Impetus

This morning I wrote some words to a friend and, in so doing, opened a surprise box of emotions, ideas and hopes within myself. Suddenly I am where I need to be. I have discovered a delicious new personal preoccupation, and with it come new ideas about how to write. I can hardly wait for tomorrow morning. This is precisely why I started the daily habit: so I would be focused and ready when the time came.

For now I'm going to be mysterious and stop talking about it. Let me hold onto the magic.

Meanwhile I finished 100 words a day for January. I chose to spend the month writing about my trouble with money. It makes me uncomfortable, but so what? It's out there to read, if you wish. It actually helped, I think.

I considered dropping the 100 Words project and increasing the daily word quota for the novel to 300. It would simplify things. But why stop doing something that's working? The 100 Words functions as a daily journal, and I look forward to addressing a new topic in February.

But I'm not finished with the first challenge yet. Now that I survived the first month, here is the rest of the plan:

1. Beginning this week, Thursday evenings will be devoted to review and revision of what I've written in the mornings. I will try to assemble one chapter per week. This is also the evening when I usually meet my writing partner, so it's a good opportunity to check in with her.
2. Once every four to six weeks I will plan some kind of weekend retreat, beginning this weekend, again focused on the novel. The first task is to reread the first draft written in 2004.

By the way, I've decided the second of my 6 changes for the year, beginning in March, will be to establish and maintain a budget. I've also booked a session with a credit counselor on March 15, which will give me a couple weeks to do the preparatory homework. Actually it was originally supposed to be this Wednesday, but that would have been pointless and distracting, so I phoned this morning to reschedule.