This is what prolific looks like

It is almost half way through the year.  I keep thinking that I need to pick up my writing pace now, but the truth is that I really don't.  I'm not certain why I think I've dropped way behind on anything.   I'm sitting at 443,810 words for the year so far.  I might manage to write another 56,190 words and reach the 500k mark before July 1, but I'm not actively pushing for it.  I've published three novels and almost completed one WattPad novel (I should post the last of it before the end of the week). I rewrote and edited four older novels, wrote one new first draft with the start of a second, wrote and posted about 25 flash fiction pieces, and worked on four outlines for the upcoming November NaNo.  Those last have a long ways to go.

I've taken several more courses from the Great Courses group: History of Ancient Egypt, The Night Sky, Decoding the Secrets of Egyptian Hieroglyphs, and I am part way through Oceanography.  The hieroglyphs one has lead to more books and more study, too.

I am perpetually busy. 

And I am never bored.  Sitting somewhere outside my house with nothing to do?  It doesn't happen often I keep notepads in my purse and I write notes about the current story or practice hieroglyphs.  Often I have my Nook and I'll read and sometimes write on it as well.  I've only read 18 books so far, so not quite one a week.  Still, with everything else ... not bad.

I never leave the house without at least one of the cameras.  Going for a short ride can net me a hundred pictures.  I bring them home, load them into my computer, tag them, sort out the bad ones and work with one or two to post, and generally have a good time.  I put one up every day for the picture of the day blog.  I taken 6365 pictures, all nicely tagged in Lightroom, and did at least 152 pieces of art, mostly based on the photos.

What don't you see on this list?

Television.

Games.

There has to be a trade off somewhere, because there simply isn't enough time to do everything.  I find writing more entertaining than most shows.  I do on occasion binge on some series or movie I have on DVD, but those times are rare. 

Except for some time on line, I am not a sociable person, either.  Most of the time, I would rather be writing.

I worked out the problem for myself years ago:   If I wanted to write, I had to make the time.  If I wanted to write a lot, I needed to make a lot of time.  No matter how fast you write, and how well you edit, creating a story takes time.  Creating several a year takes as much determination as it does time.    It also takes mental flexibility to easily move from one story to another.  That takes practice.  I am able to write something new in a first draft and switch over to editing something else.  The stories are not the same and the process for each of those steps is entirely different.

Focus, too.  Oh yes, if you can't ignore the outside world (and many of you don't have a choice -- you have to listen), then creating writing time becomes more difficult.  At worst, my distractions are a group of cats all of whom seem to want to learn how to type.  Zaphod is the most persistent.  I sometimes leave his 'messages' in my first drafts and mark them with his name.  Other times, I kick everyone out of the office and close the door.

And then I write some more.