Wow, looks like my last post (besides the one last year informing subscribers of the new email subscription service) was in November 2018. That certainly is some kind of neglect. Well, this is my attempt to make this a thriving "writer" blog. I'm calling it Blog the Journey. I'm going to basically be blogging weekly about my progress on my novel. Perhaps it will help with accountability. I hope so.
I have discovered a life-changing system that is really helping me better organize my time because, let's face it, my life, priorities, schedule are a mess. Since I work from home and have very flexible hours, it's difficult for me to pin down any kind of time in advance. HB90 has really helped me prioritize and plan my time to help me achieve my ultimate goal which is to get my book written.
HB90 is a quarterly bootcamp created by author, Sarra Cannon (
Heart Breathings). Learn more about her and Heart Breathings
here. This quarter was my second time through the course. That's the beauty of it. Once you purchase the course, you can participate every quarter without spending another penny. Yes, you become an HB90 alumni! Sarra takes great care of her bootcamp participants, newbies and alumni alike. It's just a great community that has inspired me tremendously. Check out Sarra's
Heart Breathings channel on YouTube. I love her videos. She has writing tips video series, videos about planning and planners, and a lot more.
The HB90 course for this quarter is closed, but if you click my HB90 vision board in the sidebar, it will take you to the course page where you can read more about what the course entails. The next course should be open for enrollment around early September in preparation for quarter 4, October - December (I am an affiliate so if you do decide to sign-up in September via my link, I will receive a small commission. I will update the link in the sidebar in September).
HB90 centers around task blocks inspired by the
Pomodoro Technique. 30 minute task blocks (25 minutes work time, 5 minutes rest), though there is much more to HB90 than that. But I'm mentioning the task blocks to give you an idea on how I'm working using them. Of course, you can configure your task blocks however you like. 50 minutes work, 10 minutes rest, etc. Basically, I figured out I could do 230 tasks blocks this quarter which is 115 hours. I was on vacation the first part of July so I figured out 2.5 tasks blocks this past weekend when I returned, and 20 tasks blocks per week through the end of the quarter. Breaking it down further, that's 10 hours weekly - 8.5 for writing tasks (plotting, writing, etc.) and 1.5 hours for blogging and doing my HB90 plan for quarter 4 (in September).
Yes, I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month, but have set a very low ball goal. 12,000 words. Hoping I will meet my goal, but if I don't, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. At the moment, I'm working on fleshing out a bare bones story, then some plotting and character development, then on with the writing. I know I'm going to have a lot of editing when I finish, but that's part of the journey.
My goals for HB90:
1. Top priority - start writing/write my novel
My Good/Better/Best goals at the end of the 90 days (end of September)...
- Good - 20 percent done (18,000 words)
- Better - 1/2 done (45,000 words)
- Best - 100 percent complete (approx. 90,000 words)
2. Blog the Journey - One blog every week
I missed the first week (my starting week being this past weekend) so that's 11 blogs instead of 12 starting with this week as week one.
About the novel (not set in stone):
Genre: folk horror (based on/retelling of a Hungarian fairy/folk tale)
Hopefully, next week I will have an update for you on word count. Wish me luck...and thanks for taking this journey with me!
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