Photo: Haifa, Israel
Dear Self,
No matter where you are, certain conditions are conducive to successfully meeting your quota. They include the following:
- going to bed at a regular time
- waking up early
- carving out space to do your work
- making sure the children go to bed at regular times and take naps, which gives you time to work
- keeping a well-balanced life of fun, exercise, work, family, etc.
- documenting and journaling your progress
- doing something everyday. I’ve been on a five-day roll since going on vacation and it is much easier to meet your writing quota when you are hot. Taking a few days (several days) off makes you go cold. It’s torturous. Stay hot.
As always, you are a work in progress, learning and adapting and constantly calibrating your expectations. It doesn’t always feel comfortable, but you’re getting work done. That’s a good thing. You wish you could get more done, but it is what it is.
In the future, a top priority will be to scout out a coffee shop where you can work. This seems to require a lot more research as you have yet to find a suitable place near where you are staying. It would have been great to have a place to go to work. Oh well…next vacation you will know!
Hoping to finish scene 1 of chapter 1 today or tomorrow and then going back to revise before moving forward. If you don’t like this method, the next step will be to write your beat(s) and revise the next day before writing new ones. You’re experimenting with what feels comfortable and that is okay right now. Calibrate expectations, calibrate, calibrate, calibrate.
Have fun swimming in the Mediterranean this morning.
Signed,
Your Observing Ego
Teresa Shimogawa 