Diary of An Unmotivated Writer (Week 5)

I've been off for the past week and it hasn't been quite what I imagined- I'm sure those of you who have worked or been in school feel so very sad for me. At least we've got two week and then finals, and then two more weeks off. A do over, I suppose. I did get quite a bit of reading and writing in this week, at least. Here's the update:

Week 5

Words: 25,078 (+770 words, -430 from goal)

Actions: several blog posts (some scheduled), two books finished

Plan: 400 words (I have a ton of grading to do!)

Congrats to those of you who met your NaNoWriMo goals!

Diary of An Unmotivated Writer (Week 4)

Oops. I've got nothing.

I knew that it was going to be a busy week, and busy it was. A late day at work one day, the reading at UCR, a baby with a cold... I've got excuses, man. 

Oh, excuses. I'm notorious/revered (depends on whom you're talking to) for my lack of empathy towards excuses. So me clocking in at 0 words is pretty pathetic. But I'm not going to sit down and bust out a few hundred words of crap, just to save face. I'm just not. 

Which brings up an interesting question that I ponder often in the blogging world- why do people think posting crap is better than posting nothing at all? I much rather not waste my time clicking on a post to learn that it's heavily sponsored, recycled content, or, even worse, bland musings about doing nothing. Take a healthy-living blogger I read on occasion. She frequently does "day in the life" posts, yet they're all the same. She eats. Takes care of her baby. Works out. Answers email. Watches TV. And this is how she makes money! I just don't understand. 

[source]

Oh hey! I'm here to tell you I did nothing. Kettle? It's me, pot. I'm calling you black. 

This week:

Week 4

Words: 24,308 (0 words; -300 from goal)

Actions: 3 blog posts, 1 book read

Plan: 1,200 words (I'm off this week)

Diary of an Unmotivated Writer (Week 3)

[sub out "caffeinated" for "drunk"]

Time for a weekly check up! This week has been weird- we had Tuesday off for Veteran's Day, and then I was in meetings all day Thursday and Friday. Sawyer had a few incredibly rough nights at the beginning of the week, but seems to be thankfully back on track. That being said, I actually got done more than I thought I would this week.

One interesting thing that I noted this week while writing is that I write much better about bad/negative/depressing things than good/positive/happy things. The dialogue flows so much easier in those situations, as well. Honestly, I'm not surprised. When I daydream or worry it's always these elaborate scenes that involve worst-case scenarios. 

This week:

Week 3

Words: 24,308 (+680, +180 from goal)

Actions: 3 blog posts (1 scheduled), 680 words, 3 books read

Plan: 300 words (this week is crazy)

Diary of An Unmotivated Writer (Week 2)

Happy Saturday! If you missed it last week, I'm trying to get back on track with my personal writing project, so I'm starting weekend updates. I'm obviously most concerned with writing on the actual project, but I think any other work I do is also important, in terms of inspiration and motivation.  This week has been one of those weeks that simultaneously flew and dragged- I'll spare you the details. I did get more reading done this week, which was awesome, and a little bit of writing. This week:

Week 2

Words: 23,628 words (+340, -160 from goal)

Actions: four blog posts, 340 words, Amazon new-book perusing 

Plan: 500 words

Diary of an Unmotivated Writer (Week 1)

When I grow up I want to be a novelist. Unfortunately, at thirty-years-old, we're starting to broach "grown up territory" and I should probably shit or get off the pot (see, I'm already practicing my literary language). I have found that public accountability can be a pretty effective motivator, for me. If I was forced to display my weight on Facebook everyday I'd be super-model thin. If someone said that all my workouts were going to be blasted on the school marquee at work, I'd live on the treadmill. So, in order to motivate myself to get into writing, I thought I'd start a new weekly feature here. NaNoWriMo also kicks off today, and while true participation is not a realistic option this year, November still seems like a good time to refocus. 

I may joke, and fantasize about how I'll react when my pretend agent informs me my novel is up for auction at Christie's between three of the Big Ones, but I know that the chances of me publishing a finished novel are incredibly slim. But this is something I don't want to die wondering if I could have accomplished. In actuality, I just want to finish a draft. And then we'll proceed accordingly.  I am the type of person that finishes what she starts, and the fact that I have started and stopped writing so many times is downright irritating.

Each weekend I'll update the two or three of you that read these posts about what I've done during the week to move things along. Some weeks I may write thousands of words on my "project" (calling it a "novel" seems so presumptuous and douchey), some weeks there might be absolutely nothing, except me saying "I graded student writing... does that count?"

I started my current project over a year ago, and while I'm not going to go into specifics (#vagueblogging), it was, and is, something I was really excited about. I have somewhere around 23,000 words so far, so I definitely have a decent start. I also know where it's going pretty precisely, so that helps matters to. 

So, to recap:

Week 1

Words: 23,288

Actions: Thought about making this blog post

Plan: Write 500 words (it's going to be a busy week), start a Pinterest board full of writing quotes (probably not), keep reading (field work, duh)