I've set myself a challenge: to finish a (messy) first draft of my memoir by the end of the year. Can I do it? Possibly. Will I regret saying it publicly? Almost definitely.
Your last sentence is something that keeps coming back to me. I want to write other stuff but I NEED to finish this first. I’m not sure it makes sense to everyone, but I’m glad to see I’m not alone in that kind of thinking. You can do this - we’ll be cheerleading from the sidelines *shakes virtual pompom*
It's weird but in the visualisation at the last two LWS goal setting sessions I had such a clear picture of what I wanted to write, and it wasn't memoir! So I figure I need to just get it done so I can move on.
Hi Harriet, thank you, I enjoyed reading your post.
And I salute you. Setting goals is scary especially because sometimes in writing, we don't know how exactly we are going to achieve it. I write fiction but I imagine in life writing, this is even scarier when it's all about unpicking your life and then attempting to pick it all up again in some sort of coherent swathe.
I too have set a goal - to write a first draft of this new novel of mine during NaNoWriMo National Novel Writing Month, the general goal being to write 50,000 words. Eek! But I know that I now need some deadline, some finish line to cross over, in order to get serious, otherwise I will spend weeks and months conjuring up characters, planning and plotting and not actually 'do' the writing,only to discover that this story won't work or the characters are overly contrived or something. I am the queen of over-preparing myself, or is that procrastination? Hmmm.
Having said that, I would also say, about the 'distract' mode, don't fret too much, this is just your mind, your psyche, saying it still has stuff to process for a later date and actually this is a healthy response, to go away and do something else until such time that the thought, memory, story, reaction, slant on your experience, is now baked a bit more, ready to put into your recipe book :)
Keep going. I am here cheering you on from the sidelines :)
Ah, good luck with NaNoWriMo. I think we need to set ourselves these scary goals sometimes and trust ourselves and the process. You're a great writer, have faith, you can do it!
I need to finish my current read so I can re-read Writing Down The Bones! Love to hear more about your schedule for this honey. My poetry mentor has tasked me with 30 mins every other day on my manuscript...xxx
Oh it's such a good book. Schedule wise I'm quite light on client work right now (deliberately) so I'm writing every day, or researching, or note taking. I'm also using output from the Compelling Memoir course as a basis for chapters too. There's a big old patchwork quilt being made out of what I've written so far, and adding it to other new words I'm writing. It kinda makes sense in my head!
I loved reading this. I've never tried it but that makes me kind of want to! I am trying to finish a novel by my next birthday in May. It's not super likely that I will because I have a ten month old who just doesn't sleep but I need to keep working at it. It doesn't have the same emotional weight and difficult territory to navigate as memoir (though there's some) but that drained-brain feeling of mental fatigue and resistance is familiar to me. Shouting encouragement from across the ether!
(Lovely to read about Ilkley on your substack - I'm from the general area and miss it very much.)
Ah thank you soo much, and sending you bucket loads of good luck with your novel. Honestly, I'm in awe you're writing with a 10 month old, my children are older now but I still remember that stage well!
Your last sentence is something that keeps coming back to me. I want to write other stuff but I NEED to finish this first. I’m not sure it makes sense to everyone, but I’m glad to see I’m not alone in that kind of thinking. You can do this - we’ll be cheerleading from the sidelines *shakes virtual pompom*
It's weird but in the visualisation at the last two LWS goal setting sessions I had such a clear picture of what I wanted to write, and it wasn't memoir! So I figure I need to just get it done so I can move on.
That’s so interesting. Get this written so that you can free up that space. Sounds like a good plan x
Hi Harriet, thank you, I enjoyed reading your post.
And I salute you. Setting goals is scary especially because sometimes in writing, we don't know how exactly we are going to achieve it. I write fiction but I imagine in life writing, this is even scarier when it's all about unpicking your life and then attempting to pick it all up again in some sort of coherent swathe.
I too have set a goal - to write a first draft of this new novel of mine during NaNoWriMo National Novel Writing Month, the general goal being to write 50,000 words. Eek! But I know that I now need some deadline, some finish line to cross over, in order to get serious, otherwise I will spend weeks and months conjuring up characters, planning and plotting and not actually 'do' the writing,only to discover that this story won't work or the characters are overly contrived or something. I am the queen of over-preparing myself, or is that procrastination? Hmmm.
Having said that, I would also say, about the 'distract' mode, don't fret too much, this is just your mind, your psyche, saying it still has stuff to process for a later date and actually this is a healthy response, to go away and do something else until such time that the thought, memory, story, reaction, slant on your experience, is now baked a bit more, ready to put into your recipe book :)
Keep going. I am here cheering you on from the sidelines :)
Teresa
Ah, good luck with NaNoWriMo. I think we need to set ourselves these scary goals sometimes and trust ourselves and the process. You're a great writer, have faith, you can do it!
I need to finish my current read so I can re-read Writing Down The Bones! Love to hear more about your schedule for this honey. My poetry mentor has tasked me with 30 mins every other day on my manuscript...xxx
Oh it's such a good book. Schedule wise I'm quite light on client work right now (deliberately) so I'm writing every day, or researching, or note taking. I'm also using output from the Compelling Memoir course as a basis for chapters too. There's a big old patchwork quilt being made out of what I've written so far, and adding it to other new words I'm writing. It kinda makes sense in my head!
I loved reading this. I've never tried it but that makes me kind of want to! I am trying to finish a novel by my next birthday in May. It's not super likely that I will because I have a ten month old who just doesn't sleep but I need to keep working at it. It doesn't have the same emotional weight and difficult territory to navigate as memoir (though there's some) but that drained-brain feeling of mental fatigue and resistance is familiar to me. Shouting encouragement from across the ether!
(Lovely to read about Ilkley on your substack - I'm from the general area and miss it very much.)
Ah thank you soo much, and sending you bucket loads of good luck with your novel. Honestly, I'm in awe you're writing with a 10 month old, my children are older now but I still remember that stage well!
*never tried writing memoir that should say.
and I'll keep the Ilkley stuff coming too!