Week 8 Analysis

Week 8, originally the last week of the Make Writing A Habit I Can't Break Challenge, has definitely turned out to be the most difficult one yet. Stalled progress seems to have been a theme last week - Claire's work slowed to a crawl and so did mine.

In week 8, I did 1,200 fewer words and 142 fewer minutes than week 7. As you can see by the lateness of this post, I also missed a few of my - assignments - this week as well.

The good thing is I have missed writing every night and, much like Claire, I have learned a new dislike for editing. I know, I know - editing is an important and necessary part of writing, yet it is a pain in the pa-tookis to deal with the angsty crap of looking at what I've written with a critical eye and I don't do critical very well - or didn't before this challenge.

Now, despite it taking so long to get through the first ugly rough draft, I know I'll complete it and begin editing the clean rough draft. While I won't make my original hoped for deadline, I will be publishing Rogue Master and begin moving on to other stories, because, no matter how many major or minor setbacks. I've suffered over the last eight weeks, the most important thing that's come out of it is - I have made writing a habit, I can't break - and I'm happier for it.

I may have days when I don't write, or I write very little, but my feelings about my writing have changed - it's an important part of who I am and I respect myself and what I consider important too much to let it go again. I recognize there will be moments when I'll hesitate or doubt what I've written, yet I know I can make changes to anything I write. What I can't make changes to is a blank page.  I'm not afraid to walk away from one story idea if it doesn't suit  the characters or story line - because, while it might not fit one place, there's no telling that it could work better elsewhere.

These last eight weeks have been an interesting journey of self-discovery. I've learned strengths and weaknesses in myself as well as the thought processes I use when developing and writing a story. I've learned patience and objectivity (this last I'm still working on...but I'm getting better at it.) I've learned the importance of taking a step back and looking at the big picture - even if I make a move before I process through all the information - I can see where an issue is and work toward fixing it.

Main goal for week nine is completing the ugly rough draft - that's it. Nothing else. Moving forward in baby steps until I can get organized and really get to my full stride. 

If you have any questions or want to comment about my progress or lack thereof...

Feel free to leave one.

Take care,

Q

Week 7 Writing Challenge Analysis

It has been a long, hard week. I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped on the edits, but that's primarily because I was trying to play catch-up and get organized for the new school year. Yes, the day job does interfere on occasion.

gif from photobucket.com

Which means, I have to reevaluate my time commitment during the week and make up for it on the weekends. Looking at everything I have to do, and the after school club I manage, the three hours a day is not feasible at this time. Nor is adding another hour a day for plotting/outlining new stories.

And this isn't a permanent thing, it will change as the year progresses and I get more things under control and can free up my evenings for what I love doing...writing.

I'm still very proud of myself and all I've figured out about my new writing method. I also like that I've done a phenomenal job remaining positive and objective when it comes to how I look at how I've handled this writing challenge.

I wish I could make the really cool charts that Claire Jane used for her updates (and I'll be contacting her about them soon), I'm just going to toss the information out there for you...

Time spent on edits and writing in Week 7 was 785 minutes (13 hours and 5 minutes) which was 700 minutes (11 hours and 40 minutes) less than time spent in Week 6.

All new words were exclusively written for my blog (a total of 3,274 words in 3 hours 45 minutes), and only 41 pages of the manuscript were edited in the week.

If this had been the beginning of the Making Writing A Habit I Can't Kick challenge, then I probably would be slamming myself for not getting what needed to be done done. Which makes me glad this is Week 7 and not Week 1.

from worldartsme.com

Goals definitely need to be revised, so here goes...
Writing Challenge Week 8 To Do List:

1. Finish clean rough draft of Rogue Master:
• edit at least 5 pages of manuscript each night - except Wednesday or
• edit at least 2 scenes each night - except Wednesday or
• Spend at least 1.5 hours working on editing the manuscript each night - except Wednesday
• Spend at least 3 hours working on editing/transcribing the manuscript on Saturday and Sunday
2. Post 2 blogs during the week:
• 1 post will be Weekly Challenge Analysis
• 1 post on any other writing or reading related information
3. Spend 3 hours in the week to build projects to be worked on by:
• Reading through old scenes to find usable ones or
• Creating rough outlines for stories or
• Creating a rough series outline for series stories in development or needing completion

That doesn't seem like to heavy a burden. Considering I did get both blog posts up last week, and I spent every night editing, even if I didn't reach the 20 page or 3 hours a night goals, I still spent a good amount of time writing.

Even better, I didn't put writing off. The goal of the challenge was to make writing a habit and I believe it is slowly becoming a daily habit for me.

Until later,

Have a great week!

Q

Weeks 5 & 6 Writing Challenge Analysis

This is going to be a quick and dirty analysis of the last two weeks because I have to get out of here and go paint a dragon...

For Week 5...

Week 5 was all about the beginning editing - and that was a major struggle. I went into the week knowing I had scenes that had to be written, but no plan on how to get them done except "When I get to it, I'll write it."

I did very well on getting pages done, 125 edited, just 15 shy of the goal of 20 per day. As for my hours dedicated to the writing, I was 0.7 hours shy (about 42 minutes) of meeting the goal of 4 hours a day.

Blogging was okay. I was able to get the Week 4 analysis up on time (Sunday) and get another random post, Reading - Writing - And Change..., done on Friday, so that goal was met. Yay Me!

courtesy of
emoticonsonly.com

With the blogs and the transcribed edits, I wrote 4,445 new words, with 2,522 being on my blog.

And all progress was reported on my Twitter and Facebook pages. No new work was done on my other manuscripts, but I'm not going to stress over that until I finish this book.

Which means, for the most part, in Week 5 I came close or met my goals for the week.

For Week 6...

This was the litmus test week and I can already tell there will have to be some more tweaking and refining of my goals and methods.

Biggest take away from Week 6 was the realization that I definitely must have an editing plan moving forward. After the fumbling and "uh, what next" issues during Week 5, it was clear to me that when it comes to editing, I must know exactly what I need for the story moving forward. And that was how I spent my Saturday - the first day of the challenge week. I spent over 4 hours going through the rough draft and making a list of all the scenes I would need to finish the story - 19. And found that I had scenes that needed to be finished - 6, giving me a total of 25 scenes.

Having just that little bit of information made the week go easier - even if I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped.

My almost finished living room (that sofa was on the opposite
side of the room when I started)

Blogging wasn't so hot...as you can see the Week 5 analysis that was supposed to go up on Sunday ... didn't happen. In fact, Sunday was the crazy move everything around day which started at 2 am EST and, after a 4 hour nap, ended around 3pm EST. I literally tore apart my bedroom, living room, and office (which is the dining room) and moved shelves, desks, sofa-recliners, and televisions because the flow of energy in my house was bugging me.
Still, I got some editing and transcribing done on Sunday.

My 90% done office...I love my table and roll-top desk!

The second blog post was supposed to go up mid-week...kinda happened. I was able to make a quick Writing & Insanity post on Thursday, but nothing illuminating and fun. Although, I must admit...you  may be seeing a post on work spaces...

Now for the numbers...

Week 6 was 9.9 hours down from Week 5 (17.4 compared to 27.3), my edited pages was up 169 pages, and my transcribing/new words on the manuscript was up 918 over Week 5.

Considering Week 6 was my first return to full-time work week, and I was getting back into the groove of things, it's quite obvious I have to make some adjustments. Good news for me was, I didn't stay late a single night I was back to work. And once I was home, I immediately got back to the editing or transcribing.

Going off Goals set for Week 5 (write/edit/transcribe 4 hours a day to complete Rogue Master; 1 hour a day to create new manuscript outlines; 2 blog posts a week) I didn't do so hot, but I'm very proud of how much I was able to get done and the fact that I did it while back to work.

And since this challenge is about making Writing A Habit I Can't Kick, I'm still winning - because I'm still writing!!

Even better, when I was driving back from a regional training with two of my co-workers, both of them commented on how much more positive and excited I seemed than the previous school year. And they both attributed it to my being able to write again - they're right...it is all because I'm playing with my passion again.

And that's why I have to go paint a dragon.

So - Goals for Week 7 (with the tweaks to keep me successful):

1. Work toward completing Rogue Master clean rough draft:
• Edit a minimum of 20 pages per day
• Spend a minimum of 3 hours per day transcribing/writing/editing
• Post progress on Twitter and Facebook
2. Begin work on new manuscript(s):
• Spend a minimum of 1 hour per day plotting/outlining a new manuscript or
• Read through previous unfinished manuscripts for scenes or
• Transcribe/write on new manuscript for 1 hour each day
3. Post at least 2 blogs per week:
• Weekly Challenge Analysis - Post by Sunday
• Create a list of blog posts (minimum 8 posts/subjects)
• Blog on any other subject - post by Thursday

Going by the numbers, this means I have to do a minimum of 28 hours of writing every week.

I can do this!!

Will see you on Thursday, have a great week, and when I get my dragon done, I'll post some pictures!

Have a great day!
Q

Week 4 Writing Challenge Analysis - Glass Half Full - Half Way There!

Wow! Claire Jane, can you believe it's been Four weeks. 28 whole days completed and four weeks to go. Half way there!

This week had good news and bad news.

The Bad first, because I prefer to get it out of the way so I can celebrate the good.

Word Count = Bad
Added 23,973 words to the manuscript. That's 20,607  less words than Week Three's manuscript word count.
From week Three to Week Four, my Free write words per minute was reduced from 6.1 to 2.4 wpm - a drop of 3.8 wpm.
There was also a decided reduction in words per minute in transcription from 23.2 wpm to 12.9 wpm.
Total time invested in my on-line presence (Blog, Social Networks, etc.) was 450 minutes (7.5 hours) less than Week 3.

Here's the rub - the Bad isn't so bad. True, I didn't add 6,000 words a day - this week was about editing - I didn't expect word count, but I was aiming to make my hours. That was what I focused on - and I did get through 40 pages of edits.

Now, The Good:
I added 1,594 words to my blog, which was 212 words more than last week. I spent 2,340 minutes on my manuscript and 195 minutes working on my blog for a total of 2,535 minutes or 42.3 hours - 6.4 hours more than Week 3.
That was 415 minutes or 6.9 hours more than Week 3.

Looking at all that information, you'd think this week's analysis may end up becoming a diatribe about my inability to stick to goals I'd given myself.




I've always been a glass half-full kinda person when it comes to other people, yet tend to be a glass barely filled kinda gal when I'm dealing with myself.



This writing challenge has been very good for me in discovering this. And discovering how destructive my words can be to my belief in myself.

This week was an out and out test to my new "It is what it is" philosophy. If you look at the general data - the surface of the situation - it would be very easy to lambaste myself over my performance.

Here's the thing, though, while I'm not happy that I haven't finished the ugly rough draft of Rogue Master, I discovered that I read and watch television when I try to avoid writing.

It's not like I didn't know that - having become rather an expert at it over the years - what I did discover this week is, that even though I read 8 novels, skimmed and read over half of two other novels, and indulged in three season of Hercules Poirot on Netflix, I still sat my butt down to write. Every day.

Whether it was from midnight to two a.m., or 9:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., or 5:45 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. Whether transcribing notes, free writing, constructing a blog post, or editing, I have written for 28 days. Every day I have taken time to write something - anything - and that's something I haven't done in 6 years.

And I'm very proud of myself - very proud.

Because I know this means I'm at the halfway mark of making this a habit. One that I've never had before. Not in the past. Not in all the years I wrote before I was published or the few years after my first book was published.

As I review the data from this week's challenge and reflect on the methods I used in the past, I realize writing wasn't a habit, it was a hobby - a distraction while I was waiting for a good book or movie to come out. Something to do when I was bored with what was on television.

Now, I'm making it a habit that I can build a career on. a career I can be in charge of, and can determine where I want it to go. I'm putting the power back in my hands.

And I'm liking it.

The final analysis of my performance versus my goals for Week 4:

1. Write every day - achieved
• 6,000 words or 6 hrs per day - not achieved - average word count per day was 3,196; average time spent editing/transcribing/free writing was 5.6 hours
• report daily to social media - achieved
2. Add words to a new manuscript - not achieved - primary focus was on Rogue Master, so I didn't bother working on another manuscript
3. Post 2 blogs - half achieved
• Week 3 Analysis blog post - achieved - posted
• any other blog post - not achieved - There was no response to my blog so I'll be figuring out posts on my own for the time being.

Looking at these details, I think there needs to be modifications to my Week 5 goals, yet not much. With my focus being on editing and adding new, I need to consider that progress in the establishment of my goals.

Considering I have approximately 210 pages of notes and scenes to go through, I'll be adding a minimum page count for editing to my goals. I'll also be taking into account that I'll be returning to work next week, so my available writing time will be shortened.

New goals for Week 5:

1. Work toward completing Rogue Master manuscript by:
• Edit a minimum of 20 pages per day or
• Spend a minimum of 4 hours per day transcribing/writing
• Post progress and favorite line to Facebook Fan Page and Twitter
2. Begin work on new manuscript(s)
• Spend a minimum of 1 hour plotting/outlining each day a new manuscript or
• Read through previous manuscripts for potential scenes or
• Transcribe/write on new manuscript for a minimum of 1 hour each day
3. Post 2 blogs a week
• Weekly Challenge Analysis - Post by Sunday
• Create a list of blog posts (minimum 8 posts/subjects)
• Blog post of any other subject - Post by Thursday

I'll be posting my updates on both my Fan Page on Facebook and under my Twitter account.

Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog and social media sites.

Have a great day!
Q

Making Writing A Habit I Can't Kick - Week 3 Analysis

I am definitely making progress.

Admittedly my Week 2 Analysis just went up on Saturday, July 30th (a week late) but at least it was posted!

As for the writing, that has been an interesting adventure in and of itself. Claire gave me that wonderful challenge of 6,000 words and/or 6 hours of writing a day, which made for some fun times, I'll tell you. Boy, did my inner critic have a field day last week.

I digress.

Here it is. Week 3 analysis - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The good, the bad, and the ugly - that's how I'm going to break this post up.

Let's start with the goals for the week - In order to meet my target of having the ugly rough draft of Rogue Master done by July 31, 2016, my goals for week 3 were:

1. Write every day
• Add a minimum of 6,000 words a day to the manuscript using any means necessary - free write or transcribe;
• and/or spend a minimum of 6 hours every day working on adding new words to the manuscript
2. Post two blogs per week
• one post should be the Weekly Challenge Analysis;
• second should be on any other subject I want

Review of Goals:

The Ugly:

I failed on goal #2 for posting on my blog. Yes, I did finally post my Week 2 Analysis, but not until Saturday, July 30th - which was the end of Week 3 and an entire week after the post was due.

And, I didn't get a second post written - So a big fat 0 for that goal.

Based on the fact that I was actually able to post to my blog every day for Week 1, I should feel bad about this - and here's the really Ugly part: I don't feel guilty.

It is true that during the first week I was able to post every day - yet, let's be serious about this - they were boring posts. Boring I tell you! A regurgitation of information totally yawn-worthy.
(And yes, I swiped these pics from a fellow author, Candace Blevins off Facebook - pay attention to the last one!)

photos property of Candace Blevins

IMHO, adding more posts like that would have been a waste of my time and the readers' time.

The Bad:

For this goal, the bad is that the weekly analysis is probably going to run a close second in the yawn-worthy contest, but I'm going to keep posting them, so I can analyze my progress; keep those interested up to date about my projects/WIPs; and to satisfy my science research geek CP, Claire Jane.

Which means, at lest one post a week is definitely going to be a "blah-blah-blah" kinda thing. Feel free to ignore it if you so choose.

The Good:

Here's the good about this blog posting goal - I'm going to put out a request to you, the readers, to feel free to comment on what you'd like to hear from me. That way, I have a jumping off point to work from and you might actually get to see what you want --

If all else fails and all I get is crickets chirping, I'll dig out some unfinished scenes or deleted scenes for you to enjoy. That way they get shared, you get a peek at my weirdness, and I get to check off one of the items on my weekly "To Do" list. Awesome!!

Now, on to goal number one adding 6,000 words a day to complete the ugly rough draft of Rogue Master.

The Ugly:

I suck. But, I'm not angry at myself. And why do I suck, yet I'm not angry at myself? I suck because I did not finish the ugly rough draft of RM. What I did do was get an end word count on Friday, July 29th of 80,008 words, which was 5,008 words more than I'd planned (considering I'd revised my goal from 90,000 to 75,000 in Week 2) - which is why I am not angry at myself.

How can I possibly be angry when I made progress? It's so funny thinking about this. If you read any of my early Week 1 posts, you would recognize what a bitch I can be to myself. I set such high expectations for myself that I think I do it just so I can fail! So I'll have a reason to be angry at myself and call myself names and point out all my failings. And does that help me in any way? No. Does it inspire me to push harder to succeed? Hell to the No! Like I said last week, biggest take away I've gotten so far from this Writing Challenge, is to accept that things are what they are and move on. The past can't be changed, and dwelling on it only limits your potential for greatness in the future.

Learn the lesson and move on!

The Bad:

I didn't write a minimum of 6,000 words a day, nor did I put in 6 hours minimum a day on my writing. This, I am a little disappointed in myself over, yet, I'm fully embracing Claire's "It is what it is" philosophy. 

I didn't reach that goal, but that doesn't mean I can't keep trying.

The Good:

The good about this particular goal failure is that it wasn't really a failure. And it's all in the wording of the goal: "a minimum of 6,000 words"

See, that is the part I get to do my happy dance about and say "nanna-nanna-boo-hoo" to my inner critic, because, while I only added 3,400 words on Saturday, July 23rd, and 2,119 words on Sunday the 24th; On the 25th I did 8,955 words; the 26th was 8,907 words; the 27th was 7,388 words (as well as 1,382 words for my blog); the 28th was 7,047 words - after 5 hours at the day job and a killer migraine; and the 29th was 6,767 words - A grand total of 44,583 words (not including my blog) which averaged out to 6,369 words a day. (*Phft* to you nasty inner critic!)

So what if I only spent a total of 32.08 hours on the manuscript. That's an average of 4.58 hours a day - still enough hours to be considered a full-time worker at some businesses.

Bottom line:

I did a FUCKING amazing job!!

Happy dance, cuz I love Donald O'Connor & Gene Kelly
gif courtesy of giphy.com

In Week 3, I transcribed 21,805 more words than I did in Week 2, and invested 15 more hours to my writing (free write and transcribe) than in Week 2.

Ironically, while I again had no restrictions on my allotted social media time, comparing Week 3 numbers to Week 2 numbers I spent:

• 4.9 hours less on Facebook
• 2.6 hours less on Twitter
• 9.9 hours less on email

Yet, I spent 4 hours more on my blog (darned redesign and analysis).

That's a total of 11.7 hours less social media time. Funnily enough, it seems the drawback to that reduced time, was the loss of 5 "Followers" on my Facebook Fan Page. Then again, Facebook has issues sometimes that I still have yet to decipher.

Overall, I would say there was much more good that came out of Week 3 than bad.

Moving forward, things are going to be more challenging simply due to the nature of the point I'm at in the writing process for Rogue Master.

Week 4 and possibly Week 5 are going to be completely focused on reading through what's been transcribed and editing it to meet the modified story paradigm. I have approximately 15 new scenes that need to be written, so my focus is going to be more on the hours invested rather than word count - although word count is still going to be a great measuring tool since I'll be able to see how much I cut away from the old scenes and upgrade them to meet the new story.

Plain and simple, Week 4 goals are:

1. Complete ugly rough draft of Rogue Master
• add a minimum of 6,000 words using any means necessary - free write or transcribe
• spend a minimum of 6 hours working on editing, writing, or polishing the ugly rough draft
• report daily updates on social media - Facebook and Twitter
2. Add word count to any other/new manuscripts
• add a minimum of 6,000 words using any means necessary - free write, transcribe, outline, plot, etc. (to be considered part of goal 1 daily word count)
• spend a minimum of 6 hours working on outlining, plotting, writing, transcribing, reading through old manuscript copies (to be considered part of goal 1 daily hours)
3. Post to blog at least twice a week
• 1 post = Weekly writing analysis due no later than the following Monday
• 1 post = any subject that comes to mind or reflects posted reader interest/requests

Pay close attention to that very last goal, because I'm putting the ball squarely in your guys' court! I need subjects people!! Or you're going to end up with teacher-speak, lectures about character development; learning styles; plotting; the difference between the Care Package, Plot Protagonists, and Story Protagonists (you'll end up with this one anyway because I'll be posting about the class I'm teaching online with HCRW....)

Don't make me use my teacher voice. ;)

Thanks for showing up and have a fan-fucking-tastic day!!!

Q

Week 2 Analysis of Making Writing A Habit I Can't Kick Blog Challenge

I know – it’s late – heck, Claire has had her Week 2 analysis up since Sunday and she added another awesome blog on Writer’s Block on Wednesday.

For me, I was avoiding the analysis because I wasn’t clear how to look at it all. I decided to finally suck it up and get the work done so I could have it off my to do list.

Looking at my requirements, as defined by Claire J. Monroe for Week 2, I actually did very well.

1)    Commit 30+ minutes each day to writing by:

a.    Minimum word count: 500 words added to manuscript by any means necessary, or

b.    Minimum page count: 2 pages added to manuscript by any means necessary, or

c.    Minimum plot notes for minimum one scene added by any means necessary to any
       manuscript.

2)    Redefine your goal list for this challenge and submit it to me (Claire) by Friday, July 22,
       2016 at midnight EDT

a.    I will need this to help support you doing next week’s analysis

3)    Submit via email to me the answers to the same blog questions answered in week one:

a.   I want them every day after daily writing session is complete while it’s still fresh in
      your mind how you felt about what you accomplished

b.  Again, necessary to help you do next week’s analysis and SEE what your subconscious
     has been trying to tell you

4)    Social media ban and requirements are lifted – UNLESS I don’t get that email from #3 on a
       daily basis

a.    Miss this and you lose social media privileges and chocolate rights. (Oh yeah, I went
      there, because this is important. To YOU. Doesn’t hurt me one bit if you don’t make it
      through the ‘I got nothing’ syndrome phase…just means one less author for me to
      compete with at the marketplace. And now, you may call me an evil bitch who excels
      at getting blood from turnips.)

Going through each item:

On #1, considering the least amount of time I spent writing was 45 minutes and I added a total of 23,480 words to the manuscript – that goal was definitely accomplished. I even added some hand written notes on another manuscript one day, although I didn’t list it in my spreadsheet.

#2, I did a rough redefining of my goals for week three and sent it to Claire just before midnight on Friday, so I got in under the wire on this one. See the rough list below:

Revised goals as I think about them are:

1.      practice learning the story through the 14 scenes using the Poker Posse books.

2.      complete the rough draft of RM by 7/31 (only 40K words more to go)

3.      Establish a solid writing schedule.

4.      Extra if possible - create a visual-kinesthetic-auditory goal plan for my writing
         career.

I didn’t quite go through all the goals, and Claire pared it down so I could truly focus on the main goal of completing the ugly rough draft of Rogue Master. I’ll post the completed list of goals at the end of this blog.

#3 – submit emails to Claire, yup, did this with only one delay – my Thursday post was combined with my Friday post.

#4, social media ban was lifted, which was nice, but I honestly didn’t spend a lot of time on the social media sites.

I can safely check off each of the items on my list as being complete and I have to send a big thank you to Claire for helping me SEE things better.

Date	Day #	Word Count	Time (min)	Rate (wds/min)	Manuscript	Transcribe/ Free Write?
7/16/16	8	652	45	14.5	Rogue Master	Free write
7/17/16	9	1024	75	13.9	Rogue Master	Transcribe
7/18/16	10	8208	330	24.9	Rogue Master	Transcribe
7/19/16	11	2595	98	26.5	Rogue Master	Transcribe
7/20/16	12	4969	320	15.5	Rogue Master	Transcribe
7/21/16	13	5264	321	16.4	Rogue Master	Transcribe
7/22/16	14	700	60	11.7	Rogue Master	Transcribe
WEEK 2 TOTALS:		23430	1249
AVERAGES:		3347	178	17.6
RUNNING TOTAL:		35141	152	16.3

Now, for my analysis – this week actually went much better than the last week.

As you can see, my focus has been on transcribing scenes from the other manuscripts into this new one. There were only two days when I did just over my minimum requirement, but my words per minute didn’t drop. In fact, one of the those days was a freewrite day (14.5 wpm), the other was a transcribe day (11.7 wpm) showing there wasn’t much difference between the words per minute on those days.

While the word count and the time committed are all really great to see, the biggest change was something I only shared with Claire. The daily questions I sent to her showed, in my opinion, a marked improvement over those of the first week. After actually seeing the destructive way I’d treated myself in those first posts. I think I was hyper aware of what language I used and taking a step back and not allowing emotion to leak into the responses. I kept it very analytical and non-judgmental. Which allowed me to think about the progress I was making – and it was good progress…hell, it was fucking great progress. I more than doubled my word count from the first week.

Each day of transcription made me aware of the running notes in my head that I would jot down in the story to remind myself how the scenes would need to be altered to fit the new story. I have to say, it was exciting to see the word count climb and see how what I’d written before could be made to fit. (Which honestly made me feel good because a part of me could no longer rail at me about all the time I wasted on writing the wrong story so many times.)

Now for the new challenge going into week three.

Remember the one I sent to Claire? Claire being the evil bitch wonderful friend and scientist that she is spent a good two hours on the phone with me Sunday night. I’m sure she was ready to snatch me bald as I talked around and rationalized everything yet didn’t give her any firm confirmation that the goals I’d sent her for week three were achievable.

That’s her big thing. Helping people set achievable goals so they don’t set themselves up for failure. Yet, she also makes sure that the challenges aren’t too easy. After more discussion though, she came up with a simple list that aligns with my goal to complete the ugly rough draft of Rogue Master (which has been whittled down to 75,000 for 90,000 since the 90,000 is the publishable final draft goal.)

We also discussed the fact that I was becoming somewhat anxious over the fact that I hadn’t posted anything to my blog for the week, since it wasn’t a requirement for me. Add to that the realization that if I’m going to work toward writing becoming my career, and since I have time during the remainder of the summer due to my day job, then I need to commit to some serious hours for writing.

Which resulted in a simple 2 element goal for Week 3 of the Making Writing A Habit I Can’t Kick Challenge.

1)    Add a minimum of 6,000 words per day to the ugly rough draft of Rogue Master:

a.    To complete the 75,000 word ugly rough draft, or

b.    Spend at least 6 hours per day working on the manuscript, either writing, editing,
       transcribing, etc. to help meet the 6,000 word per day goal.

2)    Post two blogs each week:

a.    One would be the weekly analysis of my Making Writing A Habit I Can’t Kick results

    i.    Due by Sunday, July 23, 2016 (quite obvious I missed this goal, but I’m making it 
          up with this post)

b.    A second post on any subject of interest I have on that day – writing, cooking, books,
       baking, sewing, etc.

    i.    Due by Wednesday or Thursday, July 27 or 28, 2016. (Will be pushing this one
          back to Wednesday August 3rd since I wasn't able to get my analysis post for week 
          2 done until today, and I'll be doing week 3 on Sunday or Monday. This way there’s 
          some time between analysis post and new one.)

Blog post analysis done – check that one off!

Until Monday, have a great day!!

Q