Book report, week 9: charts and uncharted territory

It’s been a poor writing week – there’s probably no need to explain why.

I started with great intentions, using an idea by Cork writer Catherine Ryan Howard. To write her first drafts, she sets herself a daily goal of 1,250 words. She prints out a table with the goals and rewards herself by crossing off each block as she goes along. I won’t use the picture of her chart here as I’m not sure if it would be ok to do so, but here is a link to her tweet so you can see what it looks like.

I had 56 pages remaining of my WIP to wade through. To get back on track after the last few weeks of disrupted routine, I decided to make my own little schedule, breaking the work down into an achievable 10 pages a day, meaning I would be finished by today.

Day 1 was brilliant – I covered 19 pages so I was almost ready to cross through two boxes. On day 2, I was 9 pages further on when word came through that the schools in Ireland were closing effective immediately. My daughter arrived home, not sure what to think about what was going on. Since then, it’s been hard to concentrate on anything other than following the news as the COVID-19 crisis escalates, and wondering whether to brave the supermarket.

So I don’t know if I’ll have the concentration to return to the manuscript anytime soon, though I’ll give it my best shot. Speaking to writer friends on social media over the weekend, I know everyone is in the same boat. We are living in strange times. Stay safe, friends.

Photos: Pixabay

Want to read more? Week 10 is here.

Missed week 8? You can read it here. Or start from week 1 here

Advertisement