in three days.

My long-term goal is to have at least one of my manuscripts completed by the NJRW Conference in October, so I can pitch agents.  My short-term goal is to continue the momentum when the kids return from camp, even if I can only work on one manuscript per day. If I make the short-term goal, I should be able to meet my long-term one as well.

I’ll keep you posted! What are your summer writing plans?

6 comments:

  1. Yay for you, Jen! Those goals really help move us along, don't they.

    I always have big plans to write in the summer too, since I'm off. Up until now, I haven't been very productive, but toward the end of last week the muse finally poked its head out and I've written about three thousand words in three days. So, hey, I'm right on track with your 1000 words a day. :)

    Good for you to be AHEAD of the game with over 2,000 per day so far. Good luck and definitely keep us posted.

    Ah, I do love summer...

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  2. You'll do just fine, Debra and I'm glad the muse hit! And we're both equal, I'm just working on 2 manuscripts at the same time (because I'm nuts).

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  3. Best of luck with your summer writing projects. Sounds like you're both doing great so far!
    I opted out of the FB 100K words in 100 days (starting on July 1st, because I've just completed the first draft of my WIP, so my 'summer' (if that's what you can call it here in England!) project is to revise, polish, edit, tweak etc etc until it's ready for submission.

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  4. My summer writing plans are non-existent. Between the garden, the soup building, Rachel's filming, sun, bugs and grandchildren, I am braindead by sundown, which comes about 10 pm this time of year. I am thinking a lot, critiquing, taking some classes, but saving up my writing time for next winter, when work is slow and the days short.

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  5. Amazing how the older kids get the more hectic life becomes. Good luck with the writing. Writing during May and June were sporadic for me at best. To the point when I seriously entertained thoughts of deleting my blog. But now it is July and I have signed on for month long challenges to get the fire burning under me again. Looking forward to writing more.

    Kathy
    http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com

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  6. Paula, I consider editing and polishing just as important as writing!

    Ana, your life is busier than I could ever imagine. And you do a great job writing in the off-season!

    Kathy, you're so right. Even though they're self-sufficient, I have so much less time to write than I used to. It's ridiculous. But I'm so glad you're not getting rid of your blog--I LOVE it!

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