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I read a post yesterday on Laura Stanfill’s blog interviewing Emma Burcart and her writing space, and beyond the beautiful walls and well organized space, what struck me the most was that she wakes up every day at 4 am and writes for two hours before starting her day job.
Now that is dedication!
It motivated me so much that this morning I set my alarm clock to 5 a.m., pulled myself out of bed and wrote (and researched) for two hours before my children woke up for the day. I have to admit that doing this set a great tone for the day. Instead of the girls waking me up, and being groggy and disoriented, I was awake, already mentally charged, and happy to jump right into the morning with them.
I also wrote some pretty great scenes. The middle of the book is finally coming together in a way that I think is really going to work.
Because today worked out so well, and because I want to take writing seriously, I have dedicated myself for the entire month of February to get up every morning at 5 a.m. to write. If I want to be sersious about the writing craft, I have to put the time in, and writing during naps and at night in bed just has not been cutting it for me.
I had hoped to get up to 80,000 words by the end of this month, and while my scrivener document says I over 80,000, I cheated and kept a chapter of ‘deleted scenes’ just so I wouldn’t lose my overall written word count. I know, not fair.
My manuscript (without the deleted scenes) is really only at just shy of 73,000 words, which translates to a 237 word document pages and 208 paperback book pages.
Now, if I can get up every morning at 5 a.m. to write, I should have this manuscript finished by the end of the month.
Finger’s crossed!
When do you get in your writing time? Whenever you can? Get up early? Stay up late? Write on a notepad that you carry with you all day? What works for you?
Andrew Girle said:
Up early, to get half an hour to 45 minutes writing done before I commute to work, and I take a netbook with me so that while I’m waiting for the kids after school I can get 15 to 20 minutes of stuff written. It is quite disjointed but then, I have to keep my day job!
Heidi Craig said:
I hear ya! Those day jobs are pretty important. And disjointed writing is what I’m used to as well, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what more can happen with a longer stretch of time devoted to writing. And hopefully I can keep it up! 🙂
Julie Jarnagin said:
I get up at 5am when I’m writing my first draft, but I’ve found it difficult for me to edit that early. I guess that side of my brain isn’t turned on at that time 🙂
Heidi Craig said:
Thats funny Julie – but you’re right, my brain does different things in the morning than it can do in the afternoon/evening. Right now, it can’t do much of anything after a long and exhausting day! 🙂