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Monday 12 October 2015

The muse is skittish in this one

Monday morning again! Weekends are too short and I feel for all those of you who will have to drag themselves to EDJ's today. I have lots of chores this week so I think it's time to get a proper schedule in place because the days are passing and I'm not really achieving as much as I would like.

No-one to blame for this except for me and my skittish muse. For the first time my thoughts just can't seem to settle on one story. I'm struggling with my focus and in trying to corral myself into one story or the other, I'm actually not getting very far with either of them.

So I've decided that it's time to write whichever one is at the forefront of my mind and when the other one starts to clamour for attention I will switch over. Not sure how it's going to work out but forward momentum is better than inertia.

Wish me luck because I need some words this week and I would really like to get some consistency in my word count as lurching from 500 to 4500 to nothing for a couple of days is starting to stress me out.

Even if I can't discipline the muse, I can discipline myself so I'm committing here and now to 2000 a day every day between now and Friday. Not a huge target to some but by setting an achievable target for myself then I am more likely to succeed.

On that note - we are approaching NaNoWriMo and if you have never tried it before I would recommend it as a way of training yourself to write regularly. The more often I write, the easier it is to maintain. A word of warning though - if you become de-motivated by missing targets then it might not be for you.

The graph on your dashboard is based on achieving 50,000 in 30 days. If you know in your heart that is too much for you then maybe set your own level and create a spreadsheet to track your own achievements. I know more than one person who has become disillusioned if they miss there target as it doesn't take long for it to stretch away from you. 300 words a day would give you 9000 at the end of the month that's either a great short story or a strong foundation for something longer.

Set yourself up to succeed not fail.

It's also the time of year when there is a lot of advice floating around. There is no right or wrong way to write. Some are early risers, some are night owls. Some are slow and steady builders others are gripped by the madness of the muse and the words pour forth. Most of us are a bit of all of these things - whichever you are it's the right way to be - for you.

It's your process. 

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