Step 1: Time, resources, mindset

Last week I asked: if you are thinking about writing a book-length work someday, why not use National Novel Writing Month to challenge yourself to write 50,000 words in November?

If that sounds a little TOO challenging, why not set yourself your own custom goal between now and the end of the year?

Let’s talk about what you need to make your goal achievable. Let’s call it “your project,” because it doesn’t matter at this moment whether you want to write fiction or nonfiction, a book or a story or a newsletter. What matters is figuring out your needs ahead of time to clear some obstacles and objections so the writing path is a little smoother.

1. Time

What can you do to safeguard the time you need to work on your project? I use Google calendar for everything. It’s how I manage my own time, and it conveniently works with other apps I use to schedule appointments, so I can make time available for clients to schedule sessions according to our mutual availability. My husband and I share a calendar too, so we can block off time for the things that need to be done during work hours. 

All of this is to say that you can block time off for your creative project. How about an hour before work? 30 minutes over lunch? After the kids go to bed? Preserve a time that works best for you and protect it like you would anything else that’s important. 

You don’t have to write every day,  but I recommend finding the time blocks that work best for you and your schedule and making sure others know that this time is reserved. One of my writers chose one hour on three different days during the week as her writing time, while working around her full-time work schedule. Another writer uses the hours right before our sessions to get some writing done. If it’s important, you make time for it, just like date night or going to the gym or setting up the dreaded colonoscopy appointment. 

If you are doing NaNoWriMo, to reach 50,000 words by the end of November, you have to know how much time you have available during the month. If you write 1667 words a day each day of the month, you’ll hit the goal. If you know you have friends visiting for a weekend and then Thanksgiving prep and dinner, you need to adjust your word count per the days you know you won’t be writing. The point here is that a little bit of planning makes even a tough goal achievable.

2. Resources

What things do you need to help you achieve your goal? For my goal (writing a micro story a day in November), I am assembling the prompts and inspiration I’ll be using so I’m ready to go on Nov. 1. If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, I’ll give you some tasks over the coming weeks that will lay the foundation for what you will write. 

Other responsibilities will also come up: child care, food planning, shopping, and prep, making travel plans, etc. Can you make arrangements that work with your household that will help you achieve your goal? Do you need to go to a coffee shop during your writing time? Do you have a space in your home where you can work? For me, the food planning/shopping/prep is the biggest time suck, so I need to figure out a plan specifically for November that will give me back some of the time I put into worrying about meals. (I predict we’ll be eating mac and cheese on my dinner nights!)

3. Mindset

Here’s your first writing assignment: Why do you want to take on this project? I’m guessing that you’ve wanted to write for a long time, but things got/get in the way. 

Write a couple of paragraphs about why you want to write, and why are you taking on this project now? There are many reasons, and they’re all valid: you have a story to tell, you want to prove you can do it, you want the satisfaction and pride and admiration for having done it, you want to help people, someone told you you couldn’t do it, etc. 

Be honest with yourself, and go deep. Knowing your why can fuel your fire to keep writing, especially when the going gets tough (and it will!).

It may sound a little cheesy, but it’s actually quite useful to articulate why you are called to write this thing. It tells you how important it is to you – or not. It tells you who you want to impact. It tells you what you need to get out of it for it to be worth it to you. It becomes a mission statement, and indeed, a mission.

And we’ll be building on your why as we prep for our projects. So don’t skip over this assignment. 

Things to do this week:

• If you haven’t yet, set yourself a (fun, challenging) goal.

• If you haven’t yet, tell someone to make it real and to be held accountable.

• Set aside specific time.

• Assemble your resources.

• Write your why.