SoATW Fridays: Staying On Track
Congrats, SoATWers! You've survived the first week of The Summer of All The Words. Whether you joined the Twitter Meetups regularly or worked on your own timetable, you've made progress, and that's what this summer is all about.
Our purpose for the Friday blog posts is to share some tips about balancing writing and the rest of your life, especially during summer. The comments are a place for you to share both tips and progress, and set goals for the next week if you think that will be helpful.
Speaking of goals, I suspect by now you've set one (or several) for SoATW. My tip for today is how to keep yourself on track to meet those goals. When I'm trying to balance writing with our summer plans, a paper calendar is a huge help. It lets me see family obligations and writing ones simultaneously, which allows me to manage my time better and keep my focus where it needs to be at any given moment.
Planning my weekly wordcount is a simple formula. If you're revising, use page counts instead.
Set a deadline and count how many weeks until it arrives.
Set a target length.
Divide your target length by your number of weeks.
Write your weekly target on whatever day you decree check-in day. Make sure the total on each check-in day is cumulative.
In my case, here's my self-imposed schedule for DISSONANCE 2:
Deadline: Sept. 6 Weeks until deadline: 12 (actually, it's 13 but I'm taking a week to outline)
Target length: 100,000 words
Division: 100,000/12 = 8,333 words per week.
Written Targets:
You'll notice I also include my daily word count -- but that's just a rough estimate. If that level of detail feels stressful, you can just include the weekly goals. I also use Scrivener's Project Target tool to stay motivated, but I'll talk about that in another post.
A few words about math and tricking myself: first, I round up my weekly target to 9000, because it's easier to add AND because it gives me wiggle room. For the same reason, I bump my daily word target (1285) up to 1500. Here's the real reason: It's not significantly harder for me to write an extra 300-ish words each day, but the cumulative effect is an additional 2000 words per week -- it's a painless way to make a big difference.
This system works for me because it applies necessary pressure. October feels far away, and it's easy to think that I can make up the time by working harder once my kids are back in school. But if I see my weekly target tick upwards, and my wordcount falling further and further behind...I realize very quickly how hard it will be to make up that lost ground, and I buckle down. Equally important, the calendar keeps me from working in a blind,
all-consuming panic. I know what I need to do, and I know it's doable,
so I can spend time with my family without stressing out.
I'll be the first to admit that this level of structure isn't for everyone, but if you're struggling to keep on track with your goal, you might want to give it a try.
In the meantime, how was your first week of #SoATW? Feel free to use the comments to share your progress and helpful tips; you can also tell us your goals for next week or for the entire summer. (You've already seen mine.)
When you're done, head over to Clara's blog for another suggestion about how to balance writing and family! Happy Weekend, all!
