Groundhog Day

I’ve been living a version of Groundhog Day for the last month. No I am not popping my head out of my burrow, looking for my shadow, and declaring six more weeks of winter like Punxsutawney Phil.  I have been following the same pattern over and over and over.

I wake up and feed kittens. I then go to my day job. I spend nine hours there, using my breaks to get a little writing or knitting done. In the afternoon, I leave work, maybe run a few errands, then head home. I make dinner, do chores, play with kittens, and spend some time with my mother. Around 8:00 PM, I begin writing in earnest for the next three hours. The weekends follow a similar pattern, either with me doing things I can’t during the week day, or heading out to spend time with friends. The last week or so had felt tedious and repetitive. But I have been sitting down consistently and writing. What has this gotten me?

Almost 35,000 words. The bulk of those are from rewrites on my novel, but there are other projects going on in there. I’m well above my target average of 500 words a day. I have a feeling this is going to change as I enter in this section of the novel, which requires a lot of editing and rewrites.

The important thing for me is that I’m back in the habit of writing every day. I feel like I am making progress once again. Also, I am striving to hit my minimum. A few days I have been over the goal by only a few words and entering that figure just before midnight. If I keep on pace, the first novel will be finished sometime in April as well as a short stories completed. So for now, I am climbing out of my burrow, looking for my manuscripts, and declaring six weeks more (at least) of writing.