New Year's Resolutions are so Passé

By Elaine L. Orr

I should probably make a few anyway. 

I attended a class on time management in my early thirties, and the lecturer said something like, "If you find you work much more efficiently as a deadline approaches, it means you don't work efficiently the rest of the time."

I took it to heart. It absolutely does not mean I always organize my life more efficiently, but it does mean that I am mindful about starting a project or task earlier than the last possible moment. Which I had been known to do. And could get away with because once I got started, I worked fast and well. 

But that's not good enough when you want to write more than two books per year. An author can write quickly sometimes, but the ability to write two to three thousand words a day is not enough. Stories aren't simply pounded on a keyboard. They grow holistically.

What I can do is write at least 1,000 words per day. That's two single-spaced pages. Using my technique of (when desperate) writing scenes out of order, 1,000 words per day is ALWAYS possible.

Today I started a new novel in the Jolie Gentil series. My goal will be 1,500 to 2,000 words daily, and I will be finished in mid-February. Full stop, no excuses.

Take that, New Year's Resolutions. And Happy Damn New Year.

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