#FirstDraft120 Day 43: Sunday Reflections on Changing Goals & Deadlines #amwriting #nanowrimo
In case you missed the announcement at the end of last week and are wondering what the revised logo means, check out that post before continuing on with today’s. Go ahead, we’ll wait.
Because Sundays are our day to take a moment to step back and think about our writing from a wider view, today is a great day to reflect on what we just did. Feel free to answer them here with as much or little detail as you’d like; or answer them on your own blog or on Facebook. Or just write the answers down in a private journal or notebook. The important thing is to actually think through and write down your answers.
Reflections for Day 43:
- How was your writing going before the challenge’s end date was extended?
- If you weren’t going to meet the original end-date goal and knew you needed more time, but had that date of November 30 hanging over your head, how did that make you feel?
- Now that we’re taking more time for this challenge, how do you think that will affect your writing—both your writing time (work) and your writing craft (story)?
- What are you looking forward to most about having more time to write? What do you think will be most challenging about the extended deadline?
I look forward to seeing your answers and will be posting mine soon. And don’t forget to check in with your word-count progress!
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KayeDacus.com 
I was about to give up with the thought of trying to make the deadline. The thought of having more time made it so much more manageable and I am hopeful I can see it through (especially since I built in days off). Of course, the key will be to not procrastinate, thinking I have all the time in the world!
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How was your writing going before the challenge’s end date was extended?
I had just about given up. I was still thinking about where to go with the short story I was writing, but I wasn’t enjoying it. I was exhausted from work as well, so it was harder to get motivated to write.
If you weren’t going to meet the original end-date goal and knew you needed more time, but had that date of November 30 hanging over your head, how did that make you feel?
Dishearteningly familiar. I really wanted to make the deadline, but early in the second week I knew I was never going to catch up.
Now that we’re taking more time for this challenge, how do you think that will affect your writing—both your writing time (work) and your writing craft (story)?
The extra time is a huge bonus! It basically halved my word count goal every day. My new goal of 1000 words a day is feasible even at my current s-l-o-w speed. As far as craft goes, I’m planning to try some different strategies to increase my word count–writing sprints, dictation (maybe), etc.
What are you looking forward to most about having more time to write? What do you think will be most challenging about the extended deadline?
Consistency will likely be my biggest challenge. I’m most excited about the fresh start since I’m scrapping the stuff I wrote earlier this month and starting over. I’m also really glad to be maintaining the connection here with fellow writers!
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How was your writing going before the challenge’s end date was extended?
It had basically come to a complete halt and I had pulled an ostrich by burying myself in a reading binge.
If you weren’t going to meet the original end-date goal and knew you needed more time, but had that date of November 30 hanging over your head, how did that make you feel?
In a single word? Defeated. It wasn’t so much the end date that was bugging me though as I’d said from the beginning that I didn’t expect to be finished until closer to Christmas but the fact that I wasn’t meeting my daily word count goal at all (except on Day 1 or 31) was killing me. Even though I didn’t every try to make up those words on following days I just ended up writing less and less.
Now that we’re taking more time for this challenge, how do you think that will affect your writing—both your writing time (work) and your writing craft (story)?
I think it will help immensely. While I can accept that my story isn’t coming out how I imagined it I have accepted that it’s a “draft” and can be revised later but the pressure is now off and I think it was killing my creativity when I did manage to sit down to write. My writing time is still “iffy” but I’ve decided that for now I will try to write my new goal of 500 words per day after my toddler wakes up and she’s initially happy with her morning TV time & solo play. There will be some distraction in that but I think it will work better than when I ended up exhausting myself to try to write…foggy brains are not conducive to writing! lol
What are you looking forward to most about having more time to write? What do you think will be most challenging about the extended deadline?
I’m looking forward to the pressure being off and to just try to write 500 words every day (or at least 6 out of 7 days per week). If I can get into a consistent habit of writing every day then I hope to up my daily word count goal to 1000 after Christmas. It also allows me to enjoy the holiday season, both with not feeling like I failed and like I actually have time to spend with my family and still manage to write etc.
The most challenging part will be that we will have my niece (though she’s only 4.5 years younger than me) living with us as of Dec 15th for at least 2, possibly 3 months. She will be getting a job and has odd sleeping hours and a 1-2 hour daily grooming ritual so I’m just hoping that my writing time will coincide with one or all of those things but I won’t know for sure until she’s here. lol
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If you don’t have time to do 500 words all at once, do what I did a couple of weekends ago–200 words, get up and do something else, 200 more words, get up, write more if possible, do something else, snatch a few minutes to write 50 or 100 words, etc.
You words for the day don’t all have to be written at the same time! Just make sure you go back for that second and/or third round in order to reach the total you want.
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Good questions. Think I will use my blog to answer.
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Here are my answers: https://carolcollett.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/the-slow-road-or-adjusting-on-the-fly-to-a-more-realistic-goal/
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