It takes 21 days to build a habit, well that is the theory we are testing in a 21 day writing challenge!
The challenge is to write 1000 words a day for 21 days and in the first 7 days I reached 5400 of my 7000 word target. So how did we go this week?
Writing Challenge, Week 2 Results…
Day 8…
Today was tough!! We had a long day out and about doing “stuff” and came back late, the thought of having to sit and write at the end of it was not appealing one bit! I had the TV on in the background and struggled for hours as I slowly plugged my way through. Result: 600 words
Day 9…
This has probably been the low point of the challenge. I did not want to write. NOT. AT. ALL! Everything got in the way. Everything else was more interesting. The writing was hard, hard, slow and hard. Maybe I should make some tea, are you hungry? So am I! Should we watch a movie? Sure! Whats on Facebook? Result: 800 words
Day 10…
I was out for the whole day and didn’t start until late in the evening – my lazy self gives up a little then my competitive, driven self kicks in and once I am going I usually start to enjoy it very quickly… tonight my husband was buzzing about some video editing he was doing.
It was already 1am and I just had to finish, so I asked very politely to shut up and let me concentrate or I would have been there all night looking at pretty pictures!! This challenge is becoming a chore! Result: 1000 words
Day 11…
Today remembered to listen to Songza (US only) and it really helped me settle into my writing. On the menu was film soundtracks which are very good for writing, somehow along the way I forgot that I did that when I was writing my book and it really really helps!
The other thing I noticed today is that if I start first thing it sets me up in a great frame of mind for the rest of the day, why? Because I have already achieved something! Others who are taking this challenge have mentioned this too. If I have to wait all day to start, I feel the weight of it hanging over me and I start to resent it!!
Even as I write this I realise a happy serenity as I have probably just hit the 1000 words mark. Already at this point my websites are starting to fill up with more blogs and I have contributed another 4000 words to an eBook and 1000 words to my next book. That is a really good feeling!
What I didn’t factor in is that there is much more to writing blogs than just writing, the formatting and adding images takes some time too. At this point I have just been fitting that stuff in where I can 🙂 Result: 1400 words
Day 12…
Fail. Result: 100 words
Day 13…
Today I pumped it out early! Not much to say except… WINNER! Result: 1000 words
Day 14…
In the swing again! I am looking back at the results from this week and I did better than I thought I had done. I do have mixed feelings about this challenge though… I have been loving the results, but not loving the burden hanging over me each day. Write or fail, write or fail. Result: 1000 words
Despite ending this week on a high note, it has been very hard. I have had this challenge hanging over my head each day, and it wasn’t until I changed my perspective in the last few days did the load ease up.
It’s amazing how something like this can be made easy or difficult by attitude alone, the challenge now is to keep this new attitude through the rest of the challenge… and hopefully the rest of my life!
Only one more week… wish me luck 🙂