I’ve been writing my memoir on and off since 2019, and I’ve decided it’s time to finish the first draft. Things in my life have come full circle so I feel confident now I have a start, middle and end to the story I want to tell.

Here is the plan I’m going to follow for this 90 day challenge to make this happen for me.

1. Write the premise of my memoir in one sentence – complete.
2. Be clear about the themes – it took a lot of brainstorming but I have them narrowed down – complete.
3. Write a chapter outline – at the moment its 21 chapters (but this could change) – complete.
4. Set a deadline for completion of draft 1 – I’ve not done this before, so I’m going to take inspiration from Stephen King ‘I believe the first draft of a book-even a long one-should take no more than three months’. So 90 days from today is 4th June 2024. That’s my deadline to finish draft one.
5. Set weekly goals – 1. I will work on two chapters a week and 2. breaking that into word count, if the goal is 80,000-90,000 words, that’s around 6000-7000 per week. (Oh that sounds like a lot – don’t think, just write Christine. My husband now sounds like a Nike add ‘just do it’).
6. Get help – particularly with accountability, here is how I’ll do that 1. I’ve put myself out there and entered a competition with the prize of a writing mentorship (winners not announced until June, wish me luck) 2. I’ve got 4 one-to-one coaching sessions starting this Friday (I’ll let you know how I get on) 3. I’m blessed to be part of a wonderful, supportive writing group ‘Write on’, I’ll let them know my 90 day plan. 4. To help keep me on track, I will commit to posting my progress weekly on a Wednesday (no matter what I achieve) and will include what I’ve learnt and what I need to change/do differently.
7. I will visualise my intention. I remember when I was trying to get pregnant I would visualise holding my baby in my arms and that really helped (and worked). Now I close my eyes and I visualise holding my completed published book in my hands, I can feel the cover, can hear the hollow sound as I turn it over, and I can smell the pages of paper its been published on. But until that day comes, I will visualise doing a dance of joy in 90 days for completing my first draft.
8. Don’t give up! I can think of 100s of ways I can talk myself out of this, but this time I’m going to do it. I’m going to keep focused, because focus is power!

You can do this Christine. 90 days…..Go!

Wish me luck 🙂