Happy New Year!

I declared 2014 "The Year of Finishing Things," almost a year ago, and I wouldn't say I just knocked that goal out of the park. I'm not terrific with finishing things, but I want to be. I'm going to carry this idea over into this year and give it another go.

I'm terrible with resolutions, so I'm just going to make a list of some things I'd like to accomplish in 2015, with no expectation that I will achieve all of them. I'm a work in progress, into 2016 and beyond. I don't doubt I'll be back here 1/1/2016 reaffirming some of these goals to be carried forward into the next year, but that's okay.

The trick is to keep moving.

Goals for 2015

1. Get my average steps per day up to 10,000.  I have lots of data here, since I've been wearing a Fitbit every day for over a year.  My steps per day took a dive when I stopped working at Target (praise god, though, really.) and since I've been at my current (desk) job, Since then, my daily steps have dropped to an average of 4272. So I need to get 6k elsewhere, probably before work, and I don't think that will be that hard. I'm determined to do this one. It's my number one priority. That leads to the next goal...
2. Gym. Oh, the gym. I belong to Planet Fitness, that notorious gym. I'm one of the people who pays 10.00 a month to feel healthier without actually going to the gym. I really want to turn this around, though I know the Resolution People will be there with me, making the gym crowded for the first few months of the year. I'm going to be one of them. I confess, I'm a little curious how many other slackers like me are about to go back to the gym because of the principle of the thing.
3. Read 75 books, including clearing the backlog of to-reads I've been dusting and living in proximity to for two years or more. 
4. Blog three times at least three times a week--twelve entries a month, not including book reviews. 
5. Use Chuck Wendig's Novel Writing Plan to finish my NaNoWriMo 2014 project as well as the Improbable Romance Novel. 
6. 100 Happy Days--I started this last year, and fell off immediately. More pictures of more things that make me happy. It's a good practice, to be present and grateful and aware of when I am happy.

First you have to write, and then you have to finish

With apologies to the eloquent Neil Gaiman for butchering one of his lovely quotes on being a writer....

In that way that the human brain is very strange, a short story roared to life today while I was reading a non-fiction book over lunch at a sketchy, local, fast-food Mexican place. A passage on bear-baiting in London in the 1600s, and I was suddenly wishing I had a pen that wrote well on pulpy napkins so I could take enough notes to keep it fresh until I got to someplace where I could start getting ideas down in a more formal medium.

Lacking a suitable pen or a notebook with which I could get started, I headed home and put fingers to keyboard to start roughing this idea out. I won't say that I set a personal best for words produced, but it was a respectable day of writing.

Now, to keep this ball rolling tomorrow!

The Details
WiP: Bear-baiting (Ew, I know) short story
New Words:  1135
Total Words:  1135/15000ish

Day 21!

I haven't written yet today, but today will be my 21st day of consistent fiction output since I started using Cory Doctorow's tips. I have written 250 words every day, but some days I have written much more.

Observations, so far:

1. 250 is a low bar, but on nights when I get home from a closing shift and all I want to do is eat then sleep, it can feel really out of reach. 
2. I do it anyway. 
3. Knowing I have to do it no matter what makes it easier. 
4. I want to start doing it in the morning, instead of at night, and I am considering how to make that a more comfortable habit.

ETA: Got today's words. 841 new tiny words of fiction, and all mine. :)  

Writing Consistently--What I've Been Doing

So my posts here slacked off about the time that I adopted a new personal production policy regarding my fiction writing. After listening to an installment of the "I Should Be Writing" podcast by Mur Lafferty, I went and checked out a writing/tracking tool called The Magic Spreadsheet. It has been, so far, one of the most encouraging tools for the consistent production of words that I have encountered, and I am on a two week streak as of yesterday. I have written my words after long, horrid shifts at work where I would much rather have just showered and gone to bed. I have written big production (1775!) days and in bare minimum (250!) days, but I'm working hard to establish a writing habit that might even supplant my Candy Crush habit.

And that would be for the best for everyone, but especially me.

In the two weeks that I have been writing, I have roughed out (shitty first draft, yay!) a short story about a gender-bending highwayman who ends up back home among the people who knew him when he was a she, and I have returned to what I think will be a short novel about different inheritance structures in a fantasy setting, and how they might shape culture, and the lives of three characters. That sounds dull when I write it out that way, but I aspire to non-dullness, I swear. This one is based on a dream I had months ago, and I have several snippets of scenes that I wrote by hand or for 750words.com when I was trying that tool.  It didn't work for me, but the Magic Spreadsheet seems to be more effective. You might try it, if you have a daily writing goal, or if you want one.

I embraced this tool as a part of trying to follow the writing tips of Cory Doctorow. Here's what he had to say:

1. Write every day. Anything you do every day gets easier. If you’re insanely busy, make the amount that you write every day small (100 words? 250 words?) but do it every day.
2. Write even when the mood isn’t right. You can’t tell if what you’re writing is good or bad while you’re writing it.
3. Write when the book sucks and it isn’t going anywhere. Just keep writing. It doesn’t suck. Your conscience is having a panic attack because it doesn’t believe your subconscious knows what it’s doing.
4. Stop in the middle of a sentence, leaving a rough edge for you to start from the next day — that way, you can write three or five words without being “creative” and before you know it, you’re writing.
5. Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.

In keeping with these tips, and the notion that social accountability is also helpful to me, I started a closed Facebook group for other people who wanted to commit to a daily writing goal. So far, it's working, and I think for others, not just for me. I can't wait to see what comes from my own committed practice, as well as that of the people who raised their hand for the group.

More here, when I have more to tell!

One Copper Ryan Story--word count thus far.

3448 / 10000 words. 34% done! The ten thousand word count is just a guess, but I have a decent outline and I know where I am heading.

Goal-setting for the next 30 days

The bar is over, and now that I have eight weeks (at least!) to wait on results, I have been taking action to be certain that my goals to develop new, healthy, productive habits.  I'm a list-maker, and I try to document goals as I set them so that I can look back and see how far I have come. Plus, this way you all can see my aspirations, too. Accountability is good, right?

On that note, here's what I am working on for the next 30 days:

• 750 words at least, every day. I may write more, but I cannot write less.
• Gym or yoga, every day. 
• 10,000 steps.

Five Ways to Make Your Life More Creative

So I could absolutely do without the AmEx tie-in, but the message was good enough to overlook that. Also, the crazy spelling of "shrug."

Ira Glass on Being Creative

Important words for creative people. I love Ira Glass.

HDC!

One of the main purposes of the fresh blog was to recommit to daily pages as the best (probably the only) way to significantly improve my writing. Owing to outside factors--specifically studying to take the bar exam--the first day of that challenge is going to be July 29th, 2012, and I am going to undertake it as part of a hundred day chain of writing. Writing will most likely take place at 750words.com, and I will post links as I accomplish my daily tasks. This will be happening in conjunction with another HDC regarding exercise, and I am hopeful they will go well together. See you on the 29th, if not before!