A quarter of the year gone! I am equal parts contented and disturbed by this – contented because every passing month brings us closer to the end of our renovation. And disturbed because, well, every passing month means the year is flying by, my kids are growing older and my writing is progressing too slowly for my liking.
I recently read a book on time management – 168 hours, you have more time than you think by Laura Vanderkam – I’ll write a separate blog post on this later. I followed her suggestion to keep a time log for a week, tracking time from waking up to going to bed, in half hour increments. Tedious – yes! Illuminating – yes! Because I could see that I spent more time in March on our renovations than writing. And my writing moved slowly.
So I don’t want to make any grand writing plans in April because I need to catch up on my writing and blogging, and because it’s school holidays. And because my husband and I have started watching House of Cards!
I’m pleased I sent off my first book into a publishing competition and to a literary agent. Fingers crossed. I’ve written half a short story – will finish it off this month and send it off to another competition. And I’ll keep going with my second book, using all the gems of information I gained from Kate Forsyth’s writing workshop.
Thank you for reading my blog – I’m so grateful for your support and interest.
Good luck with competition, Karen.
Terri.
1/4 of the year gone way too quickly. Good luck with the competition! Have really enjoyed reading your blog. Usually do it before getting up for work and have something to say but then the mad rush of my day begins. X
Thanks, Cate! Enjoy the holidays with your girls.
Thank you, Terri!
Time stands still for no man….or something like that. Everything falls into place. You have achieved your goals such as having work finished to be submitted for competition. Well done Karen.
Thanks for your encouragement, Pam.
Crossing my fingers that you have success with the book and short stories! I think recording time is an excellent idea. So much can be achieved in half an hour but it can also be frittered away easily too (yes, I’m looking at you social media notifications!). And I understand the ‘contented/disturbed’ dilemma. There is part of me that wants the year over – goodbye school mumma days! – but there is another part that wants to savour these last days of childhood and everything this year has to offer.
Well, it’s not like either of us can control time so I guess we just have to roll with these fast-moving months! And roll with the contradictions of wanting time to move quickly and wanting it to slow down.
Well done for reading a time management book! I really should do that. I can’t believe it’s April either. I set myself the goal of having a completed first draft of my NaNoWriMo 2015 novel finished by 1 July, and now that’s looking shockingly close. I’ve been doing some outlining work on it, which is unusual for me, but it might also be my way of putting off actually writing…oops.
Best of luck with yours, Karen! Speak soon 🙂
Three months, Amy – if you can write half a book in one month, you can finish it in three months!
When you’re right, you’re right!