J.R. McGinnity's Official Site
Epic Fantasy. Secret Missions. High Stakes.
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Writing Blog
  • Book List
    • The Talented
    • The Kingdom of the Light
    • The Bodyguard >
      • The Bodyguard: Part One
      • The Bodyguard: Part Seventeen
      • The Bodyguard Comment Section
  • VLOG
  • Editing Services
    • Beta Reading
    • Content Editing
    • Copy Editing
    • Testimonials
  • NaNoWriMo 2018

Welcome to my blog

As a writer, my first area of interest is obviously my books, but for my blog I will try to address different writing issues or provide my own tips when it comes to writing or self-publishing.

My blog also includes shout-outs to and recommendations for other blogs or websites, book reviews or recommendation, and a few posts sparked by nothing but an area of interest at the moment or occasionally a complaint or five. 

-J.R. McGinnity
P.s. This blog contains affiliate links, usually to Amazon.

Home

Summer Goal--25 hours/week

6/18/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
I am a teacher, which means I have summers off. Typically, my summers off include sleeping in, watching TV, reading books, and the occasional hour or two spent doing something productive like gardening.


I reluctantly cook and clean, often eating cereal rather than putting on "real" clothes and going out just to buy groceries.


It's a great life, but it doesn't exactly further my goals.


One of my goals is to be a writer, but since my usual summer mode only involves touching a pen to paper maybe once a week (sometimes I don't even use my computer for days!) I usually don't get much writing done, despite having so much free time.


So this summer I have set myself a goal. I am going to write (or edit or blog) 25 hours/week. I even use the stopwatch function on my phone so that I don't get into the habit of estimating or rounding up. And 25 hours a week is definitely doable. After all, now that I'm not working 40 hours/week (plus grading at night) I have the time. It shouldn't even be that hard, in theory. I don't have to write new words every day. I have three WIP that I can be editing as well as one project that is still in the first draft stage, so it's not like I don't have material to work with. And editing doesn't take too much creativity, so I can't claim "writer's block" to get out of doing my work.


But man, do I want to. I'm going the Monday-Sunday route (because I think of weeks that way, and also because I did no writing last Sunday and this is my first week), so I still have four more days to go. The problem is, I still have 17 hours of writing to fit into those four days, and I already feel like I am going crazy.


Just today I wrote some new material for From the Sky, I did some editing on The Talented as well as the sequel to that (which is as yet unnamed). And now I am blogging. And I honestly feel like I am going to crawl out of my skin.


And I don't know why. I really don't.


Is it because I am forcing myself to do this, making it a hard-and-fast goal as opposed to "I should try this?" Is it because I really want to be watching Teen Wolf right now and see this as an evil roadblock in the way of mindless entertainment?


Am I just going crazy?


If you made the transition from occasional writer to part- or full-time writer who actually has a weekly quota, please let me know how you did it. I don't know if I can spend another four hours total working on my WIPs, let alone four hours a day.


Help!

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Author

    My name is J.R. McGinnity, I am a former English teacher with a passion for writing fantasy novels with strong female leads.

    My time is spent immersed in books (reading or writing), hiking when the Midwest weather allows, and watching seasons of old TV shows.

    Follow her on Twitter @JRMcGinnity

    Archives

    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    Categories

    All
    Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
    Blogs On Writing
    Book Recommendations
    Characters
    Editing
    Genre
    Kickstarter
    Miscellaneous
    NaNoWriMo
    Self Publishing
    Sensory Saturdays
    Services
    The Talented
    Top Ten Tuesday
    Tuesday Tips

    RSS Feed

Follow me on Twitter @JRMcGinnity
Proudly powered by Weebly