Well, it’s certainly been an interesting two weeks! After watching all the quarantine notices throughout the States, I wondered how long it would take for that to come to New Zealand. And just a week or week and a half later from when I first heard about it from friends over there, we were notified that New Zealand was to go under lockdown for four weeks. Today is day 13 of lockdown here; we’ve had two Sundays at home now.
As I mentioned in one of my last posts, I was supposed to go stay with some friends for six weeks while the mother recovered from surgery. I had my bags packed, some by the door, others waiting on the blue table under my window, ten minutes away from when I was planning to leave. And I got a phone call—the surgery had been postponed. So, instead of driving three or four hours that afternoon, I got to unpack everything (but I did list everything I had packed in Workflowy, where I normally keep a packing list), and then got to work at resetting my brain for “lockdown with the family” mode.
I’m so thankful I get to be with everyone during this time—both Dad and my oldest brother are off work, so we’re all here together. It’s been great to just enjoy spending time together! We’ve played games, worked up boxes and boxes of apples into applesauce, canned several boxes of tomatoes, and overall just enjoyed the chance to have undivided time together. We also have a new routine going, which I think all of us are enjoying!
One thing we’ve enjoyed doing as a family is having a sausage roast by a nearby creek for Sunday lunch. This was one of the views I spotted on our way home last Sunday!
One thing I was hoping for, which hasn’t happened yet, is extra creative time. I’ve spent a lot of afternoons lately working on some sort of preserving job, so I haven’t had as much time as I was hoping.
I did get one thing done, though—a writing tracker I’ve been dreaming of for months now! There’s a writer’s event called the 2020 Author Olympics (supposed to run during the Olympics, but you know…that’s not going to happen this year). It’ll be running from April 15-28, and as always, I’m excited to participate. I did sign up for Camp NaNo this month, too, but well…I haven’t started writing yet, and it’s the 7th already. Planning ahead is helpful, y’all. I should have, and didn’t, and I’m regretting it now.
With the Author Olympics coming up, though, I decided to get the writing tracker finished so I could share it with writers there. And then I thought—why not share it here, too? Here’s the description I shared in the Facebook group (and please join us there, if you’re interested in doing creative writing during lockdown; the more people, the better!):
I used a writing tracker like this during NaNoWriMo last year, and found it super helpful, fun, and motivating, but have made quite a few improvements to it since then.
There are three versions here: A 10k – 100k section, with 500 words per space, a 5k – 50k section, with 250 words per space (for those of us who are slower writers!), and a section with just the blank divided up spirals, for those of us who want to make our own goals (editing, anyone? this might be helpful!).
The pages are letter-sized, but the trackers themselves are in a half-letter size (I find that the most useful personally; it’s the right size to trim down and glue into my bullet journal). Feel free to print out any or all that could be useful to you! And enjoy the quotes, too—just a random collection of different inspiring/thought-provoking ones I’ve picked up over the years!
If you would like a version without quotes and/or see any typos, please let me know. I’m happy to fix and re-upload them.
And feel free to share this with anyone inside or outside this group who might find this helpful!
I’ve included three versions in the Drive file: The half-letter size I referenced above, an A5 version, and one I designed to fit in my Leuchtturm Bullet Journal (because, yes, neither the A5 or the half-size will fit quite the way I want it to in there). Get them here:
View/Download All Three Versions | Half-Letter Size | A5 Size | Leuchtturm (Bullet Journal) Size
I hope it’s helpful for you! And if you have any questions, please ask.
This afternoon, I’m hoping I can spend some time listing all the stories I’ve written over the past 8-10 years that I want to edit. I know there are several that I’ve forgotten in that time; a few months ago, I was trying to count up how many stories I’ve written that are 10,000 words or larger, and Mom reminded me of one I’d missed that I wrote last year—so I think it’s about time to go back and make a list! It will be hard to decide which one to work on first, though.
I hope you’re having a productive time during this lockdown, and hopefully, you’re with your family! Whatever you are doing, I hope you are keeping your eyes on Jesus. He is worthy.
What projects have you been working on these past few weeks?
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