But serendipity as always came to the rescue and emails this week brought news of two challenging incentives ideal for the purpose.
Camp NanoWrimo is allocating virtual cabins with up to 11 fellow writers as from tomorrow. The joy of this Nanowrimo adventure is that you choose your own project and word count, use their writing resources, and hopefully meet friends or new writing friends along the way.
You have from now till April 1 to plan your project and get ready for the off. I have in the past been a Nanowrimo winner but the November effort totally exhausted me. This is far more doable.
To prepare for the off, I recommend joining Lazette Gifford's Forward Motion for Writers. Sadly we are too late to sign up for her free two year course for novelists--have to wait now till 2015--but there is still one remaining five day March Challenge from March 26-30. You can sign on at several levels and aim for higher wordcounts but I've started at Level One and 1000 words a day. Just post your wordcount per day or at the end of the challenge.
The site is full of writing help, resources and support and well worth a visit.
Camp Nanowrimo
http://campnanowrimo.org/news
Camp Manual and fun introductory questionnaire
http://campnanowrimo.org/news/the-camp-manual-choosing-your-own-adventure
Forward Motion for Writers
http://www.fmwriters.com/zoomfm/
And if you're a committed procrastinator like me, start by reading (or rereading) Terri Forehand's WOTM article on beating procrastination.
www.writersonthemove.com/2014/03/beating-procrastination-and-increasing.html
Anne Duguid is a freelance content editor with MuseItUp Publishing and she passes on helpful writing,editing and publishing tips from time to time at Slow and Steady Writers
