Very quick round-up this week. Last week’s goals:

1. Do at least two ten-minute sessions on three days. DONE – actually I did three ten-minute sessions on four days at least.

2. Work on the YA novel and the DLN for at least four ten-minute sessions each. DONE

3. Post wrap-up on the 8×8 challenge. DONE

This week’s goals:

1. I’m stripping this back to basics: do seven ten-minute sessions. Why? Because I feel like my stress levels are reaching breaking point, my workload is as high as (or higher than) ever and I’m honestly not sure how I’m going to get through the upcoming week. If I can manage to find ten minutes a day for writing, it’ll be a job well done.

If you’re reading this and want to comment and let me know your own goals, please do so!

Day 5 of the 8×8 writing challenge involved finding extra pockets of time in which to add to the writing I got done in the main session. I have to admit I didn’t manage this at all, but then I also didn’t stop at all that day, until I got home from work at 9.30 pm at night. I didn’t even have a lunch break beyond the couple of minutes it took me to actually eat my food, so I’m not going to be too hard on myself about this. I think it’s a good idea for a challenge, and may try it again on a non-teaching day.

Day 6 required me to post on social meejah about my progress with the challenge, thus increasing my accountability. I did so, as you will probably see if you click through the twitter link, above. 🙂

Day 7 required me to figure out how long it would take me to finish my current novel draft if I did one ten-minute session per day, or perhaps two or even more. I did this (I love writing maths!), and was a little dampened by the results – with one session a day I can expect to be finished some time around mid-March 2016. I mean, really, that’s only fair on ten minutes a day! But still, I have this arbitrary Christmas 2015 date in my head…Anyway, I also figured out that two ten-minute sessions a day would get me to 65000 words in late January, which feels less faraway and may be something to aim at. If not, well, a finished draft in March is better than a draft that’s never finished.

Day 8 required me to evaluate what I’d accomplished with my writing goals. See my reflections below.

Thoughts and reflections

Baseline: A couple of weeks prior to the 8×8 challenge, I was struggling to fit in any writing at all. When I came across the challenge, I’d just started writing ten minutes a day, out of desperation more than anything else, so I thought the challenge would fit in well with that schedule.

Results: I’ve been consistently writing more and on more days thanks to the 8×8 challenge. Most days I do at least two sessions (on two different books).

Word counts: It’s not all about quantity, but I was slightly sad that my word counts didn’t get any better through the week – I was still struggling somewhere between 120 and 180 words. This is because it does take me a little time to get into writing, so the past couple of days, I’ve experimented with doing two sessions back to back (ie 20 minutes instead of 10). The results are much better – by the second session my fingers are flying over the keyboard, and my overall word counts are well over 400 (for the two sessions combined). And 20 minutes a day still doesn’t feel like too much of a time commitment; I’m not feeling the resistance going into it that I might with a longer period of time.

Verdict: The 8×8 challenge was a great way to experiment with getting writing done in different ways and mediums – and to focus on getting words down. I feel I’m laying down habits now which I’ll hopefully be able to expand when I have more time and headspace. I can already see the seeds of this in the way I’m now doing two or three sessions per writing day, despite being up to the eyes in paid work commitments. I’m really pleased I took on the challenge!

The 8×8 challenge is run by Monica Leonelle; for more information see the twitter hashtag or check out Monica’s blog here.

My goals for last week:

1. Work on the YA novel and the DLN for at least three ten-minute sessions each (so write on six days at least). DONE

2. On two of those days, do two ten-minute sessions. DONE. Yesterday (inspired partly by the 8×8 challenge, below) I did three ten-minute sessions. I did two on most days.

3. In the spirit of squeezing more writing into my day, I signed up to Monica Leonelle’s 8×8 challenge (#8minutewritinghabit on twitter). DONE. I’ll do a wrap-up report on the challenge this weekend.

Goals for next week:

1. Do at least two ten-minute sessions on three days.

2. Work on the YA novel and the DLN for at least four ten-minute sessions each.

3. Post wrap-up on the 8×8 challenge.

If you’re reading this and want to comment and let me know your own goals, please do so!

I’ve made it through day 4 of Monica Leonelle’s 8×8 challenge (#8minutewritinghabit on twitter), so thought I’d post a quick update.

Day 2: Make some notes on how it felt to write for 8 minutes and how you could improve the process (e.g. dictating instead of  typing).

Put one of those strategies into operation as you do another 8-minute writing session. I chose to make some notes on what I was writing before actually diving in. I definitely find that having a clear idea of what I’m about to write helps me write faster.

Day 3: 8×8 scavenger hunt!

Find some ways to squeeze in some writing in places like:

the sofa

queuing at the supermarket

in a park (it was cold, so I went to a cafe instead)

Result: I felt a bit silly writing while queuing for the till in Sainsburys, but I did it! I also managed some writing on my sofa and in a cafe while waiting for my sandwich to arrive.

The main takeaway, though, was how to make my writing mobile: I stuck the last few lines of my current scene in Evernote, and while I was in the supermarket queue, all I had to do was pull it up on my phone and start typing. (This app is also helping me type faster on my phone.)

Day 4: Wake up 15 minutes earlier and do your 8-minute writing habit from bed.

Result: I did it. I can’t say I got much writing done, but I did feel accomplished having already written by the time I dragged myself out of bed. And it inspired me to put in a “proper” ten-minute session once I was up and dressed.

I’ll report on days 5, 6 and 7 later this week!