My wife plays Irish fiddle for a band based out of Phoenix. On Saturday, her group played at a popular Irish pub in Scottsdale and I went along to watch and support and have a glass of whiskey.

As you do.

And I began jotting down the rumblings of something. Could be a short story. Could turn into a novel. Not sure yet. Will give it a code name later, once I see if it has some legs.

As for my other project with a code name, Project: HARP, my in-progress middle-grade fantasy novel, this week’s post is one part update and one part method.

My plan for this novel is to hand write the entire first draft, before typing up a second draft where I’ll make the changes and fix things up. I got this idea from Neil Gaiman, and decided to give it a shot because, hey, I’m insane. Anyway, my self-assigned deadline is June 30th. To finish on time, I need to write 8 pages per day. Which can be daunting, unless you find a way to make that impossibility a driving force.

Creative Motivation

This was taken from my white board. 30 blocks, 30 days. Every time I write pages, I log the amount down.

Before the start of the month, I had already written 11 pages, so those are kept off to the side. Friday, I wrote 4 pages. Saturday, 5. Sunday, 3 pages.

There’s something magical about tracking progress, in any form. Seeing those page amounts each day has made writing easier and easier, and I’m only on day 4. It lets me know I’m not alone, that I’m building something that takes time, and creative endeavors take time. If you’re not a former-teacher and don’t just have a garage load of white boards lying around, then you can even use post-it notes on doors.

Creative Motivation

There’s probably some really embarrassing stuff written on here, but, there we go.

Record what you’re doing, every day, and soon, your door will be filled with all your accomplishments. A great visual motivator.