It's very easy when working on the BIG WRITING PROJECTS to feel you aren't achieving anything on a daily, weekly or, even, monthly basis. I often get to the end of a writing day and think - what have I done today? It’s a depressing feeling, especially as I feel I haven’t stopped all day.
Now I know for a fact this is sometimes because I spend time on tasks that aren’t important. I’m busy doing non-relevant things that don’t further me towards my goals. With time and practice this is happening less often but it can still happen. Then I get disheartened and I might then lose hours scrolling through social media. More time lost.
But the main reason is because I’ve come to the end of the day without having finished a project. You cannot write a book in a day. It’s not like writing a blog post! But with a blog post you get a nice tick next to the project on your list. It’s a feeling of accomplishment. With your novel, however, you don’t.
So for 2020 I've decided to create a bullet journal with a tracker and a writing log to record all the writing I do.
This is one of my spreads in my set up. It's not neat, it's going to get messy, but it'll be fun and rewarding to see the squares get coloured in and the words grow.
I’ve included the quote:
“There is only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time.”
as a reminder that writing a novel or a book of non-fiction takes time and small steps on a regular basis. I’m telling myself not to get disheartened. The grid next to it, and others throughout the journal, will get filled in and show me that actual progress is being made.
I’m really excited to start using this come January. It’ll be motivating, I think, to watch my word count and the other squares to start to grow.
Click on the video for more details about the bullet journal where I talk you through each page:
