My Grinch-Like Christmas Writing and Planning

Today is 26th December. The day after Christmas (if you do that sort of thing).

And because it was Christmas Day yesterday, everything is closed so there is nowhere to go, plus it rained all day, which is unusual for this part of Australia, but the rain did break a 6-month drought for which we are all thankful. And today the sun is shining again.

I don't do the Christmas thing and our plans to spend time picnicking and swimming with friends who also don't follow the flock when it comes to this time of year, was scuppered by the bad weather, not that I would have stayed there all day.

I would have left early anyway because I had plans, and I find it emotionally draining to socialize for too long.

The 25th of December is always my day to plan my writing projects for the next 12 months.

So I locked myself in my writing room at the back of the house and looked through all my notebooks, and plotted and planned what I'm going to be working on for the next 12 months. And I'm going to start work on it all today. Not New Years Day. Why wait?

And strangely, locking myself away from the rest of the world in my Grinch-like way is something I always enjoy. I just close the door, listen to an audio that helps me concentrate, and get to work.

I would tell you what my plans are, but I won't because no matter how good the plans and how well I've mapped it all out, things happen. Every year things happen that take me away from my writing so I always spend time trying to catch up. Sometimes it's things that have to take priority and I don't get to choose what happens. But I do get to choose how I deal with it.

But this all impacts on my writing time in a negative way.

And to be honest, losing writing time and having to lock myself away in my Grinch-like style so that I can try and catch up, isn't such a bad thing. I don't mind doing that. I often come into my writing room at night and work for a few hours too. I used to call it my office, but that sounds, well, just too officious. Calling it a writing room makes it sound much more like the creative space that it is.

So, for now, I'm going to keep my writing plans to myself.

But one thing I will tell you is that my latest book will be published next month (January 2020).

I've already had the book cover put up on the sales page (which isn't finished yet) just so you can take a sneak peek.

It's called, Mission Critical For Life: Start Living Life On Your Terms By Pursuing Your True Life Mission.

This book will help you to write more than you ever have done before once you make writing your mission and prioritize it. And I'll tell you EXACTLY how to do it.

I'll give you more updates about it soon.

In the meantime, what are your writing plans? If you don't know, it's time to start planning.

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/MCFL.html

Christmas is a Time for Planning

Today is Christmas Eve, for those who celebrate such things, but I do not.

I haven't done the Christmas thing for over 20 years.

As you can imagine this horrifies many people when I tell them. They over-react like I just killed one of their children.

Yet when I ask them why they celebrate it, they have no idea. Are they religious? No. Do they believe in God and Jesus? No. Do they know why they put up a tree in their house every year? No. Do they enjoy buying lots of gifts? No. Do they enjoy writing and sending lots of cards? Hell no. So why do they do it? Because everyone else does it.

Hmm..... I'd rather not.

This is why it's 24th December and I'm busy writing a blog post and not rushing around buying last-minute gifts or preparing a meal for tomorrow that's so huge, everyone will overeat. To me today is just another day and I have no plans for tomorrow either.

Also, as an aside, we are currently in a huge 6-month drought. The grass is dead and crunchy to walk on. We now shower over a bucket and pour the water we collect in it, onto the garden. We also have a kitchen bucket and wash our dishes by hand so that we can empty the washing up bowl into the bucket and pour that on some of the poor, dehydrating plants in the garden too. Thankfully rain is actually forecast for later today, and the clouds are already building up, and tomorrow (Christmas Day) a deluge is forecast. But that's it. Just two days of rain in 6 months, and back to drought.

Anyway, to me 25th December is just another day. Nothing special. So it's a day I usually make good use of for my writing business.

A few days ago I purchased a 2020 diary (or planner, as it says on the first inside page) so tomorrow I'm going to use it to start planning out my writing for the first few weeks of 2020, plus make bigger plans for the rest of the year, like how many books I plan to write, themes and subjects for my blogs, etc.

Yep, 25th December is a great day to get lots of planning done, not just because it is supposed to rain all day, but also, everything is closed (shops, restaurants, pubs, etc), so there really is little else to do anyway. And because it's going to rain, we can't even go to the beach tomorrow like a lot of people do. We had plans to have lunch with a few friends at the local dam and swim in the afternoon, but that plan is now scrapped.

So even if you do celebrate this day, you can also use part of it as a great day for planning all your writing for next year.

Because, as they say, if you fail to plan, you're planning to fail.

Enjoy your time off work and make some great writing plans

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com

International Radio Playwriting Competition 2020

This is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to write a radio play.

In the UK the BBC World Service and the British Council, in partnership with Commonwealth Writers have opened up entry to their International Radio Playwriting Competition 2020.

This competition is open to new and established writers who are NOT a resident of the UK and will be at least 18 years of age before 31st January 2020.

The competition is for radio playscripts of approximately 53 minutes (usually 1 page per minute) on any subject/genre with no more than 6 central adult characters, plus a synopsis of up to 400 words that outlines your play.

There are 2 categories, one for those whose first language is English and one for those who have English as a second language.

In each category, there is a prize of £2,500, and a trip to London including airfare and accommodation for one, to see your play being recorded and to attend a prize-giving event.

The closing date is 31 January 2020 at midnight GMT.

You can enter by post, email, or online

Find complete rules and how to enter at the BBC writers room website.

Good luck. 🤞


https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunities/international-radio-playwriting-competition

How Much Can You Write in 2 Hours a Day?

Being a writer means spending time alone to get your writing done. But it doesn't have to be a lot of time.

Just 2 hours a day can yield over 10,000 words written a week or a full-time income from writing.

2 hours is plenty of time to write, but it takes good organisation.

If you sit down and have no idea what to write about, then your time will be wasted and before you know it, your 2 hours is up and you've got nothing done.

But if you already know what you're going to do, then it can be 2 hours of extremely productive time every day, which is 10 hours a week, assuming you work 5 days out of 7.

You may not think that 2 hours is long enough, but if you're not writing much at all at the moment, then 2 hours a day is a huge improvement in output.

Not only that, but if 2 hours is more time than you're writing now then it's a huge improvement and it's much better than not writing at all.

But you need to make sure that it's distraction-free time and that means no texting, no surfing online, and definitely no anti-social media. Only allow it to be 2 hours of writing, editing, proofing, uploading, publishing.

And the best part is that when you get into a regular habit of sitting down and writing every day, you may even find yourself working longer without even realising it.

And once it becomes a daily habit to work for 2 hours a day, it will be fun because you won't be resisting it anymore and it will literally change your life.

As the great motivational guru, Mike Littman used to say, 'People form habits, and habits form futures."

So know what you want your future to be, and then get into the habit of sitting down for 2 hours every day to make your future writing dreams into a daily reality.

And now that we're so close to the New Year, there is no better time to plan out and start working on your writing dreams.


https://ruthiswriting.com/make-money.html