The first steps - getting started and building a writing routine

Yesterdays Word Count: Blog - 947, Fiction - 799, Total 1,746.

I started back writing yesterday, both blog and fiction. It's going to take me a little while to ramp up my production to the point where I can compete with the word count I'm looking for - about 4000 total words a day. Assuming I write at about 1000 words an hour, that's four hours a day of writing.

I probably write the blog a lot faster than that, because its mostly train of thought. Closer to 2000 words an hour, I'd guess. So figure the blog will take me anywhere from 15 to 35 minutes a day. Let's call it a half hour. My plan is to write the blog every day after walking the dogs. Routine, remember? That's how I'm going to get all of this done. 

The other 3000-3500 words of fiction? Well, that's a little harder to predict.

Which is why I'd better figure it out now.

Carving three hours out of the day sounds hard, but it's probably not, especially if I treat it like three separate hours, or even six half-hour chunks. Three hours all at once is hard to come by, unless I write off my entire evening after work to writing, but I know from experience that plan doesn't work. Evenings after work are when I run into the most friction.

It's pretty normal to spend time with family and friends in the evening, so there will always be things that come up after work, and fighting that is a losing proposition unless I'm willing to become an antisocial hermit. I'm not, despite what some people may think. I enjoy my social time, and look forward to time hanging out with friends and family. Even though I'm an introvert and often need time to recharge, I still look forward to spending time and doing things with people.

If I can't reliably spend my entire evening writing for three hours, what then? Well, that's where breaking it up into manageable chunks comes in.

First off, I need to get an hour (1000 words) done in the morning before anything else. If I do that and the blog before I leave for work, I'm halfway to my daily goal. That means I need to structure my morning and wake up a little earlier. I've been getting up around 5:30 every day, and besides walking the dogs and eating breakfast, I haven't done much else besides reading or scrolling on social media. I probably already have a good bit of time available - I just need to retcon it for writing.

That still leaves 2000 words, or two hours. 

I'd love to say I can write 500 words on lunch, but I can't. I don't even reliably get lunch, depending on how the day is going. I suppose I could force it into an earlier slot, but even when I'm at lunch, I'm often interrupted by people who need me for something quick. Not a productive environment for writing. I'm better off trying to enjoy some reading then, or maybe having a notebook and doing some rough poetry or idea work or something.

Which brings me back to evenings. 2000 words still outstanding.

Let's start by saying I'll find an hour before bed to bang out the last 1000 words. That's probably doable, and I can make it part of my routine easily enough by coupling it with tea time. A good cup of tea, three or four cookies, and 1000 words before heading to bed seems like a good time, honestly, and a good way to wrap up my day.

Still, there's 1000 words hanging around unwritten.

It's tempting to leave them for the weekends. I mean, 1000 words a day Monday through Friday means 5000 words extra on the weekends, when I should theoretically have more time. But that means instilling a ton of discipline on days when I am most likely to have other things to do. 

Not just plans with friends and family, either. The yard needs maintenance. Chores tend to slip to weekends. All very manageable until you add 3-4 hours of writing to each day, at which point they are still manageable. But that's the normal expectation now.

Add another 5000 words to the weekend means I'm either spending six-7 hours a day writing on both Saturday and Sunday, or I'm spending 10 hours on Sunday parked at the writing desk. No to mention, I work a half-day at the job some Saturdays.

Yeah, that just won't work.

So either I write less, or I split the words between morning and evening.

I'm not writing less. In fact, the plan is to slowly ramp up and write as much as humanly possible.

So it looks like I'm getting up even earlier, and maybe staying up a half hour later. 

Not perfect, but not that big a deal, either. Once I get past the feeling that I'm missing out on things and get to the point where I look forward to the habit of writing, to the feeling of getting lost in the story, I'll probably get aggravated when I have something to do other than write.

This is a lot of process, I know, but I believe it's important. If I don't take an account of my time and how I spend it, it would be very easy to say I simply don't have enough time to write.

Lots of people say just that.

But I don't want to let my dreams wither and die while I spend time I could use for writing scrolling through memes on social media, or even consuming other people's stories. How sad would that be?

So, despite the tension I feel right now, it's time to get disciplined and consistent. The tension will ease in time, as it does with all new habits.

I mean, if I can give 50 hours of my life up every week for a paycheck, I can find another 25-30 to pursue my dream, right?

Don't settle, folks. Life is too short. Figure it out and make it work.

I'm doing my best.