Writerly Resolutions

I have high hopes for 2012. There is much writing to be done and I want to get back into shape. Those two tasks, for me, are not simpatico. In the past I've either been an exercising fool, buff in my skinny jeans and biking to work, yaddayaddayadda – or I've been writing up a storm while my ass expands from all the butt-in-chair time reading and writing.

This simply can't continue. For my 2012 New Year's writerly resolutions, I think I've found a way to much needed balance. A writing schedule that includes that pesky little thing called – a life. I nabbed the idea from screenwriter, Scott Myers (as per his blog post on writing schedules), coming up with a structure that works with my current writing patterns, includes time for reading, and also forces me to be physical. I work in a school library three days per week, but the other four days are my "writing days" and here's the schedule I've developed for 2012. NOTE: 5am wake up time is usual for me, but might seem extreme to others.

WRITING DAY SCHEDULE

5-8am: breakfast, reading, excercise

8-NOON: update blogs, answer interview questions, write guest posts/articles, update social media (FB/Twitter, etc)

NOON-1pm: lunch – play with the pups / take them to mailbox

1-4pm: write (daily goal 3 pages can be on one or spread over multiple projects)

Evening: research, watch film/TV, outline, brainstorm…and live a little.

Seems doable, right?

But wait! That's not all I have planned. In an effort to organize the many writing projects I have on the go, again – I've built upon the advice of Scott Myers (as per his blog post on stacking projects) and developed a Progress Chart of all current and completed WIPs. This thing slices, dices and promises to eliminate hours of where-the-hell-am-I-on-this? time wastage. Projects are divided into format: series fiction / stand alone fiction / non-fiction / scripts / freelance articles / blogs (yes, they count as writing projects!). It looks something like this:

And it goes on for five pages. This chart provides me with the one thing I struggle with the most…perspective. It gives me a bird's eye view of what I've accomplished, what I have in the works, and all related word counts / deadlines. I'm hoping it will be a bit of a timesaver in 2012 – a handy reference tool when I'm confused about my status on a specific WIP, but also serve as a swift kick in the ass. Hard to argue that I've been "super-dooper productive" if items are NOT being crossed off this list or if word counts fail to increase in a timely fashion.

So there you have it. My writerly resolutions for 2012 and beyond. How are YOU planning to tackle your muse in 2012?

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEARS!