There are changes afoot as the calendar spins us round, past the equinox. The days are getting longer, the demands – particularly the social ones – on our time are getting louder.
Now is therefore a brilliant moment to assess our writing life. How is the reality of that life matching up against our ambitions?
More to writing than ‘just writing’
Many of you will have heard me talk about there being more to writing than just the writing itself.
What that looks like is different for everyone. But it dawned on me this weekend that there are lots of additional elements of work I like to do related to my writing that often slip down and then off the priority list.
This morning, I decided to name them, to get clear on what makes, for me, the fullest picture of my ideal writing life. And then to assess how I was performing against each item.
Ambitions vs Reality
The table above gives you an insight into my ambitions vs my reality.
What I wanted to know is what I want and need to do daily, weekly, and monthly to build and develop my craft as a fiction and non-fiction writer and to get my stories and articles more widely published.
I wrote a list of tasks, I wrote why I wanted to do them, I wrote how long I should spend doing them and how often I should do them.
Data, data, data
What I discovered was pretty fascinating. I’m hitting off all the daily goals – Yay! Go me. I’m touching some of the weekly goals, to some extent. Good work, keep it up. The monthly goals languish tantalisingly untouched. Oh. Interesting.
But that’s okay. It’s all data. And once we have the data, then, then my friends we can do something about it.
How does your writing life measure up against your writing ambitions? Pop it into the comments or email me here to let me know…
What about your writing?
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