Category Archives: Writing

Enjoying The End

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If you are a writer, there are few things more satisfying than the moment when you can write ‘The End’ when you finish your manuscript. That is especially true when you have been working on it for (off and on) seven years.

Like pretty much every other area of my life, when it comes to writing, I am a planner. I like to know I’ve got a rough structure in place before I start. Sometimes, by the time I’m nearly done I can see that now I know my characters better the original plan isn’t going to work. That’s okay. Things can change. Structure doesn’t have to be so rigid that it stifles all possibility of creativity.

This story had been my attempt at trying something else. I had a vague idea in mind and a pretty strong sense of the opening, so I decided to wing it. Plenty of successful authors do that, I reasoned. The fact that it’s taken this long and I kept walking away from it and coming back has proven that this style just isn’t my way of doing things. However, I was determined to finish it and not have something half-written hanging around. Even if it never sees the light of day, it will not be sitting there at the back of my brain playing ‘what if’.

So, clocking in at 131,000 words and countless hours of frustration, being able to type ‘The End’ was even sweeter this time round.

Productivity and Personal Development: Why 6AM Matters

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There is a current debate at the moment in productivity which seems to be pitting the ‘night owls’ against the ‘early risers’. Whilst I’m of the view that as long as you are getting important stuff done it doesn’t matter, I have to say I fall on the early riser side of things.

Don’t get me wrong, I never used to be. As a writer, I always felt my most creative hours were between 10pm and 2am. Which was great – if I didn’t have a day job. Once I did, then the reality was that creative never actually happened.

Then a couple of years ago, I was listening to a GTD Virtual Study Group podcast which brought to my attention the prospect of getting up early to make sure that if nothing else went right that day, you would always have an hour you could look back on, knowing that you had taken another step towards your goal. Towards doing what mattered most to you, not what mattered most to the boss man.

So I made the transition from getting out of bed at the last possible moment (after hitting that snooze button several times), to getting up at 6am, making myself a coffee and refusing to get up and go to work until I got 1000 words down. From now over a thousand mornings, I must have failed to hit that mark less than a dozen times. Getting to work late and then playing catchup all day was a powerful motivator to get typing.

Now I find myself on the other side of the world, having a writing sabbatical. Which some people would say is a fancy way of saying I’m unemployed. Transitioning careers. That kind of stuff. It doesn’t matter what you call it, it means I get to plan 100% of my time now without the 9-5 (or 8-7 as it realistically was most of the time).

All those hours back. All that free time. So what am I doing? I am getting up every morning at 6am to write, just like I have done every weekday for the past few years. Why? Because it works. Because setting up your day to start right is a key to making it a good day, no matter what else life throws at you.

It doesn’t matter what you do, or what you want to achieve. Starting your day intentionally by making it count is the best way to get there. To live a more productive life. Or, to put it in a way I’ve started to feel a lot lately, a more meaningful life.

Introduction

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About eight weeks ago, a ball started suddenly rolling that has found me leaving a stable job, upping sticks and moving from my nondescript town in England to Christchurch, New Zealand. Needless to say, the preparation time for what can only be considered a momentous, life-changing event was fairly limited.

It has, however, given me an unexpected opportunity to focus on my writing full time, if only for a little while. Where this will ultimately lead I don’t know, but for now I am simply embracing each day for whatever it is.

So, I find myself here for the second time in my life, having first visited Christchurch about nine years ago. That was pre earthquake times and to say it is now a completely different city is somewhat of an understatement. Strange too, that I am here in a non-standard capacity. I don’t have the transient outlook of a backpacker, approaching every sight as an experience to be filed away as a memory before moving on. As it is also unlikely I will be moving on before July, I don’t fall into the slightly more grown up ‘tourist’ category either. Until I get something more concrete than making up worlds whilst in coffee shops, I don’t really classify as a typical worker either.

Hence I find myself trying to fit in to a city that seems just as unsure of itself as I do.

Wide, four lane roads often are shut down to a single carriageway, with the odd car passing here and there. Everywhere rings with the sound of rebuilding but very little actually looks like it has made it to the other side. Entire blocks have been flattened with occasional buildings in the middle remaining as stark and proud survivors.

So, I’ve started this blog to document my time here. It’s not just from a travel perspective, but also to cover my writing as well as my fascination with all things productivity related. A bit of a mish-mash then, rather than driven and focussed but that doesn’t matter to me so much right now. My life and home no longer fit into a nice neat box, so I don’t see why this should either.