As you may have already guessed I like writing. I’ve been blogging about public history for years, I maintain a personal/off-topic blog with my partner, I’ve written for other history outlets, and I also write occasionally as part of my job. I also write some fiction occasionally. Like many people who maintain creative or academic writing practices I struggle with finding time and coming up with ideas for the creation of new content.
In the past I’ve found writing in public as a helpful tactic to keeping on track. Talking publicly about my writing goals and sharing works in progress helps keep my accountable to readers and to myself. I’ve also participated in “A Meeting With Your Writing” as a way to carve out dedicated time for academic writing and that has worked wonders for seeing projects move off my writing plate.
As an attempt to try something new with my writing practice and revive personal goals that have been languishing I’ve decided to create a writing schedule. This isn’t meant to be something that is set in stone but rather a map that I can use to sort out what projects I can or should be working on. Broken down by week I’ve used the schedule as a place to create a list of future blog topics, keep track of paid writing gigs, and note due dates for academic writing projects. I’m hoping that this schedule will be a useful tool for managing my writing time. I can use it both as an idea bank and an organizing tool. It’s currently just a Google Sheet, so nothing fancy, but I think it has potential and I’m looking forward to seeing if it helps with some of the organization and creative roadblocks I’ve been bumping up against.
What tools do you use to support your writing practice?