SocNoc, Blogging Fail and New Routines

June was an utterly insane month, as we moved house and juggled some of our biggest jobs ever, and as a result I didn't do very well in SocNoc at all. I wasn't really expecting to win, but I only managed 12,336 words, which was less than satisfying. Still, I'm up to 25K in the new manuscript and really enjoying the story, so I won't complain too much.

Blogging, of course, dropped off my to do list entirely, for which I can only apologise. Actually, I think double apologies are in order, since I should have posted a couple of weeks ago when we finally managed to stop in our new house for more than two days at a time. The problem with that was that I wanted to post about my new writing room, and in particular put some photos up, but the truth is I haven't got round to taking a single picture of the house yet. (I did, however, manage to write an article about Using Writing Spaces and Rituals to Your Advantage, if you're at all interested.)

Another thing that was rather ignored during the madness of June (and most of July, obviously) was my How To Think Sideways lessons. I nearly have all the lessons now, but I'm only half way through what I have (I'm on lesson 11 of 22). When I've had the chance to work on it, it's continuing to be very useful indeed, but lately that's not been very often.

As a result of the last couple of months, I've changed my routine a bit. I missed so many writing sessions that I got quite grouchy about it, so I've lowered my sights a little. I'm setting myself a weekly word goal of 4000 words and giving myself weekends off. That works out at 800 words a day, which is usually quite manageable, and if I hit my word goal earlier in the week, I can have an extra day free. (I'm also considering an Amazon reward system, but I'm not sure that's entirely wise.) It's an odd way to do it, but it seems to be working - it's not that I don't want to be writing on weekends, it's just that we're still so busy at the moment that I need to let myself off the hook a bit.

I'm really only working on the novel in the mornings now, although I'm trying to make a point of doing something writing-related in the evenings - whether that be blogging, writing an article, or working on an HTTS lesson. Assuming that I manage to stick to that, I hope it won't be quite so long before my next post.