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Catherine Elcik's avatar

CATHY’S WEEKLY RAP FOR JUNE 5, 2023

RECKONING: Dive into research—check! Research trip—check! Reread my plan for the first chapter of part three—also check! I did NOT manage to reclaim my early morning practice or reward myself.

ANALYSIS: Morning writing aside, I did what I set out to do—research, research trip, rereading—but if I’m being honest with myself, I set low goals this week because I was drunk on a cocktail of excitement and terror about actually breaking ground on part three. While it’s understandable I’d be afraid of starting to write after the insane amount of work it took to unstick the widgets of parts one and part three—if this doesn’t work, then what??—I won’t make progress if I slow down every time I feel excitified (EXCITED + TERRIFIED = EXCITIFIED). Also I need to return to morning writing urgently and I need a better reward. Given how much fun I had researching this week and how much more of it I want to do because it’s fun, I think I should only let myself do research for a few minutes at the end of my writing time. On my trip I bought a most excellent book I want to sink into. I’ll let myself sip five pages a day.

PLAN: I will write a rough draft of chapter 26 by returning to my early morning schedule. Each day I write, I can read five pages in my new research book, nerd that I am, and when I finish the draft, I will take myself for a swim.

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Evelyn Starr's avatar

Evelyn's RAP for June 5, 2023

RECKONING: I exceeded my goal of working on my newsletter for 30 minutes each of the 4 non-holiday weekdays last week (45, 45, 43, 34). Wrote 786 new words. Not much, but advanced the draft. More importantly, I wrote each of those days, not allowing myself to get lost in research.

ANALYSIS: I underestimated how long figuring out the newsletter flow and shaping it would take, even with an outline. Which of course means the outline was a good starting point but not a solid road map. But I'm still achieving my write-in-advance goal.

PLAN: Aim to finish my draft by end of day Tuesday, complicated by a client blog post I need to start and complete in the same timeframe. But still want to get things done early. In specifics, an hour on the newsletter Monday and Tuesday, to be realistic with the other piece. Then Wednesday, if the draft isn't done, write to done. Edit and prep for publication Thursday. Friday, start the next newsletter for 30 minutes to keep this going. Reward: shopping for my trip to Europe in 2 weeks, especially new pair of good walking shoes.

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