No, I haven’t skipped a year. I’m looking ahead to a sabbatical in spring 2012 and eager to establish better writing habits. I have always been a binge writer inspired by (or truthfully, in desperate need of) deadlines. I do a lot of advance planning, but I have a nasty habit of leaving my writing, revising, and editing until the last minute, and if my sabbatical is going to be productive, I need to establish some better writing habits. Fortunately, I have a whole year to do so.
Therefore, one of my New Year’s Goals is to write every day. Kerry Ann Rockquemore repeatedly advocates writing 30-60 minutes every day, but I need to ease into daily writing. For the month of January, my goal is to write 15 minutes a day (here and elsewhere), following the Joan Bolker approach. Chances are good that I won’t stop at 15 minutes most days this month, but as I said, I’m easing in.
I’ll post updates here at least weekly, and I invite you to join me in this writing challenge – or to establish your own writing goal. Need inspiration? Check out Rockquemore’s archived columns in Inside Higher Ed and Karen Hoelscher and Carmen Werder’s column in the same publication.