Make A Date!

Your girl, Tuesday here. Sorry for my radio silence! Things have been a bit nutty on my end.

1. I've been really sick. Long story, gross details that I know you don't want to hear, but suffice it to say I haven't really been up to snuff for a good week now. I'm hoping I'm coming out of it, but I'm not really sure yet. LOL.

2. I have family in town. Staying with me, in fact, and my life has been turned a bit topsy-turvy for the week.

Sick+family+writing=NOT HAPPENING.

I've been sitting at the same word count for a good 8 days now. Bah. NO GOOD. But as I told the ladies, I'm just happy to be writing. Sure, I wanted to hit that 50K, but I knew it was a serious outside shot when I began. That said, I'm happy with what I have... still hope to get some quality words in before it ends, and yeah... writing is what counts, and NANO definitely got me tapping the keys again.

One thing I'm taking away from this entire thing is that scheduling writing time really does work. I know, DUH, but how many of us sit down to write and get distracted by a million outside things going on around us? I know I always have the best of intentions, but yeah.. I try to multi-task. Stop to throw a load of laundry in... do the dishes... take that quick phone call or write that short email. Do enough of those small things and your writing time has suddenly gone POOF before you have any words accomplished.

Well, I LOVED the write-ins I attended during Nano. Why? Because I knew with 100% certainty that for those specific four hour blocks of time that writing was the ONLY thing on my docket. And for whatever reason--be it the energy of sitting in the room with a group of writers, or be it the fact that there weren't any other distractions around me--I got my ass in gear the moment I sat down in front of the keyboard. There was no meandering around trying to "warm up" with a few hands of solitaire or my personal favorite, Mahjong. No, I simply sat down and started writing. And I kept writing -- the entire time.

Sure, I clock watched at times. "Oh hell... I still have two hours to go?? What can I possibly write next?" But the fact is, knowing I had set aside that specific amount of time helped me to keep things on track. And when things got REALLY tough, I could say to myself... you only have such and such minutes left. You can pull this out.

So yeah, even after Nano ends, I plan on scheduling little personal write-ins -- somewhere away from home, somewhere that makes it "formal." If I have to block time to trick myself into writing, by golly I'll do it.

What about you? What are you taking away from Nano?