Making a writing plan!

at Two Writing Teachers!

Yesterday, Kate Messner's first post for the Teachers Write! 2012 camp was about making time for writing.  Now, I've gotten a lot better this year about making time for writing... I even did it every day in March! 

However, the end of the school year brought its usual (and even some unusual!) craziness, and all of a sudden I didn't have as much time to write as I wanted to.  So I'm glad for Kate's camp and her suggestions to get me back into full ready-to-write mode. 

Ironically, I'm a day late posting about this... But I seriously spent ALL DAY yesterday -- and I mean nearly every waking minute that I wasn't eating -- preparing for ELL summer school, which started today!  However, that was an abnormality caused by a variety of factors, including no teacher workday at the end of the year, my cousins coming into town, and the Memorial Tournament.  (Anyway, summer school is off to a great start, although it's K-5 this year and elementary kids seem to be rather wigglier than I remembered!)

But really, I love the idea of making a writing plan.  In March, it was just sort of "I HAVE TO BLOG TODAY!!!" and I squeezed it in somewhere, although I often ended up posting at a similar time.  Like Kate, I learned not to wait for the mythical "perfect writing time" but to just WRITE! Squeezing it in somewhere worked for a month, but it was much too easy for other things to squeeeeeze the writing back out when the month (whew!) was over.  

with Kate Messner!

So here we go, my writing plan!  (Or at least, what I think is my writing plan, subject to change if I find that something else works better!)

1. Cut out / cut back on: TV, reading blogs, playing games on my iPod Touch.  Write during this time instead -- maybe not read all my blogs every day, and don't play my games so often.

2. When & how long: The big new commitment time will be evening after-dinner time: around 7:30pm, for 30 min to an hour.  If I have the chance some days, I'd like to add additional blogging-only time after school, before dinner, which is when I usually blog now (and thus why blogging gets pushed aside on busy schoolwork days!).  As for how long, my problem is that I'm kind of a long-drawn-out-writing-process person: I brainstorm, I play with ideas, I change them in my head before I put them on paper, and then I dive in deep when I start writing.  (For example, I've been thinking about this writing plan since yesterday and I've still already been in the process of this post for over an hour!)  To really try writing every day, I think I need to change how I think about writing -- I don't have to "WRITE" a polished, finished THING every day, I just have "DO writing"!  This could be brainstorming, outlining, editing, or even just "rough" writing that never gets polished.  I need to get a real Writer's Notebook (and maybe also form a digital one in Word for blog drafting?) to make this possible.

3. Where: On the couch with my laptop (and/or notebook) for the evening times, so I can still spend time with Husband.  In the afternoon, I'll opt for writing on the cozy bed with the drapes open to the greenness of our big tree (that's where I am now!), or outside on the back patio if it's nice weather!

4. Who I'll tell:  Husband, who is very sweet and encouraging and supportive about all this writing stuff, even though he's neither a writer nor a teacher... and obviously all of you, my wonderful blogging friends, who keep me going when I don't feel like it!  Also probably my parents because I may even have to write when we're over at their house sometimes, if I really jump into this completely!

If you have any tips about how YOU manage your writing time, please share!  :-)