The Power of Lists

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

          I love lists. I love writing down the things I have to do, but I love crossing them off the list even more. Mostly, I make lists for big projects, deadlines for the magazines, family stuff, and events.

          My daily errands and chores don’t need to be on a list. I know what I have to accomplish, but I decided to start making the lists anyway—why not? I love to cross off things. I’m now including on my lists small things I always mean to get to but don’t like clean out the junk drawer or donate some items.

          Funny, if it’s on the list it gets done a lot sooner.

          So now I’m making different lists—a bucket list for this year as well as for my life; places to visit with family and friends, a list of writing projects; a list of books I really want to read; cleaning/organizing lists for office and kitchen; and anything else that comes to mind.

          On my daily writer's list:

write at least three pages longhand in my monthly notebook;

read a page of The Writer’s Devotional by Amy Peters each day for a year;

randomly open Writing Fearlessly by William Kenower and read a passage or a page or a chapter for inspiration;

read from at least one other book as well as articles, essays, and/or poems;

write for at least one of my projects—book, screenplay, essays, or articles;

write my weekly Thursday essay for magazines and my blog posts or at least come up with topics;

fill out my Thought a Day Journal;

and plan, write, and/or edit the magazine issues for next month.

I do cross off every item on this list every day. I use The Ultimate Author’s Editorial Calendar and Writing Planner by Jennifer Ruggiero Schultz to keep organized. [Unpaid recommendation] It is big and unwieldy, but her daily page layout of lists works for me. Plenty of room to add tasks and track projects as well as record titles and page numbers of what I read, topics for essays and posts as well as what I wrote for specific projects, essay, blog, etc. Also places for lists of meetings/appointments and calls/emails, too.

There is a lot I want to see and do and accomplish—and I will get to all of it if it’s on one of my To Do Lists because I can’t wait to cross it off!

Capturing My Writing Days, But Not With To Do Lists

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

While I have a week to write my blog posts, I start them on Thursdays usually for my Monday-at-midnight deadlines. At 500 words mostly, I could write them all on Sundays, but I wouldn’t have time to rewrite and polish them and that’s the real work I not only enjoy, but is necessary to write my best.

I have two other weekly and two monthly regular deadlines. My freelance work and writing classes have variable deadlines. I keep track of them all on a calendar.

I follow through using To Do Lists. These lists are helpful, necessary even, to meet deadlines, but they are only guidelines for my writing days scribbled down on Post-its and stuck to my computer screen.

When I decided I wanted to capture my writing days—not just the deadlines and what I hoped to write—I bought an academic planner that begins in July and ends in June. Inside, each month begins with a calendar of the whole month on two facing pages where I can highlight all my deadlines. On the following pages, each day of the month is given a quarter of a page space which is lined making it perfect to record notes.

          These are the pages I need, but not for To Do Lists. Instead of writing what I’m supposed to do each day in this space, I record what I accomplished.

Professionally, I write assignments with set topics, but which ones on which days? Did I start with one project and switch to another? Did ideas for new projects come to mind? How many words did I write? What projects did I rewrite and polish? Did I complete any assignments that day? What did I edit?

For my personal writing: What topics did I cover in my fill-a-notebook-a-month notebook? Was I inspired by my Muse? Did I go off on any tangents?  Did I complete my Personal Writing Class assignments? Write an essay? Even a fragment of a sentence I loved?

Since writers don’t have time cards, I can also record the time of day and the amount of time I spent on each assignment. For example, I woke up at 1:24AM on Thursday, July 23. While waiting to go back to sleep, sentences and thoughts rushed into my mind about my Masterclass post on Kinder Than Solitude by Yiyun Li (published on July 27). I grabbed my bedside notebook and pen with a built-in light at the tip, noted the time, then dashed down over 165 words in eight minutes.

Later on I may not remember I wrote early in the morning. By recording this and other facts about all the writing I do, I discover what inspires me as well as my writing patterns. It’s also consolidated proof I put in the time to do my job well.

This planner captures my work in progress, i.e., my writing days. It also motivates me as I don’t want any days with blank pages. I am a writer after all.

 

Gone Fishing!

From Cheryl's Writing Crate

Hello All!

As an extremely detail-oriented person who loves to make lists and accomplish everything (and then some) on those lists on a daily basis, it's been extremely unlike me not to post to this blog for two weeks in a row.

One thing that has made it's way to my lists and doesn't want to seem to leave is a whopping good case of pneumonia.  I thought I was on the mend last week only to have a relapse and if I can be completely honest--I'm really not feeling much better even now.

With that said, I have missed posting to The Writer's Crate terribly so I'm stopping by to let you know that I hope and pray to be back next week.  I'm optimistic that I can get back and share all about my exciting visit to New York City where I spent a full day with one of my editors at Macmillan Publishers.  Though I went sick with pneumonia (not a very wise move on my part--I completely admit!) I still had an amazing day with one of the world's largest publishers!

Until then-----