My Journey to Become a Writer 03/30/2024 Post #90

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Right now I’m listening to the audio version of Atomic Habits by James Clear. I haven’t finished yet, so I can’t give my final assessment; but I will say that I really like how he talks about focusing on “daily habits” instead of honing in on “goals”.

None of us really knows what will happen tomorrow, or ten years from now, so it can be discouraging when a curve ball comes our way, and what we’ve dreamed of getting done gets demolished. The book of James, from God’s Word, comes to mind:

“Go to now, ye that say, Today or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

– James 5:13-16

James Clear (not the James that wrote the verses above) instructs his readers to focus more on what kind of person they want to be than what they want to get done. This kind of thinking makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve been focusing more on how to format my writing business and am looking forward to sharing more of that here, as I experiment with what works for me.

What Did I Accomplish Today to Be a Writer?

I did Day 90 of the 100 Words a Day Writing Challenge 2024 through L.A. Writer’s Lab.

I’m finishing this post earlier in the day in an effort to pace myself better, but my plan is to:

• Finish Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird” book
• Listen to more of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”
• Read through more of the first manuscript I wrote in 2002, which contains similar events to my current memoir; but in auto-fiction form
• Take a look at downsizing my memoir, which is titled, “About Trees”
• Tackle more receipts for my taxes and record them in QuickBooks
• Maybe get my gas cans filled to mow
• Make a few recipes
• Exercise and listen to Atomic Habits
• Preformat next weeks posts
• Take naps or rest stops in between to better pace myself
• Remind myself that my lists aren’t always realistic…

Well, I might as well start.

Thanks for reading what I’m writing,

Jody Susan

James Clear talks about forming habits and routines to help people become the kind of person they desire to be. Here’s a post I did a while back about establishing a writing routine:

Morning Routines for Writers