As a CNF writer and a writing coach with a busy schedule, I want Fridays to be my self-care and writing days. But you know what they say about best-laid plans😭. Check out what happened and how I was still able to have a productive writing day in my first writing vlog.
Watch the video here
In ‘My First Writing Vlog✒️☕- A Fun + Productive Day!’, you’ll:
- See how this introvert likes to spend her Fridays.
- Hear about an exciting development in my creative business
- Get a glimpse at my latest creative writing project and know my exact process as I write.
- Learn about this amazing new book I’m reading.
Resources:
‘My First Writing Vlog✒️☕- A Fun + Productive Day!’ – Video transcript
9:30 am…My first writing vlog
Today is Friday, February 3rd, 2023 and this is my first writing vlog. My plan here is to do a bit of a walk-through of my day on a day when one of my goals is to actually get some writing done.
10:00 am…The best laid plans
I want Fridays to be my self-care and writing days, but you know what they say about the best laid plans. I had to book a little appointment at the bank. I’m about to head out to the bank to sign some incorporation documents which is really exciting because it was time in my creative business to take that next step and incorporate. So now I’m the owner of Spark Your Story Inc.!
After that normally I would be going to a yoga class but I’m meeting a friend today – which is great because I’ve found that this introvert – even after COVID – has had a hard time connecting in person with people. I just don’t take the time. A lot of my social life centers around my business, so writers that I collaborate with, writers that I teach, that I work with really comprise much of my social life these days. So it’s really nice to get together with a friend in person and go for coffee.
Initially, I was going to start my day really early, drop my wife off at the ferry so that she could go to work, and then I was going to stay up… but I decided because I’ve had such a busy day yesterday and really a busy January, a lot of teaching commitments, a lot of being on, that I needed to spend a little more time in bed.
On creativity, writing, and my current project…
My plan was to do a little bit of baking this morning, make some muffins for my kids because I like to do that to surprise them. They get up, and the house smells really nice, and they can have a delicious special breakfast… but that didn’t happen today. I might do a little bit of cooking or baking later. I find that when I do spend a few hours, a block of time writing, I like to break it up by doing a little bit of cooking or baking or going for a walk. It just helps with taking a bit of a break from the project but doing something with my hands, cutting vegetables, mashing bananas, doing all of that stuff helps me with the creative process while I’m being productive in my life in other ways. I might do a little bit of that later in the day, but I’m really excited to meet my friend and go for a really lovely walk because it is a nice winter day – it’s not wet, it’s dry, and we might see a little bit of sun at the beach. And I’m really looking forward to getting back into my project.
What I’m working on today is my letter to my friend, Claire Sicherman, who is the author of this really beautiful book, Imprint: A Memoir of Trauma in the Third Generation. We are collaborating on a project where we write letters back and forth to each other about being teenagers, teenage girls, and that transition from girlhood into young womanhood. This is what my draft looks like currently. I used Google Docs to free-write my letter and then started marking it up yesterday and adding things. I did a little bit of research. I’m writing about an unrequited crush in grade 8 and grade 9 and was reading about neurochemistry yesterday, the biology of crushes, and the chemical cocktail that makes us a little bit crazy. I’m excited to dive back into this to get some writing done, to devote some time to my project in what has been a really busy time.
That’s the plan! I’m about to head off to the bank now to sign those papers and then go meet my friend and then finally get some writing done today.
*****
10:45…coffee with Kerryl!
So I’ve just had a really lovely coffee with my friend, and I’m going for a walk in one of my favourite spots. I’ve got Vancouver Island behind me, the Pacific Ocean behind me. I’m going to continue on the walk and then try and get some writing done. Now I have a little bit of free time this afternoon before I have to go pick my kids up so this is a rare treat to go write in a cafe on a Friday afternoon and get some of my writing done.
12:30…A brief walk by the sea…
It’s a little breezy and I think I’m actually feeling anxious to get started so I’m going to make it a short walk – not too long a walk.
*****
12:50 Lunch + a productive writing session
So I just pulled into the driveway home after my writing afternoon, and it was very productive. I also really enjoyed it. It was such a treat to get out of the house. Usually, I work in my home office. I used to work in coffee shops a lot, but that stopped during COVID, and I just haven’t quite gotten back into the habit of getting into a different space. It is really good for creativity. I found that once I sat down and got into it, I was able to make a lot of progress.
I’m almost finished my draft so I just have another paragraph I want to add, do a little bit of tweaking and then I can send it off to Claire. I think what really helped was that I did do a little bit of work yesterday on the letter during my write-in. Every month I do a couple of writing sprints with my group in my program The Spark Your Story Lab. I bring prompts to help spark ideas for all of the writers who join, but of course, anyone can bring any writing they want to work on so yesterday I brought the letter because I was feeling really behind and thought that would be a better use of my time writing with the group, so that did really help. I’m feeling like it was a really productive session.
*****
So I thought I was done vlogging for the day. I ran some errands, and now I’m checking my mail and I keep thinking about my story. I think I want to go back and do a little more writing at home. I’m going to set myself up in a few minutes after I check the mail and keep going! I haven’t felt this inspired in a while so there must have been something about sitting in a coffee shop, meeting with a friend, going for a walk that was just a really good combination to inspire me to get back into my creative work. Feeling really exciting again to dive back in!
*****
3:30…An exciting book
I’m really excited about this book. I forgot I had ordered it. I’m going to read the back for you. It’s by Caroline Hagood and it’s called Weird Girls: Writing the Art Monster.
A combination of memoir, cultural critique, and manifesto, Weird Girls traces the art monster – the writer, often coded monstrous and male, single-mindedly dedicated to the work – from ancient myth to modern literature and pop culture to ask: what happens when the art monster is a woman and/or mother? And what’s the connection between creativity and monstrosity? Told in brief, thoughtful, drolly charming chapters, Weird Girls offers a groundbreaking take on art, motherhood, and of course, the art monster.
I can’t wait to read this!
*****
4:00 … A second writing session
Well I ended up working for another 40 minutes on my story and I did finish it. So I’m going to send it off to Claire. It was a very productive writing day. I don’t have a word count on my google doc but it’s a couple of pages long.
5:30…It’s a wrap!
Thank you so much for watching. I hope that you enjoyed this vlog and if you did let me know in the comments! Maybe I’ll continue vlogging on some of my writing projects and hope they inspire to work on your own and write along if you’d like to. I will see you in another video soon!