Bad Writer; Good Writer

How bad do you beat yourself up if you don't meet your deadlines?

I didn't meet my deadline, but I did make progress. My story went from floundering to flying along and, given another week or two, it will be ready to submit. What was it that got me BICHOK (Butt in chair, Hands on keyboard)? Twitter! No, really, I'm not joking.

I was taking a "break" from writing when I came across a tweet that praised a writer's website called www.750words.com. Nothing special, but when you set up an account, it keeps stats for you and encourages you to write 750 words each day (you can easily write more, if you want, then cut and paste into a word document). It's very much like NaNoWriMo, but a daily goal, rather than a monthly goal. Plus, it's small enough that you can easily meet your goal within an hour if you really work at it. It keeps track of your overall time, your words per minute, your breaks, even some categories that show what you focus on most. To make it even more useful as a writing tool, it shows the words you repeat often.

Is it the end-all, be-all for writers? No, it's probably not even something that I'll use every day, but it does add an element of fun.

All this brings me back to deadlines. Although I didn't meet my goal, I feel better about my progress and, yes, I have a new deadline (probably a little more realistic this time). If I write 1000 words a day for the next ten days, I'll finish my short. Wish me luck!

Happy writing.

Deadlines!

I have taken charge and given myself a calendar of deadlines, you know, like a real, working author. Except the first deadline is coming at me like I'm a pizza and it's a hungry teen of the male persuasion. I'm a saucy chick, for sure, but I will probably be a pile of crumbs at the end of this week.

No problem. I just have to write 12 pages a day for the next week. Oh, and I only have one hour to devote to it each day (pretty sure I will be squeezing in a little more than that. Sorry, house, there's always the weekend to make you shine).

Honestly though, I'm excited about pushing myself and posting my progress on here.

Current WIP is a short about two formers who have to cook head-to-head on a reality t.v. show against each other. Let's just say, it's going to get hot in the kitchen.

Happy writing!