You can’t ask for better walking weather than we are having right now – it almost makes you forget about winter.
Almost.
In other news, I decided to start a new challenge for myself – a daily writing challenge! I know some of you know of and/or have done National Novel Writing Month (known as Nano in Sarah World), myself included. It really works well for me to have that structure in place to write on a daily basis (if you don’t know what it is, here’s a link to the Internet’s most reliable source, Wikipedia, that gives you the basics). I’m doing Camp NaNo right now, which is a similar event but during the summer. If you’re wondering why I’m absent in the comments a lot right now, blame Camp NaNo.
Last night, I got to thinking while I worked on getting 1,800 words written. Why couldn’t I do something similar with my writing every day, even when NaNo isn’t going on? After all, it’s how I got started on the Dog Walk Challenge over two years ago. Doing NaNo is difficult – it’s a lot of writing, and more than I have time for every day over the course of an entire year, even if I can do it for a month. But I do have time to do an easier challenge – say, 500 words each day. That’s only a couple paragraphs. I can write that much while waiting at an appointment or while we drive somewhere (well, excepting the whole motion sickness thing). Even on the busiest of days, I could smash out 500 words before going to bed at night.
Then, I thought, that’s not a lot of words each day. Will I want to give up after a couple weeks, thinking I’m not getting anywhere? Then I did the math (read: broke out my phone’s calculator) and realized that 500 words a day over the course of a year will add up to 182,500 words total. That’s three entire novels, just doing a couple paragraphs a day.
That sealed the deal.
I’m officially doing 500 words of writing a day.
I’ve set a few parameters. I’m going to do 30 days to start, then revisit whether 500 words is appropriate. If not, I’ll adjust. After all, the point is to actually do the work – not say I am going to and never do it. The writing has to be fiction – I can’t count my writing for the 101 Travel Bits series (available at Amazon!), my work writing, or my writing here (“Sure, I wrote 500 words today. Actually, I wrote 1,000 – after all, that’s how much a picture is worth, right?”). I’ll keep everyone up-to-date as part of these Dog Walk Challenge posts, with just a brief tally like I do below for the walks.
I’m really looking forward to this – I’ve always written (I am finishing up editing and incorporating feedback on a novel, to be available soon (hopefully!)), but I have never had the best of habits around it. I think this will force me to develop those habits. And who knows – perhaps sooner than it seems possible, I’ll be on Day 800 of the Daily Writing Challenge (that would be 400,000 words, for those who are counting).
So here goes – starting today, I start the Daily Writing Challenge – update to come next week!
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See this? This is what nearly all of our walks have looked like this week. It has been amazing.
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The Walks:
Day 801/71 (July 10 – Home) – Total Mileage: 3.4 Miles (2 Walks)
Day 802/72 (July 11 – Home) – Total Mileage: 3.4 Miles (2 Walks)
Day 803/73 (July 12 – Home) – Total Mileage: 3.4 Miles (2 Walks)
Day 804/74 (July 13 – Home) – Total Mileage: 2.1 Miles (1 Walk)
Day 805/75 (July 14 – Home) – Total Mileage: 8.2 Miles (3 Walks)
Day 806/76 (July 15 – Home) – Total Mileage: 2.1 Miles (1 Walk)
Day 807/77 (July 16 – Home) – Total Mileage: 3.4 Miles (2 Walks)
The Stats:
Weekly Mileage Total: 26.0 Miles (Average: 3.7 Miles/Day)
Year 3 Mileage Total: 215.6 Miles (Average: 2.8 Miles/Day)
Good luck at Camp NaNo. Keep on truckin’
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One more thing to keep you interested and busy, especially when you can express yourself, Sarah! Enjoy!
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When the weather is cool and dry, with endless blue skies, that is the best of summer to me. No surprise, hazy, hot and humid is not what I consider good summer weather. 😉
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Good luck with the writing project! Exciting!
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Good luck with your writing challenge
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I did two memoirs, a novel, and a novella in 4 years. I just set aside x number of hours a day to write . I still had my job and chores and family but even doing a few paragraphs a day soon became a whole book. I hate the whole editing and formatting part of the writing process, but the writing is still fun.
If you need a beta reader for your novel I’d be happy to. I actually do the beta reads for a best selling thriller author, but just for the ballistic and forensic bits. I’ve known him for 30 years and he said it’s great “to have a friend who can tell you how to figure how tall someone is if their head is cut off!”
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Thank you for the beta reading offer! I may take you up on that one for the book I did during Camp. The one book I have mostly ready is officially past that stage (I think – famous last words). The Camp book is still a ways away from being put in front of anyone else. It is definitely in rough first draft form right now!
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Good luck! I’m sure Choppy and Schooner will help.
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Wow, Sarah, I am really impressed. So hard to believe it has been well over 2 years since dog walk challenge, but when I do the math it really has been. You have done so tremendously to get out each and every day.
And I am so amazed with your writing challenge. I never really thought about it, if it is 500 words a day, much this all adds up over the course of a year. Hope you and Choppy and Schooner are have a great summer! 🙂
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Thanks, Carl! As you can see, I’m way behind on the blogging right now. The words have already added up a lot, even with less than a month in. Like the dog walking, the writing challenge is already proving well worth my time.
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