Monday, April 11, 2011

Mr. Darcy and Making Time to Write

So Mr. Darcy and I made a pact that I would make every effort to write 
for at least an hour a day. 
This is not an easy pact to make as I can barely find an hour to do the thing that must get done.
I started by getting myself organized.
I purchased a new notebook and labeled each section.
I purchased sticky notes that I can use for writing plot points.
I sharpened a bunch of pencils....I do a lot of writing on paper first I have no idea why 
but I seem to work much faster when I write then when I type.
The words flow more easily with pencil to paper.
I also use my iPad a lot when taking notes there are several writing apps that you can download
when I find one that I love I will let you know.



Next I organized my computer a little more with folders.
I have switched from a PC to a Mac so I needed a new word processing software.
I tried Pages which is an Apple Application but I didn't like it.
I kept feeling like I had to stop what I was typing to make adjustments to the software.
I was wasting a heck of a lot of time resetting margins.
Last night I downloaded MS Office for Mac (thanks Sam) and I typed about a thousand words.
It came so much easier for me using Word instead of Pages.


Now that all my prep work is done I am ready to move ahead.
My main goal is to finish (finally) my the Novel that I have been writing 
FOR...EV... ER 
or at least it feels like forever.

The problem has never been not being able to tell the story it has been finding the time between my job, my family, house work and sleeping to get the words from my head to my paper. I did receive a suggestion that I should buy a tape recorder and tell myself the story while I am driving the 45 minutes (each way) to and from work. I might try this suggestion and I will let you know what I think.

So how about you? Have any goals you have set for yourself?







10 comments:

Liz Schulte's Blog said...

I completely understand! It is so hard to find the time between the day job and family stuff to write, but it feels great when you do. I used to write long hand, but I felt the transcribing was taking too much time to I have converted to only at the computer writing. My goal this week is at least 5000 words.

Shawn Lamb said...

Goals? Oh, wish it was that simple again. At least with goals there can be some cheating or reshuffling. My goals have turned into production deadlines; each needing to be done in the right sequence or everything gets out of whack to meet the release date.

Elliot Grace said...

...the key is to never give up. Took me a decade to get it right, then revise, then revise again, then edit, and now...she earns her wings in May:)

Life's too short not to keep trying. Good luck!

EL

Unknown said...

ugh, goals, sigh.
:-)
strep this week.
but look forward to reading some more here and writing when my brain isn't too tired. :-)
Anyway, I TOTALLY LOVE your blog! Always!
So, I gave you a cute little sweet Versatile Blogger Award!
Come get the scoop and share the love!
xoxo
http://wearnailpolish.blogspot.com

Samantha Sotto said...

Yay! Glad the MS Office for Mac is working out for you. Go, go, go! :D

Jennifer said...

Thanks to all of you! The reason I started this blog besides to save my marriage! hahaha was because of the support and encouragement I saw on the in the blog community when I was just a blog reader. Love to you all!

Muriel said...

Whenever I set myself a goal I can't keep it. I just write when and where I can! Glad you found something that works!

Heidi W said...

I think I need to name my laptop something awesome like Mr. Darcy. But I can't steal that from you, so I will have to do some thinking.

To help with my organization, I just started using Scrivener. So far--I am a fan. It is has been really hard to adjust, and the program is still completely a mystery to me, but I'm figuring it out.

Jennifer said...

Heidi you are welcome to name your laptop Mr. Darcy it is actually kind of fun cause you can say stuff like "me and Mr Darcy are gonna spend some alone time" So totally steal away....I thought about Scrivener if the word thing doesn't work out I may try that.

C.G. Powell said...

I use the pages app on my iPad to write and take notes. It makes it easy to email to my computer as a .doc I can use in word. "Mr.Darcy...Hehehe"

 
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