This is not how Baltimore looks this morning. No, Baltimore is moist and grey. I can’t see the rain, but people are going by with umbrellas. I’m missing my Santa Fe blue skies.
(Yeah, okay, we had a couple weeks of not so blue – here’s my photo contrasting with the same flowers against a stormy sky from a few days ago.)
So, as long-time blog-gobblers know, I’ve been a proponent of the 1K/day. It worked for me to try to write 1,000 words each day, which I do before I start the day job. On Twitter, someone started the #1K1hr, where write either 1,000 words or for an hour, whichever comes first. That’s kind of fun to do, because groups of people sprint together. However, I find that the time pressure interferes and I don’t enjoy the storytelling as much. Then this one gal had to start bragging about doing #2k1hr, saying that 1K is for wimps, which felt all competitive and awful to me.
There’s a reason I didn’t do team sports in school.
Um, besides the fact that I was a klutz and no one would have me. But, funny, no one ever yelled at me to read more books! Faster!
(Now I’m picturing the librarians like the football coaches, with track suits and whistles, veins bulging in their temples. “You’re just not putting effort into it, Kennedy! I want to see 100 pages in thirty minutes – now, go!”)
At any rate, I think I mentioned at some point here that I’ve changed my approach a bit, with drafting The Middle Princess. When I was in my long spell of revising, it naturally didn’t work for me to shoot for 1K and the then switch to the day job. So I was revising for two hours. That worked fine. And I did it long enough that working for two hours became a habit. (And habit becomes ritual which becomes sacred and then you’re golden.) So I started drafting for two hours. My goals are all set up (on spreadsheets) for 1K/day, but now, once I reach my 1K, I keep going until my two hours are up.
And wow.
I don’t want to jinx myself, but I’ve been amazingly productive. Like 10,000 to 12,000 words per week productive. Plus it feels good and not draining or exhausting. I’m at over 60K on Middle Princess and closing in on the Act II climax. I’m a week ahead of my self-imposed deadline.
Which is good, because I’m braced not to get anything much done while I’m on day job travel.
But, maybe that will change, too.
LOL. Love the image of the librarian turned drill sergeant; though, anything timed utterly dorks up my ability to accomplish anything.
Enjoy Ballmer. Hopefully you’re near the Inner Harbor. Oh, or near Charm City Cakes.
Actually the hotel is near Johns Hopkins – Inner Harbor was sadly all booked up. We might hit up the Inner Harbor for dinner one night, though.
I don’t know that I can do the vein-bulgy thing, but I could totally don a track suit and start waving my arms. But they don’t let us yell at the library. So I’d have to sneak up behind you and hiss: “Fifteen minutes left, Kennedy! Keep scribbling!”
I’ve never done the competitive sprint. Hmm…sounds like a lot of pressure. Eeek!
You can be our librarian drill-sergeant, Laura! Hissing is even better. Can you do the stern look down the nose, too?