Conquering the Blank Slate

by Margie Senechal

The blank page is a scary place for a writer. I'm thinking that while I stare at this blog page and I can't think of anything to write. But, now I have like 30 words and the page no longer blank. Maybe my thoughts are tied to my fingers. Hmmm

I am tired of living of a merely existing life. One in which I work, return home exhausted, and really don't do much of anything else. My two days off are generally spent in catching up on all I didn't do on those other five days, seeing a movie with Jordan, scheduled appointments...

I want to learn to live a life of intent. I want to choose my course, not just drift on the course I'm on.

To that end, last week I wrote out a five-year goal list. Some of the items on that list were:
--lose 100 pounds
--be working 30 hours a week
--published 2-3 books
--go to Rachel Herron's Italian writing getaway

There are other things on the list, but I'd have to leave the computer and find them, and since I only have 30 minutes before I have to go to work...

After I wrote my 5 year goal list, I decided what I wanted to tackle in the present to work towards those goals. Like losing 2 pounds a month.

And as for writing, Rachel Herron's newsletter dropped in my email the day after I wrote the list and she was talking about the success of her first 90-day novel writing course. And breaking down your writing goals into achievable daily goals.

SO, for my suitcases manuscript, I have 25K words. I figure it should be about a 60-65K when it's finished. I want to finish it by the end of July. I did the math and I should be writing 900 words a day.

Although, since I made that decision, I've only written a few hundred in three or four days. So, I need to really commit to that goal or my total words per day will increase if I want to be finished by August.

I'm listening to the rain hit my tree out my desk window and really wishing I didn't have to go to work this morning and could stay at the computer and write forever...

Soon, my muse, soon.