DAY NINETEEN

Day Nineteen Goal: 230 words, 66 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 612 words. Hmmm. There's some more thinking I need to do. I know who to write about, but not what should happen to them. I guess it's back to notes for now.

-Work: Mmmmm. Didn't go so well, but I was unfamiliar with how to accomplish what I needed to do, so I guess it's to be expected. Tomorrow should be better.

DAY TWENTY

Day Twenty Goal: 240 words, 68 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 572 words. Tried drafting today-didn't go so well. No problem, though. I'll just read more about it to see how I can improve. Still, I'm thinking that, in the future, I should set daily writing targets that are like completed scenes, not words written or time spent. That way there's a focus on results there like with the other work I want to do for the day.

-Work: I finished my resume, and another one doesn't need to be finished due to a surprise circumstance in my favor (at least for the moment), so now I can concentrate my ammo on finishing that last project. That's good, because I've needed a break from that resume-for me, it took major effort to figure out how everything goes together, but it's definitely paid off.

DAY TWENTY ONE

Day Twenty One Goal: 250 words, 70 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 721 words. I've embraced the concept of the "s***ty first draft"-the real danger is getting it on paper before you play with it. It was in "Schaum's Quick Guide To Writing Great Short Stories" that put it like this. First draft is what you're going to say, second draft is how you're going to say it. It kinda feels good to admit that I draft out a horrible scene that I can go back and repair later on.

-Work: I've cleared out the last of my current projects, so now I get to rest for a bit as I plan the next three projects that are most important to me. So far they've helped me keep my focus on what I really want and need to do, and I'm glad for it.

DAY TWENTY TWO

Day Twenty Two Goal: 260 words, 72 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 584 words. Hmmm. I keep going back and forth between planning things out and drafting. I guess they weren't kidding when they said writing fiction doesn't neccessarily go in a straight line. To be completely honest, I currently have no clue where to take this story idea. Fortunately, I've got another one that seems fully formed, so maybe I should focus on that for a while while my subconcious rests on the first idea. I wonder if other established writers switch around like this as much as I seem to be currently doing. Still, to be safe, I think I'll do some research on plotting so I can get some more tips.

-Work: Nothing really much to report here besides the same thoughts about being on a clock and taking things slow.

DAY TWENTY THREE

Day Twenty Three Goal: 270 words, 74 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 626 words. I really got into the flow by doing some freewriting, and it gave me a lot of ideas. If I can capture this flow more often, then it should really help me with my work.

-Work: Since I decided that I would need to do more research before approaching a project, I shifted to my second-most important project and cleared that all out. It was an on-the-fly decision that I really liked, so I think I'll keep doing it when I need a new task to replace an old one that got blocked.

Edited by The Helldragon on October 27, 2008 at 13:59:33.

DAY TWENTY FOUR

Day Twenty Four Goal: 280 words, 76 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 635 words. Another problem I seem to have is that I'm concerned that if I spend too much time writing, then I might not get other things done for the day. I want to get the work I need to do for the day done early so I can get it out of the way, but I'm not sure how to balance my writing goal for the day with that. I'll have to think about it.

-Work: Working on a clock can be a pain when you've finished everything you need to do and have to fill time up, so I did some reading. It's important for my planned line of work, so I don't feel too bad about it.

DAY TWENTY FIVE

Day Twenty Five Goal: 290 words, 78 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 650 words. It's pretty difficult to write right after waking up, because I still feel so addled and can't concentrate that well. With a creative task like writing, this makes it harder. However, after I got roused by someone to go downstairs to pick up breakfast, the ideas started to flow a lot more freely, so maybe I should move around more when waking up to get things flowing.

-Work: This part really didn't go well. My motivation lagged compared to other days, and it was a struggle to fill in the required time. At least I'm reading a lot more whenever I've got time to fill.

Keep it up, just a few more days.

Usually my imagination goes wild on me, with not enough sketch pad to work with.

I know how these habits work, I once did the same with sketchpad. One picture a day, for thirty days, add 3 minutes each day.

Will we get a chance to see this project, sometime after the thirty day period?

By "project", I mean a task which requires more than one action to complete. What I'm trying to do is focus on the projects that are the most important to my goals.

DAY TWENTY SIX

Day Twenty Six Goal: 300 words, 80 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 545 words. More off-the-cuff writing about the story and what I want to do with it...I sure hope that's part of the whole process because otherwise I haven't really felt all that productive on these kinds of days.

-Work: I've been interested in switching to a completion-oriented focus with my projects lately. I just hope snafus are part of the whole deal, because I've been running into quite a few during this trial. At least now I've got a plan on how to take care of it, so it shouldn't be that bad.

DAY TWENTY SEVEN

Day Twenty Seven Goal: 310 words, 82 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 400 words. Still struggling with some character development. I wonder why one character I made seemed to come out so easily and the other one is taking more effort. I think I have an idea on why, though, so like with all other pursuits, I'm going to follow that path for a bit and see where it takes me.

-Work: After I finished writing (and it took me a bit to actually consider what to put down), I went out for breakfast, and when I got home, I'll admit that I wanted to relax and not do anything else. Still, it's day twenty seven and I wasn't going to give up yet-I remembered that a day like this was going to come, so I grit my teeth and cleared out my task list. Once I got going, of course, it became easier, and now I'm glad I stuck with it. It's funny-you hear this kind of advice from people, but you don't really believe it until you live it. This'll serve as a good reminder.

DAY TWENTY EIGHT

Day Twenty Eight Goal: 320 words, 84 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 538 words. I decided to relax my resistance to other forms of character development, and I worked through a mini-workshop that came up with some interesting ideas. I'm going to do some more of these and see what else I can get out of it.

-Work: Since one of the projects is effectively stalled for the moment, I'm working on clearing the other out now. I feel that's it's been good for me to focus on only a few projects at a time that can yield the most important results, though I'll admit the one I'm trying to get done now is more for personal pleasure than anything. Still, as long as I keep a major focus on the important things I want to accomplish, it'll be a good tool.

DAY TWENTY NINE

Day Twenty Nine Goal: 330 words, 86 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 473 words. I noticed that, whenever I'm not sure what to write, I get really finnicky. My head itches, I need to adjust my glasses, my fingers suddenly look very interesting...stuff like that. Maybe instead of doing that, I should write about not knowing what to write. Couldn't hurt, I suppose.

-Work: Nothing really much to report here. Spent all my time working on a single project. I'll admit that I wanted a break from the more important work I needed to do. I'm still ahead on that deadline, though, so tomorrow I'll finish that other project up.

DAY THIRTY

Day Thirty Goal: 340 words, 88 minutes (COMPLETED)

-Writing: 445 words. It took a lot longer to complete the writing I wanted to do today, but since I was conducting a fictional character interview, the results felt a lot more authentic to me, as I tried to figure out the best in-character responses. I'm pretty satisfied with them even if it's not that many words.

-Work: I really had to reach to fill in the alloted time again. I find that I usually am more focused if I don't drag out my work for a project past a hour. I want to see if I can increase that amount so I can take less days to complete a project (though I intend to focus my work on a small part of my day to maintain focus and keep things simple).


In a bit, I'll post my overall conclusions about this 30 day challenge.

These are my conclusions for my 30 day challenge of writing and working.

Word Count

I am certain that I increased the word count much too slowly for my taste. I consistently achieved word counts just above the target before quitting for the day. It's probably due to a combination of this factor ( "at least I made the word count" ) and the fact that writing can be a mind-wracking task, where on some days, you're lucky if you get anything down at all. There's also my concern that writing too long will drain my energy and jeopardize my other goals for the day. I don't know if I'll continue with word count, but if I do, I'll focus on increasing it more steadily.

Story Planning

I discovered just how important this is. I want to write character-driven stories, and without any sort of deep knowledge of the characters and an idea where the story's gonna go, it might not go anywhere at all. I'm still testing the limits of this, and I'm anxious to get drafting again, but I'd also like to do whatever I can to avoid writer's block because of poor planning.

Being on the Clock

Being on a clock felt strange to me. Sometimes I felt rushed, sometimes I had to agonize to fill the time. I definitely agree with Cal Newport over at Study Hacks and Scott Young on his blog: it's better to focus on results than time spent working. It feels more natural to me that way too. When I get results, I feel more confident and productive.

Project Length

Though I try to single-handle my tasks until they're complete, I tend to lose focus when I work up to two hours and more on a project. However, if I split up a project into a bunch of one-hour blocks for every day, then the thing'll take forever to get done. I'm not sure how to solve this problem yet. It's definitely a question of energy management, and my next trials are going to focus on improving my diet to combat this, but all the same, I can't help but feel that there's some variables I haven't considered yet. Still, in the meantime I'm also going to start putting in deadlnes on my projects and try to shrink them over time.

Conclusions

In the end, this is a habit I definitely want to keep. Overall, I've felt quite productive during this month, and accomplished more than I've accomplished before. It still needs work, but the basics are gold.

Edited by The Helldragon on November 3, 2008 at 12:48:56.