How about we be middling-productive? 

Really, don’t you get tired of people telling you how to be highly successful, more productive, the most organized person on the block, blah, blah, blah?

Do you realize that if you simply write for fifteen minutes every day, all year, at a rate of 100 words per day, you will have written 30,000 words? That’s half of a novel, a novella, or maybe two short stories, etc. 

Now, what if you gave it thirty minutes per day? That’s the whole ball of wax. 

Add in some editing time, and you can write freely, then edit last week’s work (usually not a good idea to edit fresh words till they’ve settled with you for a while, but if the shoe fits. . . .) in an hour a day. 

And therein you have a writing practice. Practice, of course, means repeating something until you get it right, but it also refers to the regular practice of a trade. In the case of writing, I think both ring true: the more you practice, the better you’ll be at your trade. 

Maybe every day doesn’t work for you, and you’d rather set aside whole days or mornings or afternoons, or even a weekend if your day job(s) are too burdensome. Whatever works! 

But let’s try for at least middling-productive this year. For me, I’m trying for hands-on with the novel each day and three times a week free-writing. What about you? 

And, in case you need to be scared into productivity, here’s your meme for today: