What Will I Get Done This Year?

Image credit: jpldesigns / 123RF Stock Photo

Happy New Year! It seems that every year I start out with great intentions, and then they fall to the wayside before long. I guess I'm too easily distracted. But I would like to set forth a few things I want to do in 2014, based on what the past year was like. I'm no longer working in the bakery, so that's an extra 24 hours a week to get some things done. So rather than wasting time, I need to work on completing a lot of projects that have been shoved to the back burner a little too often.

Writing:

1. I need to finish the sequel to The Samurai's Garden. It's about half done. I just need to concentrate and get it finished.

2. I should blog more. I think I need to be more disciplined about this. I've had lots of guests here and I've sent posts to other people to advertise my new books, but I need to work on defining this blog a bit more. So I think I'm going to try to blog at least twice a week, and one of them is going to be a post I write myself - hopefully about something creative I've observed or done.

3. I've committed to one project due later this month. I'd better get in gear and finish it!

Crafting/Sewing:

I have sooooo much fabric and craft supplies it seems I could keep busy forever. I need to use some of this stuff up and give away what I'm not going to use. Last year I made a little dent in my supplies by vowing to post a picture of a project each week. I think maybe I ought to re-instate that. Make something and post a picture. Every week. Hopefully each project will be made with supplies I already have on hand.

Reading:

I have a lot of books on my ipad that I could be reading. I can't review books by Astraea Press authors but I can let them know I read and enjoyed them. I signed up for the reading challenge at Goodreads and I want to finish reading at least 50 books this year. That's not quite one book a week. I should be able to do this if I don't waste a bunch of time online playing games and reading articles about people I don't know and really don't care about!

Okay, these are my goals for 2014. My plan is to post my own blog each Thursday, and have guests on other days. Tomorrow is Thursday - I guess I'd better get in gear!

Happy Birthday, Creative Hodgepodge!

Two years ago, on July 3, 2009, I posted my first entry on this blog. I had just turned another year older, and was trying to focus on certain areas of my life. I was enjoying retirement, but felt too many of my days were wasted. I needed accountability, the type groups like Weight Watchers use to get results. By setting goals putting them out in public, hopefully I get more motivated to follow through. So I decided to start with two areas of my life that were most important to me, and get the ball rolling.

So how has this plan worked out? Well, I'd say there's been a moderate amount of success. In the writing side of my life, I've written in this blog every week for one hundred and four weeks! My first novel is almost finished, and a short story is going to be published this month. I'm still super excited about that.

In the arts and crafts side, I've made hundreds of quilt tops for the church Quilt Guild, hundreds (maybe thousands) of fleece hats for Warm Ears ministry (fortunately the materials are provided for both groups), knit and crocheted a couple of afghans, a few baby items, a lot of flower vases and some other miscellaneous projects. There HAS to be less fabric and yarn in this house than there was two years ago! And of course there's scrapbooking. I tend to purchase for myself, my daughters, and occasionally my granddaughters, so I can't say that I've cut down on scrapbooking stuff. In fact, I bought myself a Cricut cutter, so the scrapbooking stuff takes up more room than it did before.

Once in a while a granddaughter or a daughter will come over to help me "organize". We'll work together and get maybe half a room done, and then it's time to eat, or one of us has to leave. Let's just say organization still isn't a strong point around here.

I've had to add another goal to the original two. I've had some health issues, so some of my publicly stated goals have had to do with weight loss, or general health. I've lost - and regained - about twenty pounds. Last week I signed up for a 5K walk, so now I've got to get in training for that. I've been walking, so I need to keep that up.

So, on this second birthday of Creative Hodgepodge, I'm raising a glass (actually, it's a mug of decaf coffee) and toasting myself. Goals are good. Reaching them is even better.

What Would They See?

It's mid-May, and the school year is winding down. This is the time of year for concerts and outdoor sports events. Last week I went to see Scottie's orchestra concert, and next week Gabe's band concert is coming up. Abby has been busy with her soccer and softball games. I love to attend these things. It's a wonderful thrill to see what the kids have been working hard on. I firmly believe it's important that kids get involved in extra-curricular activities in order to become well-rounded.

I was once busy with extra-curricular activities. I was fortunate that my parents supported everything I did and were always there to cheer me on. It makes me wonder: if the kids and grandkids were to come to see me perform something now, what would they see me do? I haven't played any of my instruments lately, so if they were to attend a concert, they would be sadly disappointed. I am not athletic by any stretch of the imagination. I have spent most of my free time sewing and writing. I've completed several quilt tops, but other people finish the quilts, so it would be a show of incomplete projects. I haven't completed any writing projects, so I wouldn't have anything to offer for a book signing, even if I were to go with self-publishing.

I recently read a blog post with the mantra "Just Finish It". I've been polishing and polishing, but maybe I need to just put some things out here and seeing how they are accepted. I need to have something to show the world what I've been up to. And I don't want my output to be a whole bunch of unfinished projects.

So this week, I am going to finish something, and put it out for people to see. I’m not sure yet exactly WHAT that something will be, but I’ll let you know next week!

Achievable Goals

Mini-goals seem to work for me. I have this little chart, just like the job charts my kids used to have. I have four daily tasks:

1. Write 750 words

2. Clean or organize for at least a half hour

3. Do something creative (other than writing) for at least an hour

4. Walk a mile

Since last Friday, I've managed to do at least three of the four every day. If I know I'm going to have trouble doing all four, I try to manage it so I don't short-change the same goal two days in a row.

So what have I got to show for it? Well:

1. I have a dozen new scenes in a new short story

2. My kitchen floor is cleaner, I have a clean bathroom, and I found a newspaper article I wanted to put in my scrapbook.

3. My granny square afghan is getting bigger.

4. My knees hurt like heck. But I guess I've eaten fewer snacks - it hurts too much to get up and grab them.

I guess I'm going to print out another copy of the sticker chart. Maybe I'll use stickers on it this week instead of check marks. And I guess I'll treat myself to a Starbucks if I manage to earn more than 20 stickers - because I found a Starbucks gift card with $5 still on it!

Revamping Goals

So, this is week two of April. I don't seem to be able to get things done. Still. I guess it's back to the drawing board with mini-goals and making them achievable. I need to be specific and have goals in different areas of my life. I also tend to do better with daily goals rather than weekly or monthly. For example, if my goal is to blog weekly, I’ll wait until the last minute on the seventh day to write! So it's gotta be daily.

Here goes.

Writing: Each day, I need to write at least 750 words. This can include blogging, or creative writing, as well as journaling.

Creativity: Each day, I need to spend at least one hour doing something creative. This can include sewing, scrapbooking, knitting, stitching, or crafting.

Organizing: Each day, I need to spend at least half an hour doing something to make the house look better. This can include clearing off a surface, putting away clothing or other stuff that's not where it should be, or actual cleaning.

Health: Every day, I need to walk at least a mile (this is definitely going to go up as the weather gets better!). It can be outdoor walking, treadmill walking at the gym, or with my wii Fit.

I have made a chart on which I will track my progress each day. And hopefully by this time next week I won't feel like such a failure!

Another Start

Another month begins. Another attempt at organizing my life. Another long list of things I need to do.

Will this be the month I succeed? I suppose I will be able to cross a few things off my list. The college semester ends this month, so in order to turn in my grades on time I will definitely get all these papers graded. And I suppose a few other things will be completed.

But it would be so nice to be able to snap my fingers and get instant results. A clean room, a completed manuscript, a slimmer, fitter body. I sure could use a genie or a Mary Poppins.

Unfortunately, that's not in the cards. So I need to get myself going. It's April 1, but I'm no fool. The only way this stuff will get done is to do it myself. So I will write those words, walk those miles, file those papers. A little at a time. Some of it will get done, and some of it won't.

At least I'll have more done than I do now.

And now my blogging is done, for another week.

Success!!!

I just finished writing a paragraph. It’s not a particularly well-written paragraph, but it’s got all the essentials – a subject, a verb, and all the punctuation I’m always hounding my students about.

What makes this particular paragraph special is that it brought my total word count in my new story to 32,000 words. I started the story on Saturday, February 12, so for the past 28 days I have written at least 1143 words EACH DAY. My room is a mess, and if it weren’t for my hubby I would have no clean clothes to wear, and I would have eaten cereal every day except for those times when I ate out. I was on a mission to meet this goal, and I have succeeded.

Now the work begins.

These 32,000 words take me a little over a third of the way through the story I want to tell. And so I must keep going. But I don’t have the ambition to challenge myself to continue writing at this pace. I’m not sure it would be healthy if I did. I can live with a certain level of mess, but even I have my limits. So I guess I’ll do some spring cleaning, and hopefully get back to this story and finish it.

As soon as I finish the two other stories I’ve got brewing.

NaNo Update

I am now 15,000 words into my new story. Not bad for a week and a half of work. Some days it's really difficult to come up with my 1143 words for the day, and other days I have to remind myself that there are other things needing my attention. The challenge is good for me. I have a goal to meet each day, and I don't get up from the table (or recliner) until I have met it.

I love to write in the morning. Somehow the day seems to go better if I have my "words" done before I start in with the things I need to do and places I need to go. But sometimes (like the three days a week when I have to be at work at 5 am) it's not feasible. There have been days when I was up and motivated and was "in the flow" and I was able to write 750 words before leaving for work at 4:45, but those days are few and far between.

I managed to get a day ahead and have tried to stay that way, just in case I get bogged down with "must dos". I'm getting to a point in my classes (the ones I teach) when papers are going to be turned in, and I need to keep up on grading them. And the grandkids have had programs to attend. And my mom needs to be transported to various places. Life goes on, and it doesn't revolve around my laptop, despite my tendency to have it surgically attached to my lap.

So right now, things are progressing as they should. I have a story to tell, and it's being told. I have a goal to meet, and I'm managing to meet it.

All is well.

Time to Get to Work!

Enough is enough.

I have been slogging away at this manuscript for over five years, and it is still not finished. So I now have a new writing goal. I will finish this novel by Christmas. I will write the words “the end” and move on to another project. I’ve got several choices, thanks to my writing group. And I will finish a second project by March 31. I will finish a third project by June 30.

In July I will go to New York City to attend the National Convention of the Romance Writers of America, where I will suck in my pride and pitch these novels to agents and editors. And hopefully I will get somewhere. I need to turn this “hobby” into a bigger, more vital part of my life. If I want to be a writer, I have to write. And I have to write things that people will read.

I will keep my daily musings in my 750 Words a Day rantings, and I will post my innermost thoughts about the creative process here on my blog, but I need to get my books done so I can find out if my stories are any good. Maybe I’ll be disappointed and won’t get anywhere, but I have to try.

And if nothing else, I’ll get a chance to visit the Big Apple.

750 Words

I have a tendency to take on more than I'm able to accomplish. That's one of the reasons for the piles of “stuff” in several rooms. I look at a piece of fabric and think of something wonderful that I can make with it - and then it's set aside because I have more pressing commitments. My gym membership hasn't been used in three months, and I have a wii fit collecting dust and a stack of exercise videos. And I have a cupboard full of non-sugar sweeteners, weight loss powders, and vitamins.

But one thing I took on this summer has actually worked out. I love to write, but have had problems making myself sit down to write because I have all this other stuff to do. My writers' group asks for monthly goals and rewards us for meeting them. So I would often set a ridiculously low goal, like "100 words a day" so I could be sure and sit down every day and write something.

A writing friend shared a website with me that has really helped jump-start my creativity, at least as far as writing. It's called "750 Words" and it's changed my mind-set on putting words down. Every day, a blank page is presented to me and I am encouraged to write - anything. It's a personal, online journal. No one else can read what I write, so I can put drivel - and sometimes it has been utter nonsense.

Some days the blank page is filled with things I copy and paste into writing projects. I've written my blog posts here, as well as my "to do" lists, and lots of other things, like thank you notes to the relatives, and plans for the coming week. In Japan I used it to journal each day, so I wouldn't forget names of people and places. Just writing events and names down here helped me when I wrote facebook captions for my pictures, and later I’ll have them to write in my scrapbook. I love it!

Buster, the creator of 750 Words, has several incentives to keep you going. There are "badges" to reward you for various goals- a certain number of days, speedy writing, patronage, etc. This is all available absolutely free of charge!

It's amazing how integrated this exercise is in my life. My husband even knows when to not speak to me. If I just tell him "I'm writing my 750" he knows he needs to keep away until I'm done! Often I'll stay up and write at midnight for the coming day. But other times I'll get up early and write. It's just become a necessary part of each day, like taking vitamins!

Happy Birthday to Creative Hodgepodge

This weekend I am celebrating three birthdays.

Sunday is America's two hundred and thirty-fourth birthday. I'm going to celebrate with my extended family tomorrow, and on Sunday I'll play in a concert band at a community fireworks celebration. I'm very thankful to be an American.

Another birthday to celebrate is my own. Fifty-five years ago my parents began putting up with me. Thankfully they decided to keep me!

The third birthday is for this blog. My first post was uploaded on July 3, 2009. So "Creative Hodgepodge" is one year old tomorrow. I have faithfully recorded my thoughts on a regular basis for one year. I don't think I ever wrote this regularly in a diary or journal.

I started the blog as a means of being accountable. I have several writing projects and I wasn't making much progress on them. Somewhere I read that writing anything, including a blog, would stimulate my writing creativity. So I started writing. And writing.

I also have all these craft supplies and ideas for projects. I needed to get going on them. So I put in writing, on a blog where anyone could read it, that I in addition to writing, I would spend an hour a day working on something creative (non-writing). That worked well until school started that fall. After that my sewing and crafting was much more sporadic. Later on I added a health goal (i.e, losing weight) since my doctor told me I needed to. I lost 20 pounds, got a clean bill of health from the doctor, and pretty much gave up on that. I love to eat!

Has the blog been successful in helping me reach my goals? I've added a whole lot of words to my samurai story, but I haven't finished it - not totally. I wrote 40K on a new story (the sequel to the first one). I've sent in several submissions to Chicken Soup. None have been accepted. I've written a lot about my family. I've written a lot about myself. One of my friends says my writing has gotten more "direct" - that's a good thing. As for the other goals, I've finished a lot of craft, sewing, knitting, and crocheting projects. I'm trying to use up what I've got - I even resisted buying a lot of scrapbooking paper last week, even though it was forty percent off!

So all in all, I guess the blog has paid off. I’ve still got stories to write, and several rooms full of crafting supplies. So I guess I’d better wrap up this post and get to work!

Hitting a Plateau

I’m excited to have lost twenty pounds. My clothes are fitting better and I’m feeling better about myself. The blood test I took yesterday will determine if the effort will pay off as far as my liver function, whatever that is. But I want to lose more. I want to look good this summer. I want to wear clothing styles I haven’t been able to wear in about twenty years or more. But the dang scale seems to be stuck on the same number. Apparently I’m at what the diet books refer to as “a plateau”.

It seems my writing is at a plateau as well. I’ve been working on this novel for almost six years. It started as a writing challenge, and I started out just putting things down, not researching, not plotting, just writing. Now I have about 53,000 words. I’ve been stuck at 50,000 for about a year now. I’ve added subplots, and defined the conflicts the characters have within themselves and between each other. But the word count doesn’t seem to rise. Apparently I’m deleting as much as I’m adding.

I did some research to find out how to break my weight loss plateau. Most of the web articles I read mentioned these tips:

1. Zig-zag calorie intake: Eat more one day, less the next, but maintain the same weekly caloric intake as before.

2. Strength training: strengthen bone tissue, increase lean muscle mass, and boost metabolic rate.

3. Change exercise routine.

4. Change eating habits: don’t stick to the same foods all the time.

5. Eat less, more often: eat smaller meals and snack in between them.

I guess I can try some of these. We’ll see. In the meantime, I wondered if I could adjust these techniques and apply then toward getting me off the writer’s plateau. Here’s what I came up with:

1. Zig-zag writing output. Write more one day, less the next, but maintain the same weekly word count.

2. Strength training: Go to seminars, workshops, and conferences to learn all I can to “beef up” my writing.

3. Change writing routine. Since I don’t really have a routine other than write when I can, I guess this means I need to establish a writing routine!

4. Change writing habits: don’t stick to the same process each time. Instead of writing historical fiction, maybe I should try a contemporary story, or a short story, or maybe a mystery.

5. Write less, more often: I could try to get up early and write a little in the morning, a little in the afternoon while eating lunch, and a little more at night. Maybe if I don't always write at night I won’t be so tired and draw a blank.

I’m not sure these would work, but since I’m at a stalemate, I guess it can’t hurt!

GOALS PROGRESS

Writing: I’m getting great feedback from my critique group, so I’ve been editing and revising this week. But one of the editing suggestions led to filling out a single action into an entire scene, so that’s good!

Dieting: Stuck at the same weight for over a week. I’m about ready to consume a fudge brownie!

Creativity: More quilt tops sewn, more dish cloths crocheted, and several scrapbook pages completed. Worked on some centerpieces for mom’s club using cone thread spools. I’ll try to remember to post a picture next time!

Rejection

I got another one of those “thanks, but no thanks” e-mails the other day. The publisher had previously told me my story was “in the final round” and that “the vast majority of those” with that distinction would end up in their latest anthology. The final insult is that the publisher actually put out a call for additional stories after asking me for my payment info and other details. It’s a legitimate company, so I’m not worried about that, but if they had to ask for more stories and then rejected mine, perhaps they were looking for something to replace mine with!

But I guess I can’t dwell on that. I’ve got more stories to tell. I’m disappointed not to have this particular story told, because it’s one that’s near and dear to my heart. I loved my dad and miss him very much, so I wanted to tell everyone about him. My writers’ group has been very supportive, urging me on. So I went back to the publisher’s website and found two other anthologies I can write stories for. One of them might even be a better fit for the story they rejected.

So I’m back at my keyboard, putting my thoughts down. Just like I’m doing now. And maybe this time one of my stories will be one that is deemed worthy of sharing with everyone!

Goals update:

Writing – I’m working with a marvelous critique group. We meet once a month to read each others’ chapters and discuss them, looking for ways to hone our craft into something we can offer a publisher/agent. This weekend we’re working on our 6^th chapters!

Creativity – I spent five hours with my sewing group on Tuesday, making hats. Last Saturday I spent the day with another group of friends, working on my family scrapbook. Still trying to get my individual projects started so I can clear out some of the fabric in the house!

Health – started on another diet on Monday. Keeping a food journal. Exercising three times a week. So far, so good - another two pounds gone, hopefully for good!

Agghhh!

For the first time in over seven months, I nearly missed a week of blogging! I guess I could blame it on several things – my writing challenge, my classes, and taking care of mom’s emergencies. But I guess that’s really not necessary. Nothing dire is going to happen because I’m almost 24 hours late on my self-imposed deadline for blogging every Friday. The punishment is merely my disappointment in myself.

So here I am hastily attempting to put together a coherent post in the 30 minutes left of this week. Why? I guess there are a couple of reasons. The first is my disappointment in not meeting my weight loss goals. I have lost two pounds in six weeks. Yuk. I’m eating right (most of the time), and exercising (three days a week). What’s the deal? My daughter gave me a stern “talking to” tonight. She’s disappointed in me too. I hate that even more than being disappointed in myself.

I am meeting my writing goals. If I get this online before midnight, I’m meeting my goal of blogging every week. Also, I’m still plugging away at my story, despite the interruptions in my life. But for some reason, the health goal is eluding me. I guess I need to apply the same strategies toward this as I am toward writing. What’s different? I think it’s probably my accountability. On my computer, I keep track of how many words I need to have completed each day, and I don’t go to bed until that many words are in my manuscript. Some of it’s not very well-written, but the words and ideas are there. I’ve also been sharing my word count totals to my facebook and writers’ group friends. They know exactly how I’m doing.

So I guess what I need to do is what every diet (God, I hate that word!) tells me to do: record my intake. Look at evidence of the food I eat. And then cut it down to a reasonable amount.

Tomorrow starts another week. Let the accountability begin.

Keeping the Blaze

I think the tradition of making resolutions is a good one. It encourages us to make good changes in our lives. All too often they last a few weeks, a few days, or even a few hours. But once in a while a challenge becomes a way of life. How do we keep the fire burning?

I have two resolutions – to write more, and weigh less. For me, keeping those resolutions is a matter of scheduling. I have to make time in my day for these things. Sometimes it’s hard, and there’s also the ADHD thing. I have a really hard time doing anything for a long period of time. It would be so nice if I could just check into the Biggest Loser Ranch, and bring my laptop so I could write between workouts! But that’s not going to happen.

So, I need more incentive. My writers’ group offered the challenge or writing 40,000 words in 35 days. Three lucky writers who meet that goal will get gift certificates to Barnes and Noble. I love to read. Plus I love a challenge. Originally I thought I would be doing well to make half that number, but to my amazement I’ve been keeping up – I’ve already got more than 24,000 words now! At this rate, I’ll have a new novel finished by summer. So the fire is definitely stoked there. My house is more of a mess than usual, and a lot of other stuff is getting neglected, but I’M WRITING!!

The losing weight resolution is a bit sticky. My meals are definitely healthier. I joined the gym and have been going three days a week. But there’s one monkey wrench in this whole thing: I LOVE CHOCOLATE!!!! And I have difficulty throwing away perfectly good food. I did give a bunch of it to my daughter, but a few pieces remain. Still, I’ve lost a few pounds. Not nearly enough to suit my 110-pound mother, or my doctor, but it’s a start. Maybe I need Jillian or Bob breathing down my back.

As I mentioned, a lot of things are sliding around here because I’m busy writing 1143 words or more each day. And working, and studying, and eating and sometimes sleeping. The only sewing I managed to do this week was to shorten three pairs of pants. I guess that counts for something – my husband and my daughter aren’t tripping over their hems!

A New Semester

This week GVSU started its Winter 2010 semester. I’m teaching the same course as last semester, so I’m hoping things will go as smoothly as it did in the fall. I really enjoy working with future teachers. Most are eager to learn, and cooperate with my requests with a minimum of fuss.

I’m also attending another semester of Japanese language. I’m getting so excited about my summer trip to visit my relatives, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to communicate (or at least understand!) a lot more than I did the last time I was there. Eventually I’d love to go and visit the places I’m writing about – far to the north, where my dad’s mother came from.

It seems the more I learn about the land of my heritage, the more curious I am. I relished my US and European history courses long ago, but I didn’t spend much time learning about Japan. Now I spend a lot of time looking up things just to verify that the events in my story could have happened, but lots of the information I need isn’t available in English. That makes me more and more determined to learn.

I feel so fortunate to be so close to a campus like GVSU, and to have a connection with it. I never expected to be a “college professor”, and I never thought I’d be a student at my age. But this is where my life’s path has led me, and I’m enjoying every step of the journey.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

On the writing front – with a goal of 40K words in 35 days, 1143 words per day, I am actually one day ahead! The story is coming along nicely, even taking me on unexpected journeys. My very patient hubby tries very hard not to talk to me when I’m typing – mostly because he knows he’s unlikely to get a coherent response, or an irritated glare if he does.

On the creative front – I’ve made several quilt tops to take to my sewing group next week! Most of them were made before I started the writing challenge.

On the health front – I’ve only lost two pounds so far. A massive cold sidelined me last week, and this week my knees are killing me. But I made it to my consultation. I’m doing well eating low-fat, and there are countless recipes available in magazines, online, and in the super-duper book my children gave me for Christmas. I guess my downfall is chocolate. There’s lots of leftover Christmas candy here. Gotta get rid of it! Hershey Kiss, anyone?

In Search of the Thirty Hour Day

This has been an extremely busy week. Between my two jobs and keeping up with my homework, I haven’t really had time to write or work on crafts. Part of me is frustrated with this – after all, one of the perks of retiring is having time to do what you want, or so I thought. But another part of me is happy about this. Each day when I get up I have places to go, people to see, and things to do. I have a reason (or several reasons) to get up.

Granted, not everything I schedule into my day qualifies as a “must do.” I don’t HAVE to go to my sewing group. I don’t HAVE to drive 18 miles to have lunch with former co-workers. I don't HAVE to stop at the library to pick up the latest comedy/murder mystery. And I don’t HAVE to keep playing Spider Solitaire until I manage to hit a score of 1500! But my days are getting too full to fit in all the things I did this summer.

It seems I’m going to have to adjust my daily goals. When I started this blog, I promised myself I would write 200 words each day, and spend at least one hour a day on a non-writing creative project. Now that the school year has begun, other responsibilities are vying for my time. I could probably continue if I disowned my family, hired a maid (my dear husband cooks and does laundry, but there’s a limit to what I can ask him to take on), and cut back to two or three hours of sleep per night.

So – where do I cut back? If I reduce my writing goals, I’ll never get this infernal book finished. I think I’ll save that as a last resort. I’d really, really like to be able to write “THE END” sometime this year on at least one of my writing projects.

I’ve also got a lot of unfinished craft projects, but I can’t work on them every night. There just aren’t enough hours in a day. So as a compromise, I think I’ll simply broaden my definition of “creative project.” For example, if I spend two hours preparing a PowerPoint Presentation for my students, I’m creating something that wasn’t there before. If I spend time selecting music to illustrate my lesson and burn a CD with those selection, I’m also creating something. Of course I’ll have to tackle the usual projects when the “have to” stuff is caught up. But this way I’m not really reducing my goals, just redefining them.

Phew! I feel better. I’ve written my 200+ words. Now I can move on to something else.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

In light of my adjusted goals, I am considering the preparation of food as a creative project – especially since I don't cook all that often. Last week I went to a Japanese potluck/movie night. My contribution was a pan full of onigiri (riceballs) sprinkled with a Japanese seasoning called furikake. It’s not a particularly challenging dish, but it was food, and the kids at school wolfed it down in a hurry!

The Right to Write

This week I’m attending a Writer’s Retreat at GVSU. I’m privileged to be here among the learned elite of the university. The retreat is intended for professors who are completing doctoral dissertations, but unused seats are allotted to us lesser faculty/staff members who are working on other writing projects. I applied for an empty seat and got it. So here I am, sitting in front of my laptop, in a large quiet room full of other people doing the same. We’ll be here from 8 am to 5 pm every day, Monday through Friday.

I have a plan. I know what I need to research to make my stories authentic. I have specific goals for each day so I don’t spend time each morning wondering what to work on. I have my own laptop and a comfortable cushion for my chair. I have my favorite “working tunes” downloaded on itunes, and my headphones. The university is going to feed me lunch each day and keep an endless supply of munchies, water, coffee and tea available each day. So my physical needs are covered.

The only thing I need to supply is my creativity. And that’s the scary part. I’ve been working on this historical novel for five years. The contemporary novel has been brewing for almost a year. What if I never finish them? What if I finish them and they’re awful?

I guess I need to console myself with the idea that the only person I really need to please is me. Even if nobody else likes my writing, I’ll have completed a life goal of finishing a book. And that’s something to be happy about.

Peeking Out From Under the Mountain of Chaos

Yesterday I turned another year older. The jury is out as to whether I'm any wiser, but my list of "things to do before I die" is not any shorter. I guess I'm luckier than most: I've found my life partner, we have beautiful, intelligent children, and we're not in danger of losing our home. Most of the things I want to finish are located in three places - my basement, my bedroom, and my computer. I'm a creativity junkie, and I spend my time going from project to project. Around my sewing machine and serger are piles of fabric. In my basement are file drawers full of patterns, cabinets of paints and brushes, and hidden in my computer files are several stories in various stages of completion. And then there are the instruments (oboe, flute, clarinet, saxophone, trombone, and piano) and the mountains of music for each.

I know that I should complete one project before going on to another. I know that my messy house is the result of tackling too many projects at once. I know I spend way too much time on the internet, reading books, watching television, etc. instead of completing my projects. But it's like rich, chocolatey dessert - I KNOW I shouldn't eat them, but that doesn't mean I listen to myself.

So - why the blog? I've been observing other blogs. Some are informational, some are inspirational and motivating, and others are just cathartic. Maybe this is a bit of the last, but I think maybe this is about accountability. A writing friend recently blogged about the similarity between dieting and writing. And one of the things I learned from my thirty years in Weight Watchers is that writing down what you consume helps you stay on track. Also, letting other people know what you are doing means that when you stray, it's not a secret.

I don't think I'll ever have the type of home worthy of a spread in a women's magazine (unless it's an advertisement for an episode of "Mission: Organization") but I'd like to decrease the size of the piles of unfinished projects. So - here are two mini-goals for this week:

1. Write a minimum of 200 words each day (I think this post satisfies that for today)

2. Work at least one hour on another, non-writing project

Hopefully by next Friday, I'll have some progress to report! And maybe some of you will have some words of advice. How do you organize your "creative urges"?