Down with the Sickness: In Which I Succumb to the Various Illnesses Circulating Throughout My Home and Workplace for the Last Month

Despite my best efforts to build and reinforce bulwarks against the season’s various illnesses perpetually floating about, I managed to get sick this weekend.

I’m hoping whatever this is–fingers crossed that its just a common cold–runs its course quickly. I’m doing my damnedest to show it the door with a steady combination of water, echninacea, Top Ramen, and Ricola. And sleep. Ever elusive, and a lack of which more than likely lead to feeling under the weather. Should probably be in bed already, but I wanted to get a post off here before calling it a night. Why? Because I’m trying to be better about writing.

I recently started listening to a new podcast from C. Robert Cargill and David Chen called Write-Along. It’s a short format podcast (no more than 15-20 minutes), in which Cargill and Chen talk writing advice. The first episode’s topic centered around setting attainable writing goals. Cargill stresses that it’s important to figure out not how much you can write in a day, but how much you can write every day, five days a week. What’s the magic word count you can hit consistently?

This was important for me to hear. I’m no stranger to word counts. I had to set them when trying to finish up my thesis, but since completing my MFA program, my output has dropped significantly.

This last week, I decided to get back on the fixed word count game per Cargill’s advice. I tried for 500 words at first. For those participating in NaNoWriMo this month, this doesn’t seem like much, but for someone who’s gone days without writing, it felt reasonable. I hit this count the first day, but by day 2 was coming up short. I altered my goal to 250 words each day, which I knew I could hit and would ensure getting at least one page a day. By the end of the week I had my five pages. 

Because I’m focusing on stories during the week, I thought I’d start attempting blog posts on the weekend. Hence the the effort to get this in before bed. 

Alright, folks.. I’m out. 5 AM comes around quickly.  Be well and take care of each other.

Huzzah!