Writing When Times are Tough

I have trouble writing in the summer. I don’t work at my regular job in the summer, so really I should be able to pound out the words. But the ugly truth is I stay up late and don’t get up early so there isn’t any real quiet time. My oldest daughter, bless her heart, wants to spend time with me, so when the other kids go to bed she wants me to sit and watch movies with her. And when she wasn’t here it was my husband and the ball games that broke my concentration. It’s my own fault. I know that if I want serious writing time I have to get out of bed between four and five in the morning. I just don’t discipline myself well.

On top of that it seems my grandma is dying. She’s ninety-eight, so she’s had a good run – but as I’ve said here before I was really expecting to attend her hundredth birthday party. My Grandma is on my mind a lot these days, and that affects my writing too. But the fact remains; if I want to grow up and be a writer I have to actually write.

So today I joined a challenge posed by the fabulous women over on Jungle Red Writers. In brief the challenge goes like this: Everyday, including weekends I have to write one page, double-spaced (I think) before I do anything else on the computer. No email, no LucyMarch.com, no Jen Crusie, and no Alastair Stephens. In other words, before I get sucked in to my daily social fix, or the promoting (read networking) that all authors have to do these days, I have to write one page. I think that’s two hundred and fifty words. (Unless it’s single-spaced and then it’s five hundred words.) I’ve already written three hundred and fifteen words in this piece.  So it’s not hard to produce a page.

My normal required word count runs between fifteen hundred and five thousand words. But I haven’t been keeping up. I’m using revisions as an excuse, but come on. I need to add content to the current wip and content only comes from writing.

So here’s my plan. In the morning, before I even get out of bed, I will fire up the laptop and write that page. Maybe I will write more than one page, but at a bare minimum one page. (And I’ll look up the official rules, double or single spaced, font size etc.) One page a day. Even in a hectic summer with life happening all around me I can manage that. If I can’t then I’m going to feel pretty pitiful. After all, it’s only a page.

Here is my challenge to you. Try writing a page a day. Even if you’re not a writer. Join the challenge at Jungle Red and write. There are prizes btw, which is probably why I’m doing it! I love prizes. So write a page a day and then come here and tell me about it.

I want to hear from you.