August 8

• Project: The Dreams
• Total word count: 5,951
• Today’s word count: 15
• Thoughts: It was so hot. I wanted to write. I even took steps to try to keep cool so I’d be able to write. It just wasn’t all that cool there either. I just melted all day. Then when I tried to write once I was able to cool off after the sun went down, I was too exhausted and ended up falling asleep at my keyboard almost as soon as the room got to a comfortable temperature.
• Tomorrow’s goal: It’s supposed to be another extremely hot day. We’ve had a heat advisory for days now. It’s awful. The humidity is really high too so it feels even hotter. The only things that are thriving in this weather are our plants. They’re loving the heat and humidity and we’re going to have a ton of tomatoes ripened soon. Tomorrow the forecast says we’ll have storms in the afternoon and evening which will break the heat wave. Hopefully I’ll have some stamina left then to write a decent amount.

August 9

• Project: The Dreams
• Total word count: 6,077
• Today’s word count: 126
• Thoughts: I’m surprised I managed to write as much as I did. It was a mix of caffeine and determination. The weather was still awful so that didn’t help at all, but I stayed up later thanks to an energy boost and that allowed me to write more!
• Tomorrow’s goal: It’s supposed to be cooler, which means it will still be uncomfortably hot. It just won’t be as bad. Maybe I’ll find more energy to write or won’t be so wiped out by the time I sit down and find my focus.

August 10

• Project: The Dreams
• Total word count: 6,116
• Today’s word count: 39
• Thoughts: I wish I could say I knew why I wrote so much less today. I just couldn’t focus. All of my writing happened really late at night after I settled down by taking a bath. I was just in a pretty bad mood for most of the day and it finally lifted when I got some me time without any distractions. Unfortunately, I also got really relaxed so falling asleep after my bath was way too easy.
• Tomorrow’s goal: Write more. I just want to write more. I don’t know what I need to do to make it happen. I could try to cut out more distractions but I feel like I just find new ways to distract myself with things like cooking and cleaning the house. I just need to shrug off my responsibilities for a day or two and let things pile up while I write.

August 11

• Project: The Dreams
• Total word count: 6,131
• Today’s word count: 15
• Thoughts: I barely managed to write. It just wasn’t a good day mental health-wise.
• Tomorrow’s goal: I have errands to run in the morning. Hopefully I will have some energy to write in the afternoon because we’re going to a movie in the park tomorrow night.

August 12–14

No writing progress

I meant to write on Friday. On Saturday, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to write. Sunday, I decided to take the day off.

Lately, I’ve struggled to find ways to stay motivated while working in pockets of time. There’s a solution, but it isn’t an easy one to execute. I need bigger stretches of time to settle down and focus. It takes me a while to get started with writing these days so I need to start scheduling that time of gearing up to write into my writing time. Otherwise I’m just not going to write.

That’s the plan. Now I need to see how I manage to carry it out next week.