We've only just begun...

This is the start of something big.  This is the third year I have done this, and this year I don’t have my little one at home, he is at school, so I have all this time during the day in which to write.  But will I have the time?

Time Management is something that is really important when embarking on a journey, even a written one.  Working out how long it takes you to type is a help. 

Here’s my formula for working out how much time I need to write 50,000 words.

I have mostly the weekdays to work in, weekends are generally family time, so there are 21 days (there would be 22, but one is a long weekend here in NZ, so I can’t count that one!) so 50 000 divided by 21 days is 2,381 words per day – which to me, doesn’t seem a lot, but when you type 50 words per minute, that is 47 minutes per day to write.  Wow, that really doesn’t sound like a lot – which it isn’t, unless you have other distractions.

My plan is to have my housework done early, and by housework I mean – washing dishes, preparing vegetables for dinner, vacuuming, getting wood in, dust, clean, spit and polish!!!! – then make sure I have time to sit and work on a plan for the day.  I have already set up my roadmap, and I am happy to deviate from it, but if I have a rough map of where I want to go, I can plan each day as it comes.

So by this morning, I am sitting in the dining room, with my laptop, enjoying the sunshine on my back and well into writing my next best seller!