My Sidekick Is a Spreadsheet: Writing Week #2

Week 2 of my self-imposed writing challenge is now done and I’m 12,005 words “richer” than I was on June 30. ICYMI, my focus for July is primarily to get in the practice of writing every day.

As with any goal, knowing your strengths and weaknesses can make a big difference in the journey to achieving that goal. In my efforts to write every day in July, I’ve called upon the two main heroes of my life: To Do Lists and spreadsheets.

I am a big fan of lists. I am the dreaded list-maker your mama warned you about. Lists, and other linear paths of organization like spreadsheets, are how I keep sane.

Other list-makers out there (all the list-makers in the house say “Heeeey!”) know that there is nothing quite like crossing an item of your To Do List.

But, if you read last week’s post, you know that procrastination is one of my great weaknesses. What happens when a master list maker is also a master procrastinator? Inner turmoil. Ha.

The result is that as much as I get the “planner's orgasm” from crossing items off my To Do List, I will do almost anything to procrastinate on my To Do List.

That being said, if I put Writing on my To Do List I am 62% more likely to at least attempt my writing for the day so that I can cross it off the list for that little completion afterglow. I’ve discovered that reaching my goal word count for the day typically isn't very hard. I often reach my goal before I realize it. Like many things, the hard part is getting started.

Namor knows the power of the spreadsheet.

After I get started, my good friend the Spreadsheet keeps me rolling. I like to see that word count climbing. One cell calculates how far I’ve come and another cell shows how close I am to achieving my goal. It’s like magic.

The only thing that keeps me from procrastiworking on my writing by something like “I'm going to draw stick figure art to accompany this scene!” is that I can't count it towards my word goal for the day. Otherwise, you can bet your last brownie that I would suddenly want to design special art for each chapter and page heading.

Right now I’m just trying to keep focused on throwing words on the page. They say “write drunk, edit sober” but that's never going to be me. One ounce of wine and I will be ready for nap time. For me, I think the motto will be more “write passionately, edit dispassionately.” Throw my heart into it now and my critical, judgey mind can sift through the garbage later.

Now's the time to shovel some words out of the deep, dark hole of my mind. My word count is growing with each shovel ... and so is an ever-so-tiny bit of confidence. I might be getting in the swing of things. 

The Fine Art of Avoidance: Writing Week #1

Batman knows procrastinating when he sees it.

As part of my goals for 2014, I'm working on the hyper-specific, professional, and detailed goals of:

1a) Write Stuff

1b) Finish Something

I'll wait while you take a moment to deconstruct those complex goals.

As part of working towards these goals, I've challenged myself to write every single day in July. I have a comparatively low word count goal to achieve, since the main point is for me to get in the practice of writing every day.

Writing every day is such a basic, fundamental task for writers. “Writers write,” they say. “Write what you know,” they say. (“Stop telling fart jokes,” they say...) This writer should write about fear because that's what I know.

Fear has kept me from putting words on the page for a very long time. I gave in to fear for far too long.
 - Fear that I wouldn't be able to finish anything (which, strangely enough, didn't help me have courage to finish anything …).

 - Fear that what I write won't be worth reading.

 - Fear of success (it's another flavor of my great nemesis: the unknown).

 - Fear of my own shadow, etc.

When fear wasn't lurking, there was another one of my good friends: laziness. Why try this new, scary thing called Finishing Something when I can sit here and watch Netflix while I eat brownies? Brownies and Netflix. :::sigh:::

Seems legit.

My other great partner in “crime” is procrastination. I am a master procrastinator. In my bag of procrastinating tricks there's something I like to call “procrastiworking.”

Procrastiworking is when you procrastinate under the guise of doing legitimate tasks (cleaning the kitchen, paying the bills, doing other tasks that you're also wanting to avoid, etc.). You feel legit and adult-y while procrastiworking, but you know the only reason you're cleaning out the edges of window frames with an old toothbrush is because you're avoiding something.

I have brought the art of procrastinating to such a magnificent level that my tablet occasionally suggests “procrastirachel” as a word choice. Yes, my tablet downgraded me from a proper noun to shame me in my misbehavior.

I know I'm not alone in facing the old frenemies of fear, laziness, and procrastination. If you have old projects, big projects, scary projects, dream projects, or new projects that you have shelved for whatever reason, let's work on those a little bit at a time in July.

I'm still finding ways to procrastinate and I'm stumbling on little places where the fear is keeping me tame, but I'm moving forward. I'm making progress, writing every day, and Doing The Stuff. My word count for the first 7 days of July: 7069 words. That's not a lot compared to what others have written in the last 7 days, but that's about 7000 more words than I put “on paper” in probably the last 5 years combined. It's my victory – and it's just the beginning. There are 3 more weeks left in July.

But don't ask me how long I procrastinated on writing this post. Let's just say my kitchen is really clean right now.

2011 Books I've Read

I love reading but I haven't had much time to read in the last couple years due to school. (I suppose I should say "reading for fun" since I read plenty for school!) So, one thing that I worked on during 2011 was reading just a little bit on most days.

It felt good even to read "just one chapter" because that was so much more than I'd been able to read in years. (Although, some days I stayed up nearly all night reading a book because I couldn't put it down ... even though I had a test the next day. Don't be like me!)

Just for giggles, I looked back through all of my library “overdue notice” e-mails (haha!) to compile a list of the books I read this year. (Seriously though, if you live in my area and I was holding captive the book you wanted, I am very sorry.) There are probably a few books missing from this list because I forgot about them, but I think it's a good representation of what I've read. It's good to see that "just one chapter" really made a difference.

What are some of the books you read in 2011?

Fiction

1. I Am Number Four – Pittacus Lore
2. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larrson
3. Dead Reckoning – Charlaine Harris
4. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
5. Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
6. Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins
7. Real Murders – Charlaine Harris
8. A Bone to Pick – Charlaine Harris
9. Three Bedrooms, One Corpse – Charlaine Harris
10. The Julius House – Charlaine Harris
11. Dead Over Heels – Charlaine Harris
12. Ouran High School Host Club – Story & art by Bisco Hatori (manga)
13. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert M. Pirsig (Read for a class. I wanted to hang myself.)
14. Specimen Day – Michael Cunningham (Read for a class. Fascinating, unnerving, and depressing at times. The final “story” had Asimovian flavor.)
15. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress – Dai Sijie
16. Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch – Dai Sijie
17. Robot Dreams – Isaac Asimov

Non-Fiction (Stuff for your brain)

1. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” – Rebecca Skloot
2. Day Trips From Raleigh-Durham – James L. Hoffman
3. The House of Hope – Elisabeth Gifford
4. Pagan Christianity? – Frank Viola and George Barna

Non-Fiction (Cookbooks, Health, Self-Help, etc.)

1. The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged – Tosca Reno
2. The Total Money Makeover – Dave Ramsey
3. Cook Yourself Thin – Lifetime Television (just typing that is embarrassing)
4. Making the Cut – Jillian Michaels
5. Master Your Metabolism – Jillian Michaels
6. The Master Your Metabolism Cookbook – Jillian Michaels
7. The Pioneer Woman Cooks – Ree Drummond
8. The Power of Positive Fitness: Maximizing Physical, Mental & Spiritual Health – John M. Rowley

Temporary Insanity

It's been a while since I've posted and I still owe you the conclusion to "Onboard the Eden."

"Where have you been?" you ask.
"I lost my mind temporarily," I respond.

I've been deeply buried in the midst of what I like to call "Mandarin Mayhem." I signed up for 2 Chinese classes summer. They're 2 back-to-back 5 week sessions that each cover 1 semester of material. Can you imagine learning 4 months of Chinese in 5 weeks? Mandarin Mayhem frequently leads to Mandarin Meltdowns. It's not pretty. I often think I am totally out of my mind for doing this, but it shaves 1 year off my time in language study, so hooray for graduating faster.

Until then, I blame temporary insanity for the lack of blog posts.