So how did you guys do?

You were kind of hoping I forgot all about it, huh?  I don’t blame you.  Keeping a time log is a habit that needs to be consciously and consistently worked on…at least for me.  It’s an easy enough thing to do, but it’s also easy enough to not bother.  So I’m working on this.

I would post a picture of this week’s log except it’s mostly a blank page with a handful of start times.  But even so, it served its purpose.  I have enough information to figure out what I need to work on and where I’m doing fine.  Let’s analyze this past week, shall we?

All-Nighters:  2

Blog Word Count:  3,701  (8,713 for the month)

Fiction Word Count:  0  (305 for the month)

Hours worked:  30-40 (estimated)

As much as I’d like to claim that pulling two all-nighters means I’m outrageously hard-working, I think it actually means I’m incredibly slow.  Although, one of those nights was actually spent working on a transcript for that other job.  The other one was spent cutting out and coloring clip art and writing a blog post.  That was actually pretty fun.  But all-nighters should be a no-no for me.  Seriously.  I’m not exactly a fistful of daisies the next day, if you catch my drift.

My word count for the blog is fine…doing great…and actually, could go down quite a bit.  I think shorter posts are easier to digest and more desirable for most readers.  So I’m working on slimming things down so I don’t risk splattering people with brain vomit…at least not all the time.  Plus, I’m hoping that focusing on writing shorter posts will help me write tighter and more effective pieces…and eventually lead to less hours on the blog.  It’s not that I don’t love you guys, it’s just…

…well, the fiction ain’t getting no love.  No love at all.  And if I’m not writing fiction, then I don’t have any business writing this blog.  Truly, the fiction should be getting the bulk of my attention.  So I’ll be working on that this week.  I have a story due to my writer’s group that needs probably — gosh, the way things have been going, the darn thing may need 20 more hours.  We’ll just have to see.

It does help me a lot to think of these things in terms of hours.  It keeps me from believing the pernicious lie I always tell myself:  “Don’t worry.  You got time.  This won’t take long.”

Though I wish I had kept stats on how much time I spent trying to get the Toddler to go to sleep.  Hmm.  Hang on.  There is a scribbled, frantic-looking note here that says it took — somebody help me — FIVE HOURS to get that kid to go to sleep one night…from 7:00 p.m. to midnight.

Ah, I remember now.  That was the night I not only posted late, but I actually skipped a post.  The first time this year.  I was a little mad.

Here’s the deal:  I really can’t get any real writing work done with the Toddler awake.  Even occupied in other activities, she still needs my attention every five minutes…and every interruption is like a bowling ball busting apart thought molecules that were just beginning to come together.  It’s frustrating, to say the least.  But I know she’s only 2, and this is par for the course.

However — this is a big one — HOWEVER, it’s long past the time I should have sleep-trained her.  She sleeps with me, and she wakes frequently through the night if I’m not there.  It’s exhausting work…and it’s part of what leads me to do all-nighters…because I know I’m not going to get a chance at it the next day.

So we have started sleep training this past week.  We are getting better.  I am constantly reminded, though, that any kind of training we perpetuate on our children is really just training ourselves.  We’re doing much better, and I am hopeful that we can get into a nice groove soon.

That does mean I’ll have to deal with myself.  Any attempts at keeping myself on a schedule seem to bounce off of me quite ineffectually — just like orders to a Toddler.  (I’m shocked that, “Go to suh-leeee-pah!” doesn’t work.  Wouldn’t it be great if it did?)  So this week, in addition to working harder on the fiction and getting quicker to the point on the blog posts <ahem>, I will be working on getting me and the little one into a real schedule.

So anyway, my compass has been reset, and I am forging onward.  And, of course, I will report the results of my efforts next Saturday.

Now, seriously, how did you guys do? 🙂

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Note:  I just updated our cumulative word count so far, and we stand at 10,841 words!  The dinosaurs are pleased.  Only 39,159 words to go!

Much thanks to Kathy from Haiti and apparentbook for their word counts!