Small shifts have been appearing in my daily grind for the last couple of weeks, but not until this week did I feel some relief. I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to soak in all the information I can find. Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. Hmm…I’ve been trying to sprint the length of a marathon. If I don’t change something quick the cramps are going to force me out of the race…

Do you have rituals that keep you productive? I did, back in my days of working in an office I had ways of getting an amazing amount of work done everyday. My first rule was always removing distractions. Well, I’m a mother of two youngins, distraction is now my life. There is still certain times, not always the same time, that I have fewer distractions. In the dainty pearls of non-distraction I’m finding a groove. My shiny new trick is to be flexible.

I have now realized I had become the ugly step sister trying to cram my writing into the wrong shoe. Well no more. My Aha! moment came while reading Marc and Angel this week. The very first item on the list is to create a TO-DON’T list of all the things that pull you away from productivity and waste time. I may not have a lot of dainty pearls of non-distraction, but when they appear I need to make the most of them. It takes time to get a grove moving and once I’m IN my productivity soars. I’ve been a bit manic trying to race to get my fingers on everything, constantly distracted by all the things I want to get done, in the mean time I’m not getting anything done. The fifth item on their list talks about breaking down your goals into realistic, high impact tasks. Love it!! Lots to do to get my books done and it can only happen one step at a time. I think I actually heard that this time around. Number nine is to work in 90-minute intervals. My dainty pearls my not be 90-minutes, but still, breaks are good, breaks are fuel. Number ten is to reply to emails, v-mail and texts at a set time. I’ll be adding twitter, craft study and blog reading to that list. I could and have filled my whole day of dainty pearls with these items and then I do not get anything done on my books…all play and no writing makes me an ugly step sister.

Marc and Angels post came out on Monday…click…click…click. Love starting out the week with my shoulders relaxed and a fresh perspective.

Last week I started to feel the nudge to create a weekly word goal, which is something I’ve been hiding from. I’ve wanted a word goal, but feared it would just become one more thing to make me feel like I was failing. In all the things I’ve been reading one thing was abundantly clear: writers write. In the dainty pearls I will write! It’s now official, my word goal is 2,000 a week.

Monday morning during my dainty pearl I added 615 words to my novella, nice! Then the in-laws came into town, no more dainty pearls. The in-laws went home and the next day (Wednesday) I was out of town for a Nia White Belt Intensive refresher. I had a lovely day, but no dainty pearls. Thursday and Friday it was back to my dainty pearl plan and I got down 923 and 693 words respectively for a grand total of 2,231 for the week! I’ve added 4,300 words in the last two weeks. OMG, I’m writing!!

And that’s not all. Yesterday’s words were for the opening scene of my first book that I’ve been thinking about for a month! I feel so much better now that I can see her life (written down) before the wrench I just had to throw at her. My original goal of spending an hour a day with my characters paid off here. I kept thinking and tweaking the images in my head. Finally it was actually a shiny new shoe (no glass slipper) that actually paved the way.

I’m not quite Cinderella in her beautiful dress, but I’ve dusty off my rags.

Writers write.

Balance and new direction was my theme this week

Last week’s check-in was full of what is not working for me, it was ugly. A few days into the new week and a couple of solutions presented itself. First, I need to re-organize my day and fit writing/editing time in the morning. Can you say priorities people!! Second, education! I’m learning so much from the blogs I follow and articles I find via twitter (you can find what I’ve really found helpful in my Saturday posts- “Links of the week”). I also need to spend more structured time each week on my craft. “Plot & Structure” by James Scott Bell, oh yeah, each week we are going to spending some time together. I already started reading and I’m having a hard time putting it down, interesting.

I’m re-committing.

1 hour everyday with my characters is my goal for this round. This week I spent more time plotting in my head than time writing/editing, my re-balancing should help with that problem, but in my head I had some break-throughs. I’ve discovered the need for a new opening scene in WIP: I’m All Yours.  The WIP now has three scenes left to be written and I’m excited about each. The novella is missing some major plots points still and I’ve been thinking about them all week. I have that feeling of a little feather poking out of a pillow. Just a little tug and I’ll have it out & in my fingers.

I’m excited about my re-balancing. I’m focusing on what is important. My boss from over 10 years ago, we had a love/hate relationship. In somethings he was simply brilliant. He liked to remind me: it doesn’t all have to get done today. you can come back tomorrow and work on it some more. It’s called job security.

No one can fire me from my writing, but me. Well, I’ve fired the old me and the new me has got the job.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!!