And so it begins!
In which: Maggie begins the YLWP journey and laughs a whole bunch about water puns.
It’s here! It’s finally happening! It’s day two of the Year-Long Writing Project!
We had orientation last week and our first session for the online cohort last night. I’m deliriously excited. The class is already blowing my mind in terms of utility and tools I can start using to plan out this adventure.
It’s interesting too because a few of the things we’re doing are things I’ve considered in the past but never put into words: Things like scene catalogues and manuscript playlists. I’d thought of a few songs or albums I knew I’d end up listening to while writing, but I had a lot of fun this morning making a playlist that was half folk music, half water puns.
It’s too early for me to talk about my project in specifics, but here are a couple of broad strokes: It takes place on an island, and water is very important.
Vague, huh?
I already know I have to adjust a lot of my planning for this, particularly my daily/weekly schedule. The format of the class involves writing 3,000 - 4,000 words per week, which is totally doable, but I’m also trying to figure out when to fit in rest days. Now that I’m working Saturdays (and Saturdays are so tied up with family stuff, anyway), I won’t have two consecutive days off anymore.
That’s not the world’s biggest issue, I just know myself and I know my brain and I want to make sure I’m taking time for rest and recuperation. Writing requires a huge amount of mental energy, so having ways to recharge that mental battery will be critical in completing the year without burning out.
So, let’s make some adjustments to the schedule:
I’m on the fence about keeping Mondays as my heavy work day for clients. It would be nice to just get my client stuff outta the way early in the week so I don’t have to worry about it, but I also want to start the week out strong with writing. At the same time, client work will DRASTICALLY drop down once I finish this final project push for my big client, so I can get away with only a couple hours of “work” on Mondays if I stay organized.
My Artist’s Way group also fell apart, which is completely my fault. My Plague™ lasted SO much longer than any plague has a right to last, and I fell further and further behind on participation so I dropped out. Hopefully they continue without me and make it to week twelve. With starting YLWP I also just simply don’t have enough time to do it.
I want to keep Tuesdays as my heavy writing day since I have the day off from my part-time job and that’s the night I have class, anyway. I’ll sleep in on Tuesdays, then write my lil heart out, then be rested and ready to rock in time for class. Yippee!
If I don’t do client work on Mondays, I think I’ll do it on Wednesdays. Wednesdays are really busy at my new job anyway, so I’ll be in the client-y mindset. I don’t anticipate needing to hold client meetings anymore, except for the occasional one, but Wednesdays can still be the day for that if needed.
Thursdays I think I’ll change a bit: In my original plan they were just listed as heavy writing days, but since I’m trying to take Fridays off now I think I’ll move my outreach, grant research, and Learn Something New quotas to Thursdays. I do have work at the school on Thursday nights, so Thursdays will be lighter days where I can take naps and stuff if I’m worried I’m burning out.
Fridays! These will be my new days off, since Saturdays are so jam-packed and the school is closed. If I have gumption, they’ll be light writing days, but I’m going to work really hard to keep my expectations low on Fridays so that Fridays are actually a day of rest. I’m gonna need it.
Saturdays I work at the school in the mornings, then I have family commitments until early evening. So they’re basically workdays (but fun ones!). If there’s time, I’ll do some scribbling, but like Fridays I’ll try to make Saturday evenings time for rest and video games. I am working SO hard to combat burnout EARLY.
Sundays will be another day off. I will do absolutely nothing. Maybe housework, maybe sleeping, maybe hanging out with other humans. Who knows? These days are mine to do as I please.
So here’s what the new schedule will look like based on these ground rules:
Monday
Client work
Very light writing day: 30-60 min
Part-time job from ~4:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday
Heavy writing day!
Class from 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Wednesday
Light writing day — focus on editing
Update this blog!
Client meetings, if necessary
Light client work, if necessary
Part-time job from ~4:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Thursday
Medium writing day
Outreach: Querying, placements, submissions, applications
Look into grants, fellowships, and residencies to apply for
Learn Something New: 30-60 min
Part-time job from ~4:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Friday
Day off! I will sleep! Like! Hell!
Very light writing day, if I so choose, but Fridays are a day of No Expectations
Saturday
Part-time job from ~10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Family commitments from ~1:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Sunday
Day off! Sundays are my sea slug day
I got a lovely 1,642 words written today and also took some time for administrative planning. I made a really gorgeous spreadsheet with auto-functions to track my daily word counts and page counts, as well as weekly totals and a running total at the top.
The fancy-schmancy binder I ordered should get here at some point today. It would be nice if it showed up before I have to leave for work because I want to set that up too and have it all organized and stuff. I’m nothing if not a huge dork about organization.
All in all, I’m just so excited that this is finally here! It’s amazing to be starting fresh, and feel so dedicated and excited about all this — plus, with loving my new job, I feel like I just might be, I dunno, HAPPY sometimes.
Who knew, right?!
Til next time,
Mags