When I lived in Spain a few years ago, I spent 10 days doing part of the Camino de Santiago. I started in Astorga and waked about 35 km/day until I reached Santiago. A couple of months later, my friend M., who blogs over at An Epic Battle in High Heels and her husband J. visited me in Madrid on their way to undertake the same journey for their honeymoon. Recently M. announced that she doing a writing pilgrimage challenge. Because she is trying to develop consistent daily writing habits, she has set a goal of writing 400 words every day for the next week. She noted that completing the pilgrimage happened one stage and one day at a time and that writing consistently would get her to her goal in a similar way. This struck me forcefully, as I have been trying to cultivate more routine writing habits this year. I have noted in the past that writing and running have a lot of parallels, and in order to get to the finish line, you have to log a lot of miles and time on the road and/or on the page. So I am joining M. in her challenge.Due to a
I have been diligent about producing a minimum of 3 pages a week since the start of the year, but for the next week I'm going to up my game. I am going to write, revise, or modernize daily and produce at least two pages a day. Since I have written 12 pages since Monday, I'm confident that I can sustain this much needed writing streak for a week. While I won't be rewarding myself with a pilgrimage badge, like M., I will be rewarding myself with a day of rest, novel-reading, and lounging with Netflix once the finish line is behind me.
Anyone want to join in for the next week of writing? For those of you who write, do you have a daily routine?
I'm actually starting to worry a bit about my writing in that, after finishing the diss, I haven't really been writing for months now. I feel like I need to start something new just to keep the skill set functioning.
ReplyDeleteCourtney ~ http://sartorialsidelines.com
I'm imagining that we have left Leon, have reached Astorga, and have some horrible blisters on my feet that I ignore when I stop at a cafe. It's nice to know you'll be joining me each night for our pilgrim dinner.
ReplyDeleteHa that's a great idea. I need to that with my sketch book and do several drawings each day for a whole week. Mmm...
ReplyDeleteI've been really productive since 2012 kicked off... probably because I'm taking two writing workshops and as soon as I finish one piece, I have to start working on the next one. The challenge will be continuing these daily habits once the semester ends.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of daily word counts or hitting a certain page number. I like to go back and forth between my goals depending on the project, but have found that those two are always useful.
I'm anxiously awaiting feedback from my boss about the grant, so I'm not writing at the moment (other than blogging, of course!). But the sentiments in your post resonate with me...gotta stick with it even when it gets hard! Good luck, my dear.
ReplyDeleteI am in! I have been meaning to catch up on my journal from my Round the World trip and so writing 400 words a day is a great idea!
ReplyDeleteJust like running, trekking AND LIFE, it is so much better to do things a little bit at a time, rather than doing it all at once! I keep trying to tell my boyfriend that regarding the dishes and picking up after himself!
I'm part of a writing group on my campus and we are using the Boice "How to Write A Lot" and "Write a Journal Article in 12 Weeks". They basically say the same thing, write every day even if its in 15-30 minutes chunks. I have done this about 3 days/week this semester and have noticed a jump in my productivity. I can see why 5 days/week is better, though. If anything, it keeps where you left off fresh in your mind (so you spend a lot less time catching up) and you feel like you're making progress on projects that seemed endless before. I have several upcoming deadlines myself, I will do better to reach 5 days/week this next week as I read about your experience. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI keep saying I'm going to set up a writing time, but something else would have to give. I'm teaching 3 courses, one a new 4th-year which requires prep. Then there's my Half Marathon training, my blogging, my family, and my knitting. At the moment, at least, I seem to need these extra-curric. activities (well, perhaps I shouldn't call family extra-curric), so I'm going to be patient with myself until the end of term. Then I'm going to have to bear down and turn out a conference paper in a few weeks, before turning to finish the paper I abandoned, almost complete, last fall. So maybe we can say that for now I'm planning a pilgrimage. . . and watching your steps on the path ahead of me. . .
ReplyDeleteI think you know how I feel about this, but I'm totally in agreement about the importance of developing a daily writing habit. I was doing really well with that for a while. These days I'm too worried about getting a few major projects off my desk before baby comes. But I still feel guilty for not meeting that daily goal.
ReplyDeleteI'm feeling inspired to join you guys! I have a series of major writing deadlines on top of my day-to-day class responsibilities this semester, and having a daily writing/research goal will help me prioritize that work. How are you planning to account for research days in the process?
ReplyDeleteMy research is pretty cyclical and goes in ebbs and flows. For example, over the next few months I do have some research to do, but it will mostly be reading secondary sources, revisiting some older notes, and revising and note-taking in order to prepare for writing projects. This is a lower level of research. In the summer I plan to spend several weeks intensively doing research in the archives and that means that I won't be focused on writing much other than taking notes and adding things to the chapter outlines that I have/will continue creating for my book manuscript. During periods of intensive research, I write less, but historical research is a little different and for much of what I do depends on access to archives.
DeleteOh my gosh, you just gave me a flashback w/ the tetris on the T85 comment! I totally loved that game and would play it when I got bored in class in HS!
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your writing challenge! My boss and I are trying to get on a more consistent publishing schedule... like monthly. But our time gets use (wasted in my opinion) by dumb requests from others who think our time should be spent otherwise. I am clearly bitter about this. ;)
My writing goals have been postponed until retirement, but both you and M. are taking a craftsman-like approach to writing that will pay off. I try to impress this on my creative writers, who think they can only write when they are "inspired." I'm not going to wish you luck; it is a choice!
ReplyDeleteI'm behind on my blog reading/commenting, but I loved this post. I like the idea of turning writing into a daily habit (just like exercise or brushing teeth).
ReplyDeletePS - TI-85! Oh, the memories!!! (geeky memories, to be sure, but fond memories nonetheless!)