Writers Tears

In my little corner of Canada things are slowly starting to re-open, but I seem to be more closed off than ever. If there’s a reason for it then it’s doing a pretty good job of eluding me. The writing still isn’t coming and there doesn’t seem to be a reason for that, either.

It occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that it’s June (yeah, I know, brilliant deduction) and that means the year is half over.

Seriously?

On a whim I pulled out some of my old writing journals to have a look at my progress over the last several years, and what I saw wasn’t good. Naturally there have been ups and downs, but gradually the downs started out-numbering the ups until pretty much all I’m seeing are the downs.

Occasional prompt stories aside, this hasn’t been much of a year, creatively speaking. Despite my plan of my fortune-telling series being a repeat of a non-fiction series I did ten years ago, I found myself up-dating and in most cases re-writing the posts, especially the wrap-up. But while it was definitely “writing” I don’t really consider it “creative” writing. Just the facts, ma’am.

And I realized I never did set any goals for 2020, other than “write more,” which I haven’t been doing. So then I thought maybe I should set some goals, but that involves making lists and the problem with making lists is that I forget to check them.

AND THEN I happened to see a blog post by author Patti O'Shea where she was talking about something called a kanban board. Being unfamiliar with this term, I looked it up and discovered it’s a project management tool that (to me) looks like a list, only on a board instead of just a piece of paper.

So I’m looking at it and I’m thinking this would be so much better than a list. I could use a piece of bristol board and stick it up on the wall of my office and use stick notes to keep track of everything I want/need to do, and maybe shame myself into doing some of it. AND, as an added bonus, it would give me an excuse to buy more stick notes.

We’ll just have to wait and see if it works or not (doesn’t it seem like I say that a lot?). One way or another, I want to feel worthy when I crack open that bottle of Writers Tears. :-D

P.S.

Also, I think I might be due for a schedule change. I'd still like to do my progress updates on Sunday, but for now I think I keep it strictly to that – a progress report, no prompt stories. I’m going to move my non-fiction posts to Wednesday, making it a Wildcard Wednesday instead. And my prompt stories (if I do any) will move to Friday for a Fiction Friday thing.

At least if you’re looking for something specific you know which day to check back. Or you can just “like” my page on Facebook because I usually post links there.