Freewriting Cheat Sheet

Day 7: Creating a Freewriting Cheat Sheet

Before I begin, I have to be honest and say that I began writing this post over a week ago. The end of the school year was rough with lots of grading to finish and family visiting the same week. Yesterday, all family left and school work and classroom cleaning completed. So here I am, jumping right back on the writing train.

After a short break, I’m heading into week 2 of the Writer’s Boot Camp which is about The Workouts, and today I need to create a Freewriting Cheat Sheet. I could seriously use one of these, so I’m really excited to have this list.

5 Things Worrying Me

• My son’s dislike of school
• Publishing a novel by 2020 per my students’ challenge
• Getting my grading done on time within the next 7 days
• Finding 20 minutes of time to write over the next 7 days
• Getting my house ready for company a mere two days after school lets out for the summer

5 Things I’m Grateful For (I’m not going to put family as it is a given.)

• I truly love my job.
• I truly love my house.
• I love and appreciate the state that I live in (Washington is beautiful.).
• Despite that there are things that I want, there is nothing that I need. I live a blessed life.
• I’m healthy and still play sports.

5 Things I Need to Do Today (really tomorrow since it’s almost midnight)

• Write my final exams
• Make my reading quiz for chapter 11 of Lord of the Flies
• Write for 20 minutes
• Take Cam to practice
• Grade 1st, 3rd, and 4th period work

5 Things I Accomplished Recently

• My deck looks absolutely beautiful with all of its plants. I worked on that last weekend.
• I’ve been writing in some form every day.
• I’ve kept the inside of my Jeep clean. You have no idea how horrible I am at doing this.
• I’ve recently begun biking.
• I’ve upped my workouts during the last two weeks.

5 Goals

• Write a novel and publish it by June 20, 2020 (the date my students set in their challenge to me).
• Read the book Become Organized in One Year and actually do it.
• Write for 20 minutes every day.
• Pay off my car early.
• Fit into my favorite pair of jeans.

5  Things I Noticed Today that I Might Be Able to Use Somewhere

• Today I was really cranky after my son’s baseball game.  I could probably use that anger to write a pretty decent poem.
• I got my Photography for Beginners magazine back today. I’d like to begin going through it so I can start taking my own pictures for this blog.
• I noticed that I’m overwhelmed with paper. I could definitely write something to first-year teachers about trying to make sure they find balance.
• My dogs are really, really, REALLY adorable. I could totally write a poem about them. And my Shih Tzu constantly licks which is not cute, so an angry pet-peeve poem would serve me there.
• My house is clean (due to visiting family). While I would never write about my about my clean house other than this moment, I realize how much I enjoy working and writing in a clean and organized space. It makes me feel happy and productive.

Tomorrow is the big day; I begin working on my WIP (or one of the three anyway). I’m nervous and excited at the same time. This idea has been playing around in my head for years, and getting it fleshed out will tell me if the idea is really good or just a dumb dream. Yes, there are dumb dreams. Just like there really are dumb questions.

I’m off. Hope you’ve enjoyed!