Just Be There Blog

establishing a habit

By writing in my blog everyday for the last 14 days, I have started to form a habit. Before, I may have logged onto WDC everyday but I didn't necessarily write anything. My 'habit' was undocumented as far as what the general public of WDC could see. And before that, my habit was to ignore the internet and not log onto any site, which placed me in a small world of actual encounters--very small, since I generally never leave my home except to go to work or grocery shop.

I suppose what I am alluding to is that some habits are easier to form than others. For instance, the habit of Not Doing is way easier to follow than a habit of Just Doing. Also, habits are formed in a repetitive step wise fashion; for the most part. So, since my first time logging onto WDC after a very long time of not logging on I have been forming a new habit. (Note there are prices or costs or consequences (what have you) to the habit of inactivity. My costs were that my account was demoted from a Blue case to Yellow; I lost touch with some members whom I deemed to be worth keeping in touch; and, I lost touch with writing in general.) This new habit is, of course, to write something everyday--preferrably writing something relating to a story or book or poem; but, if all I can do is write in my blog then that counts too. The next step will be to perform timed freewrites on a scheduled basis: for instance, I will start easy, which equates to a better chance of accomplishment. I will commit to free writing for one half hour every weekend--this will produce less than a 1,000 words of unstructured writing one day of three. Now this free writing is not to include my blog entry--so in effect I will free write and while placing the link into my blog I will also commit to writing something bloggish. This will be difficult to do because the temptation will be to free write in my blog and totally skip a step in my habits. I did say that Not Doing was easier than Doing. I need my writing to become additive so trading one for the other is really not accomplishing my goals. Since coming back to WDC, I have ascertained that weekends are really the only time I will have to write anything more than a couple sentences or incomplete thoughts. My work week consists of 10.5 hours + 45 minutes to an hour travel time (depending on weather, traffic, and errands) and by the time I'm wound down enough to really work on writing it is bed time. Therefore, I will maintain my blog, which normally equates to a sentence or two and/or an incomplete thought to the work week, and do my serious writing on the weekend. I am hoping to be able to buckle down at least one half hour in a 72 hour time period to free write. When I become consistant with this I will add time--then I will go for word count. My next step will be to get a minimum of 1,500 words per weekend. That really only equates to about two hours of writing time on a single topic--if I'm having to work to get the words out on paper it takes longer. When my writing flows and the story jumps onto the page I can easily get a completed 3,000 to 4,000 word rough draft/freewrite out in an enjoyable 6 to 8 hour session. I know, because I have done this with my Malyn character--my DnD Russianisk Barbarian woman whom I've become so close to over the years. We still meet and talk, tho not so much anymore. I wish to change this relationship with the characters in my head. I miss them and I need them to talk to me if I am ever going to be a writer again. Besides, they tell the most wonderful stories.

(I wrote in my blog for about an hour and fifteen minutes and wrote out a little over 600 words during that time. So 1000 words in a half hour is a bit of an exaggeration on my part. 480-500 words per half hour/forty-five minutes, I think is possible. )