They Say Thirty Days Makes a Habit

Thirty days make a habit, or so they say. I am about to find out.

For the past year I've been struggling with setting aside and using time to write on a daily basis. In years past I have had the luxury of several hours each morning after my children were all in school and before I needed to be to work. This past fall began working extra hours at my part-time job. Our family work/school schedule was also up in the air with constant changes and uncertainties. When I first learned about Nanowrimo from my daughter in 2007, I loved the fact that it encouraged me to make time to actually write on a daily basis. I even "won" in both 2007 and 2010.

This past November I knew going into Nanowrimo that I would have a difficult time with my new schedule. Nevertheless, I set out with my goal to complete my 50,000 words for Nanowrimo. I started off ok, ran into some writers block, but then eventually found my pace and actually wrote some segments that I was really feeling good about. I was actually catching up! And then just before Thanksgiving disaster struck. Instead of backing up my Nano manuscript of approx 20,000 + words, I saved an old back-up of less approx. 6,000 words over the top of the original Nano. I was devastated. I searched both of my flash drives, the hard drive, everywhere. My manuscript was gone. I halfheartedly tried to recreate my work, but had little success, and ended on November 30th with 7,385 words.

January has traditionally been a month for me to hunker down and do a lot of reading and writing to help me get through the winter season. This January found me struggling with any motivation to tackle my WIP or my goal to find an hour a day to write. I have done a fair amount of reading, but very little actual writing.

Ok, so now it is nearly the middle of February. The days are getting longer and the sun is rising earlier. We have a new family schedule in place where I can reasonably plan to get up and write for an hour every morning before facing any of my other obligations. This past Wednesday I set my new goal to get up and write for one hour every morning, Monday through Saturday. (I make it a practice to not work on my current WIP on Sundays. Everyone needs the weekly day of rest is my motto). No blogging or internet is allowed before the allotted hour is over. I've signed up for Rachel Harrie's February Campaign Challenge, but all blogging will be reserved for the evenings that I have time for internet activities.

Here's how I have done so far:

On Thursday morning I did get up and write for my hour. :)

On Friday I caved, and spent the appointed hour reading. :(

Today I spent several hours writing and revising, and have also visited the blog. (Now it's time to go and finish cleaning the kitchen . . .)

Let's see if I can make a new habit!