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Okay, so I needed 200 words and…

I haven’t done that. I’ve answered emails. Not good. And I’ve printed out discount coupons for Baja Fresh. And I’ve looked for some of my incomplete writing projects. And I’ve flailed away at probably two or three other vitally important tasks on this computer. And produced no words.

The one thing I did do was opt for writing over washing a few dishes, so that’s a start. But then I drifted into the above displacement activities. I need help. I guess this is as good a start as any—the ol’ guideline ’admission is the first step to recovery’ is at play here. Recovering my writing habit.

Thank you, Jeff Goins, by the way, for your ‘practice makes habits’ suggestion. And in the process, I’ve produced 120 words. And I’m making me accountable at least to myself.

“So, what do you do?”

In his book, Show Your Work, Austin Kleon suggests that we treat the question as a means to connect with the questioner or, in our case, listeners/viewers/readers.

Just explain humbly and honestly, he says.

So here goes–a list I developed over a smoked salmon scramble breakfast during my personal, ‘I won’t be able to drive for four more hours, so I’m stopping here’ weekend writer’s retreat.

  1. I’m writing.
  2. I’m creating educational content for future online possibilities.
  3. I’m semi-retired. [as in, I’m not sure if I am or not.]
  4. I’m looking for volunteer opportunities in my community.
  5. I’m avoiding the monumental task [in my mind] of decluttering.
  6. I guess I’m facing the distinct possibility that I’m done with public school teaching.
  7. I’m eating too much kettle corn. That stuff is the work of the devil.
  8. For health reasons, I’m trying to cut back on my baking.
  9. For comfort reasons, I’m ignoring list item #8 and pop in an occasional batch of herb-cheese rolls, chocolate-chocolate chip muffins, or a sweet potato quick bread. [I’m sharing with others…so there’s no need yet to widen any doorways should I visit.]

 

 

So the question is…

will this blog help to make me more accountable to myself and my writing goals? I’m hoping so.

It seems the daily challenge will be to ‘Write as if…’.

  • As if it has value. [For now, if it keeps me writing, then, yes, it does have value.]
  • As if it has, or will eventually have, value for others.

And thank you, Steven Pressfield, for your more impactful treatment of ‘writing as if…’.

Demonstrate consistency, says…

Jeff Goins, of The Productive Writer series.

So, while he succeeded with 500 words a day, I also did well with that modest, reachable goal.

Until I didn’t. Wussed out. Found other important tasks. [All you procrastinators out there are saying, ‘Yeah, right.’. I can hear yoooou.]

So I’m scaling back to even 100 words [though between this work and other project work I’m doing, I probably am getting to 500].

I’ll continue to add my daily writing warmup, but I’ll also be providing a few details about my next project–a Teachable ‘course’, though it’s less of a course and more of a ‘come follow me’ tour of my own process in writing a short book. More later. [Let’s see…how many words is that…Thank you, WordPress–122 words.]