So how did I do?
It was surprisingly difficult for me to devote nearly eight hours in a single day to “all things about writing” and not “just” writing.
I’ve done the Nano-thing, and the 3-Day Writing Contest and have spent as much as a week “on retreat” totally dedicated to “just writing.” Mixing it up by adding in the “business of things” as well as the day-dream/plot noodling tasks felt a bit…off.
For me, it feels like I didn’t get much accomplished.
And yet, if you look at my list…
- Write my daily minimum on my current WIP
- Write a duplicate daily minimum on something new
- submit three short stories to three different markets, 2 electronic, 1 snail-mail
- Sign and mail my new contracts with Damnation Books
- Reply to all my writer friends’ email that I’ve ignored for (a while)
- Update some minor things on my Web site
…I think I did pretty well.
Between the first two items, I actually more than tripled my daily required output.
I wound up sending three stories to three electronic markets because the snail-mail market I’d been contemplating had gone digital. So, I spent less time on submissions than I thought I would.
Signing and mailing out the stuff to Damnation Books took a bit longer than I thought it would because I copied and filed the items right away. (A good thing, because this stuff tends to pile up on my desk.)
Sorry, friends! I still owe you some chatty messages. I promise I’ll get back to you soon. And well, dear Web site, the minor things will have to get fixed up catch-as-catch can.
Still, not a bad day’s work…and I’ve got the “official” Write Your @ss Off day (again, Friday) this week.
…and yet…I really wanted to write THOUSANDS of words on Friday. So, I’m a tad disappointed. If I’d noodled-out the plot of my new WIP prior to staring the WY@O, I probably could have whipped out thousands of words on that alone.
The silver lining: by multi-tasking, I was focused. I didn’t play a single game of solitaire all day. I should get a medal for that.
Did anyone else play along, unofficially? How’d you do? Anyone saving it up for this coming weekend and the official Write Your @ss Off? Let me know in the comments below.
Woot! It sounds like it was a terrific day — amazing how fast the time flies by when you clear the decks, isn’t it?
THOUSANDS of words a day is awfully damn tough; you might be able to do it sometimes, but if you manage to pull it off regularly please don’t discourage us slackers by sharing the news. 🙂
For me, WYAO “day” is pretty much my regular Saturday schedule: get to the PC by 7am, and park there (with breaks for “coffee in, coffee out” and other necessities) until 2 or 3pm. I was especially proud yesterday, though, not to have opened the Web browser until nearly the end (to check a factoid). That’s SUCH a time-sucker!
JES!!! Thanks for stopping by!
Friday *was* a good day…probably because I didn’t open the browser and mail programs….I did do a bit of tweeting, but not a lot: just enough to satisfy the craving of being on line without getting sucked into it.
You’re right: THOUSANDS of words a day is awfully tough. But I gotta have a goal, right? 😉 I just remember being able to do more pre-massively-long-daily-commute. And, you? Slacker? You’ll never sell me on that. I’ve seen your awesome Web site.
I’m looking forward to doing it again this Friday. Thanks for starting it all!
Congrats on getting so much done!!! I missed these posts earlier… but I actually did the 8 hours on Saturday. From 1-3, I re-recorded all the poems from my chapbook, and then… on and off from 4PM until 1AM (bathroom breaks in between, but dinner while working) I finished editing one of my WIPs and am gearing up to send it out!! 😀 That said, I still have so much to do, I may join you on the official WY@O… next weekend appears quiet. 🙂
Thanks for the heads up – and go you! I’m ok w/ getting correspondence whenever. Goodness knows you’ve waited months for my responses sometimes. 😉
*Hugs!*
Hi Trish! I’m doing it all over again on Friday for the official WYAO. Hope you can join us this weekend, too. I hope to get my BU stuff recorded and sent.