1st Qtr Numbers are in, & We Might Fire the CEO

This morning I checked in with myself to see if I was still working on any of the goals I set for 2010. Yes. Some more than others.

Writing hasn’t been at the top of my list. Journal entries are down, blog posts are way down, and I have written one short story and half a poem since January. It’s pretty bad.

My one comfort comes from looking back to this time last year, the first year for which I have any consistent record of when I wrote. I slumped in the first quarter of 2009, too (if you check the archives, you may notice a lack of February). I guess that’s not much comfort, really, but it is a pattern. It’s news I can use: I slump in late winter. Now I can decide if I want to tackle that as a problem, or schedule ten weeks off and have a few posts in my file to put up while I’m hibernating.

The half poem was left unfinished in early January. The short story was March 22, about the third sunny day of the season. So, should I do cloudy day writing drills? I’m picturing this: if the sun disappears, I sit down with my laptop for fifteen minutes. It could help me form a new habit, or at least break the one I have. Or maybe spring and summer marathons would be more productive: if I’m feeling charged, rev up the word count and build a stockpile against snow days. Then I could leave the hibernation time alone and not worry about it.

March is over, and I have a lot of ground to make up. A warm season sprint is the default option for 2010. This deserves some more thought before next year, though. Maybe setting my “writing year” to begin April 1st would give me the chance to meet all goals by Christmas, and take anything I get from under the snow as a bonus. That might feel better than playing catch-up for nine months, like I’ll be doing now.