Contemplating a November Writing Goal

When has life ever been so busy? Fall semester is always the hardest here–major assessments in most subjects, a full-on calendar of events, letters of recommendation to write, lessons to keep planning. This year, changes in school procedures, a round of oral exams, hybrid lessons for students still off-campus or those feeling ill, and a ten-week (so far excellent but still time-intensive) professional development course have me busier than ever. Some days, I’m just drowning. It’s difficult to stem a tide of bitterness. Sometimes I’m failing.

Frost on the pumpkin plant. Sadly, and as we guessed it would, this frost proved deadly for our first attempt at pumpkin-growing. How great it’s been though to see the vine grow and watch our little pumpkins starting out.

In times like these, the writing is one of the things that can keep us going. Sectioned off from other parts of life, it can be our escape, playground, and true creative outlet.

Ritual and regularity help keep writing a sacred space. For me, that’s early in the morning, when the house is quiet and my mind is funneling its way back to the surface. A pot of tea, a lamp, and an hour of writing before I head to work.

Sometimes I don’t get much done, and recently I’ve been trying to redirect myself: to keep the focus on the writing itself, I’m limiting time spent on research or sending out submissions. I need to get words down on the page again.

*At last last night, after days of stalling, we bundled in our two wee pumpkins, the biggest probably about two inches in diameter and a bit rotted, since we delayed after the frost.*

I’m thinking about trying to set a monthly word count goal for myself. I haven’t done something like this for some time, but reading other bloggers’ posts about how setting a word count goal has helped them progress, I’m thinking I might try.

November starts next week, and as ever it’s the call of NaNoWriMo. I know 50,000 words in a busy school month isn’t possible, but I might set myself something substantial still but more achievable, maybe ten thousand or fifteen.

In teaching, we set goals to have a clear standard against which to judge, and setting a high expectation is one of the core ways to raise achievement. We push to meet the goals we set, more than we would otherwise. I think it would be good for me to try.

Inside, these baby pumpkin seeds. It’s too bad they weren’t able to mature–we never found out what variety of pumpkin this was! The little one which hadn’t rotted we’ve thrown into our stock bag in the freezer. It’ll do a little flavoring of some upcoming soup.

What do you think about monthly (or other kinds of) writing goals? What has worked well for you? What other kinds of motivators have been effective? I’d love to hear your experience and advice.

Best wishes for the coming week,
Jimmy