Another hour of writing completed. I did about 45 minutes yesterday.

One hour of writing completed today.

I completed one hour of writing tonight.

I wrote last night. Tonight I am topping off the writing at 50 minutes because I have to do the dishes. Yes, dishes. And because I am tired and desperately need to go to bed on time today. Also I don't know what to write about other than I am really grumpy from work and very sleepy. There is no inspiration here.

I didn't do too bad on my writing project while I was on vacation. Actually, I believe I met my goal last week. I stayed up late to write Monday. I wrote on the plane Tuesday for an hour, for an hour at my sister's on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were problematic though I was able to write *something* on both of those days. Saturday was a travel day and I wrote for an hour at the hotel. Sunday I wrote for an hour on the plane. I don't think I wrote anything very good. I wrote letters and in my journal. But I didn't break the rhythm of it.

One hour of writing completed today. Actually spent most of the hour reading and thinking of things to write about. But that is permitted on the contract.

30 minutes of writing time Friday + 30 minutes Saturday add up to one hour. Half hours weren't covered in the writing contract. I fear I am in violation. I need to plan my time better. Sleep, replying to e-mail and going out to see friends have won over writing the past few days.

I finished my hour of writing. Here is what I wrote.

And I did write yesterday but I forgot to write that I did, d'oh.

I completed my second hour of writing.

Day 1 of writing

I completed one hour of writing!

Writing contract

I saw this writing contract in O magazine last month and thought THAT is what I need to do to get serious about writing. Here is the contract with a few modifications:

A. Contractor is required to do the following:
Write one (1) hour per day five (5) days per week for one month.
Write a blog post by 9 p.m. confirming that the daily milestone has been achieved.

B. During the hour of daily writing the contractor may:

Write fiction.
Write in his/her journal.
Write on a blog.
Do reading related to the subject of the writing.
Sit there and think.

C. During the hour of daily writing the contractor may not:

Check email.
Surf the web unless directly related to the task.
Watch TV.
Answer the phone.
Do any work related to his/her day job.
Write a list of things to do.
Do anything on the current list of things to do.
Get out of the chair.
Do anything besides items 1, 2 and 3 in section B above. NO EXCEPTIONS.

D. Other Items

Contractor may select two (2) days grace period, AKA vacation, during which time he/she will not have to complete the hour of daily writing. When sending the daily email to the Mentor on these days, Contractor must write “Vacation (1)” meaning that the contractor has selected this day as one of his/her two (2) optional vacation days.

At the end of the Contract Period, Contractor will post on the blog a report self-evaluating the Contractor’s performance during the Contract Period. This grade will be based primarily on attendance, but other factors may weigh in the Contractor’s progress.

Contractor is encouraged to submit written items for publication, but is not required to do so. Administrative tasks such as preparing cover letters, addressing envelopes, researching literary magazines, tracking manuscripts, etc. are not to be included as part of the hour of daily writing.


I'm going to start this tomorrow and see how it goes.