Getting In the Groove

I'm on Day 2 of attempting to enforce a Serious Writing Schedule. In a way, Hurricane Katrina has been good because it deprived me of my lazy fallback job and forced me to think about what I really want. I am 24 years old. I am not saying I think I ought to be published yet, but I ought to at least be trying. I ought to at least be doing something besides saying I want to write that elusive "someday".

Hence, here I am with my coffee, 3,150 words into the science fiction short story I started this summer. I've got the speakers set up and I'm listening to internet radio. I find the station that is most suiting my needs currently is Whisperings: Solo Piano Radio. This is actually like an athlete warming up; it's like practice. I have decided that this year I really am going to do National Novel Writing Month. You start on November 1, and have until the end of the month to get to 50,000 words. The point isn't to produce something publishable, it's really more about forcing yourself to actually work... which is my problem. So like any marathon, in the weeks leading up to it, the athlete needs to practice. Thus, I am paying strict attention to diet (coffee, chai), and keeping strictly on schedule (write starting at 9:00 AM and continue to write all day with hopefully minimal blogging, forum-reading, and Spider Solitaire-playing breaks).

My goal for this week is in fact to decrease my ratio of actual words written to Spider games played. I feel this will lead to an increase in productivity in the weeks to come. It's important to have goals.