I’m Supposed to Write Every Day?

What does it say about me that my day job is in project management, but whenever someone tells me I need a writing schedule I just laugh?

Being a part of the Novel Incubator program at GrubStreet means I have made a commitment to my writing for at least a year, but I’ve still had a hard time making sure that commitment turns into actual words on a page. Part of it is that I’ve completed a first draft, and revising is so much harder than writing. But the other part of it is that I never sit down to write without getting distracted. (Can you believe I’m supposed to be working on my novel right now?) I love the idea of writing, but sometimes being faced with the sheer enormity of fixing my entire novel is daunting, and I’ve had a hard time finding a good way of breaking the work up into more manageable chunks. Twitter isn’t helping, so I’ve had to find another option.

My current tool of choice is Pacemaker, a project management tool that allows you to track words or hours (which is how I’m measuring my revision progress). No word yet on how effective it actually is, but so far I’m finding it helpful to see just how much writing time I’m getting (and what days I’m most productive). It’s no surprise to me that I get about two hours of work done on Saturdays and Sundays, but weekdays are pretty sparse. I’m trying to change that, though it’s not easy. But along with a running list of scenes I need to write, Pacemaker has been pretty helpful in allowing me to actually get work done and seeing where I’ve made progress.

If this doesn’t work, my next plan is just to send myself off into the wilderness with no wifi for a while to write, but hopefully it doesn’t come to that. We’ll see….