Oh How I Love to Write; Let Me Count the Hours...

Patti Nielson has challenged writers to keep track of how many hours a day we write for one week. She put the challenge forth this way:

My intention was not to get people to write more, but to see how much time we actually spend and see if everyday we can increase it. Not to the point where it takes over our lives, but to the point where we feel is manageable in our lives.

You can still sign up if you want. Go here and add your name to the list, or just join in.

I'm curious how much I write. Especially days like yesterday, where the beginning of the day seemed to hold so much promise and by the end, it all seemed to have evaporated. Where does the time go? Getting three kids up, fed, packed and off to school, the gym, a shower, writing two blog posts, catching up on blogs I missed, lunch, replying to emails, a half hour left and the kids start straggling back in, piano lessons are on us and homework and dinner and off to bed. The day is done.

Where does it go?

Maybe the better challenge for me is to count the minutes I'm NOT writing and figure out what I'm doing with them!!

It felt yesterday like I hardly wrote at all. 30 minutes before the kids came home, 20 minutes while dinner was simmering and the kids were having down time, and then 20 minutes after dinner and bedtimes. It seemed like not much. One hour and ten minutes. But in that time I added nearly 1,000 words to the novel I'm now revising, and I've done less on days where I had lots of time to write.

Today I'm hoping will be even better. I've got coffee. I'm finishing a Bible study this morning and then cracking open the WIP for more serious revisions. This challenge is a challenge for me to turn off the internet, stop checking emails, and just write.

That's my hope anyway. How's your writing going?