Life is Frustrating… #amwriting #amediting

I have not been the most conscientious writer for the last few years.  I truly decided to start on this journey back in 2013, and I’ve made precious little progress in that time.  I’ve finished writing 4 books in that time, and I’m working on 2 more (though The Alien’s Pet is currently on the back burner until I finish Terra’s Fate).  I started editing Forever After, then got myself turned around my ass, gave up on that book, learned my lesson and tried again, only to have nearly as much trouble with Mila’s Shift.  I’ve learned another lesson from that, and I’m still learning, I’m sure.

I’ve been inspired, frustrated, gave up, came back to it.  But I’ve never done anything consistently. I love blogging, but look how often I’ve blogged lately.  Never.  I keep letting stress and life get in the way, and I think that frustrates me more than anything else.

I’ve decided on a change, though.  Of course, I WANT to be better.  I WANT to publish.  And I think I may have finally come up with a way to make a daily habit.  There’ve been a lot of things getting in my way in doing that.  Some examples being:

• I can’t write every day.  I will burn out.
• Timed reminders don’t work because I don’t have any specific time of day I can dedicate to my write (e.g. different on weekends, can’t guarantee when I’ll get home from work)
• Other parts of my life are not structured enough to work around them.

I’ve tried plenty of things and failed.

I tried writing every day during NaNoWriMo and also when writing Seize.  Burned out in 2 weeks.  Failed.

I tried setting myself a daily reminder to write.  The time didn’t always work and if I’d already settled down to read by the time it went off, I ignored it.  Failed.

I tried leaving a sticky note on the mirror next to where I fed the dog.  Again, tended to ignore it.  Failed.

I’m only about 6-7 days into my current strategy, but I think it will work.  It’s very simple, and remarkably flexible.  It doesn’t matter what time I get home from work or if I go to the store first.  It doesn’t matter if I exercise and take a shower first.  I can finagle my schedule almost as much as I want and it won’t matter.  It’s really quite simple.  When I eat at home, I sit down at my desk to eat (I don’t keep the dining table out unless I have company).  Once I finish eating, I put up my dishes, and sit down in front of the computer to work on my writing.  And each time I do, I have a habit tracking app (Momentum) that I use to let me know how many days I’ve been doing it to encourage me to keep the streak going.

So far, I’ve organized myself in Asana (wonderful app, by the way and should totally write a post about it), written 2 days in Terra’s Fate and edited 38% of draft 3 of Mila’s Shift in 4 days.  I’ve worked on coming up with strategies for the business side of things, worked on learning the best ways for me (an introvert) to approach marketing, and added MyBookTable plugin to my website (no books yet, so haven’t put it live, but it’s ready and waiting.

I’m making progress for the first time in a couple of years on editing Mila’s Shift, and I can’t tell you how gratifying that feels.  I had gotten to the point where I was starting to seriously believe that I hated editing.  I don’t, but it was the only thing I could fathom anymore as to why I kept putting it off, kept not doing it.

I’m trying to believe that this can work, that I will succeed at this new strategy for me.  I’m a little nervous because of my track record, but hopeful.  Very, very hopeful.