All apologies to everyone waiting to check in! I scheduled this post for the wrong date. Clearly the first week of AcWriMo took a toll on me!
How are things going for everyone? Did you meet your goals? Come across any stumbling blocks? Want to curl up in your bed like a little baby? No? That was just me?
Here's a general idea of what to discuss, if you need a reminder:
Last Week's Goal:
Last Week's Daily Goal (if you had one):
Plan of Attack (if you had one):
Achieved (ie did you meet your goals? Did your plan of attack work?):
This Week's Goal:
This Week's Daily Goal (if you have one):
This Week's Plan of Attack:
Stay tuned - I'll post my own meager accomplishments as soon as I figure out why my students can't see their exam grades. This is not my week for technology!
Ok, I'll kick this off, especially since I can't seem to schedule a post.
ReplyDeleteWeekly Goal: 2100 words added to chapter two, outline introduction
Daily Goal: 300 words per day
Achieved: 345 words - that sounds terrible, but it's because I deleted over 1,000 words from a chapter (saved for later if needed, of course)
This week's goal: Let's try this again! 2100 words, outline introduction
Plan of Attack: Despite the low word count, the very specific schedule did actually work, so I'm working on a new schedule for this week as soon as I finish this post.
Did anyone have better luck (it's not luck, it's work!) than me this week? I hope so!
Part of my frustration during AcWriMo last year was that I was revising a dissertation chapter--I deleted far more words than I wrote, and constantly came up with negative word counts. This week I've been revising a conference presentation into an essay using the PhDometer. It counts new words but not deletions, so I feel far more satisfied.
DeleteIn reality, I wrote almost 1500 words this week and I'm ok with deleting 2/3 of that because the chapter is better for it. I'm just hoping this week sees less deleting and more positive word count!
DeleteI want the PhDometer, but my computer is too old to upgrade to the OS it needs. So sad! I use http://writtenkitten.net/ when I feel the need for extra motivation.
Last Week's Daily Goal: 100 words a day
ReplyDeletePlan of Attack: I didn’t have a plan of attack, so I think I will create one for the coming week.
Achieved: Despite how tiny this goal is, I only made it half the time.
When I did make time to write, I typically wrote more than 100 words. On teaching days, I put off writing and then once the business of the day was done, I lacked motivation.
This Week's Daily Goal: 100 words a day
This Week's Plan of Attack: Still thinking this over, as I’m looking for a way to make sure I make time for writing. Any ideas for how to think of writing as a priority would be greatly appreciated!
It's really true what they say about writing first thing, isn't it? On days I don't write first, writing almost always gets pushed aside for more immediate needs, like grading or lesson plans or whatever. I teach at 8:00 MWF and I'm not a morning person, so there's just no way I'm forcing myself to get up an hour earlier than the torture that is 6:00 a.m. for me.
DeleteMy plan for this week, therefore, is to force myself to walk out of the classroom and immediately start writing - no checking email or grading or anything else until I write for one solid hour. On days I don't teach, I let myself do menial tasks while I drink a cup of tea to wake up (like a quick email check or starting laundry or something simple like that) and then I force myself to write right away.
Is there any way for you to schedule writing first or as early as possible in the day? Then you have to force yourself to treat it like a doctor's appointment that has to be kept in order to really start prioritizing your writing. Believe me, I know it's easier said than done! My big goal for AcWriMo is to get into that habit and make writing my priority, so I can get this monkey (aka my dissertation) off my back.
My week was pretty productive but I gave up some healthy activities (gym and cooking) to make it happen.
ReplyDeleteWeekly goal: Get something done on the lit review section
Daily Goal: write for a minimum of 30 minutes a day/5 days of the week
Plan of Attack: I don't think I had one, except maybe keep expectations low?
Achieved: I did write for at least 30 minutes, most of the time more than that, and I wrote every day of the week. I also have many pages of notes and an updated outline for the lit review section. I also started notes on how to revise the findings section.
This Week's Goal: I'm sticking with 1/2 hour day/5 days a week. Especially this week when I have a lot of data collection on a new project. In that time I'm hoping I can get a rough draft of the new lit review.
This Week's Plan of Attack: To keep writing in "note" form and have it naturally evolve into academic text.
Congrats on writing every single day! If you're looking to start a real writing habit, that's what is important, no matter the time limit. Good luck next week!
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