In the writing community this is the time of year when there’s a plethora of advice on making a writing schedule. Hours are spent planning, blocking out calendars, and using fun stickers and colored pens to designate writing times. Progress trackers are made to tally up words written, schedule writing sprints, and mark progress. 

I think this is great! Goals are made! Dreams are spun! Visions of becoming successful authors are put out into the universe. 

While I’m in favor of making dreams and goals, this isn’t my process. I stand back and make my lofty writing goals with a broad brush. I usually stay away from being super nitty gritty about this, focusing on my big goals while living out the little ones that add up over time. After all, between work, kids, and keeping a house, if I were to track my life in multiple planners and calendars, keeping myself on an hourly schedule, it would take up my only free time. 

Instead of a fancy writing plan, I’ve kept my goal simple: to write an hour a day most days this year. (Is it just me who can hear a silly song ‘an hour a day keeps the doctor away?’). 

Don’t get me wrong, I dabble into the craft of using fun colored pens, making fresh boxes to check, and I love the endless designs of stickers to decorate the planners I do use. I’m in the world of journals and planners, but with writing I like my simple plan. 

At first I set out to write every day this year, but that has already proved to be impossible. I adjusted this ‘rule’ on January 3rd when I didn’t have my normal ambition to write. Instead of feeling bad about ‘failing’ on day three, I remembered that on the weekends I usually write more than an hour a day. This will more than make up for those hard days during the week that suck all of my energy away!

The goal will hopefully add a layer of discipline to write even when I don’t feel it. I have never regretted a time when I’ve sat down to write when I don’t feel motivated. In fact, more times than not, when I do immerse myself in a story it’s hard to peel myself away from it.

Going inside my head to pull out characters and stories is therapeutic, entertaining, and feels like I’m on the path that I’m destined to be on. I’m sure I’m not alone in this process of pushing myself to get started. It’s always hard to stop everyday life in order to create a new routine. I do it, however, because I love every part in the process of writing. 

I hope you all have found your passion. Something that pushes you forward to a goal. And yes, something that makes you feel fulfilled in even just an hour a day.