Because life just never lets up and I haven't found myself with unhurried chunks of time to write in a Zen-like office space while staring out at an inspiring landscape I choose this.
A challenge. To keep me writing even if it's not for something that will be posted each day. Even if the writing isn't for the same project every day. Even if I end up just writing a journal to myself.
The object is to write each and every day - even a little bit.
My goal for the next 80 days as part of this challenge is to write 500 words a day. That's it - just 500 words. Some of those words may get posted on the blog, but my guess is that most won't.
I thought about making a weekly goal, but I know myself too well. I will end up writing all the words in one fell swoop and not build the habit I'm looking to build.
So, here I go - 500 words a day: I will write even if my desk is a mess. I will write if I'm hungry. I will write if I'm tired. I will write if I'm bored. I will write if I have nothing of any interest or importance to say - it doesn't stop others in the media, so why should it stop me? Right? I will write when I'm angry and when I'm ecstatic. I may even write when I want to argue a point with myself.
The fall is a busy season, but then again so are winter, spring and summer. Every season has its challenges. Life has its challenges and some seem to keep on coming these days. It’s all too easy to put off the things in life that you wish for and dream for. Obligations and necessities get shoved to the front of the line for your time and attention and the things that are important, deep down in your soul important, get shoved aside until there is more time or a better time. There is never more time; it’s all in how you spend it. Sadly, some of the time gets spent on things that aren’t valuable in the grand scheme of things, but appear to be urgent and important at the moment. Busyness is not always a sign of productivity – something that I have to remind myself as I scurry from one activity to another on my most scattered days.
However, this is one challenge I can choose to face and can choose how to tackle. Conquering this challenge will make me stronger for the other challenges that life deals out.
So, 80 days from now, I will have written 40,000 words. Not all good words and certainly not all usable. But it's a start. And starting is something. Making a public declaration of my goal is a risk. I can change the goal if I need to, but I’d rather not.
It starts now with this post; my first 500 words on this first day of the challenge.
Day 1; Check.
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2 comments:
500 a day is a great goal. After all, the main way to improve our writing skills is to write, no matter whether is used, sold or just there to wave "hi" to us on occasion when we're dusting off old files.
In Round 3, I used a site called 750words.com, (sometimes called morning pages) that just encourages us to write a small amount daily on any subject. A couple of days I just typed, "am I done yet" forty times and on others I brainstormed story ideas or wrote first drafts for blog posts.
All the best for the coming week and Round :)
Great goal. I'm keeping the word count low too, just need to get the butt in the chair and the file open :) Good luck and I look forward to getting to know you during round 4.
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