Sunday Writer's Confessional - The Beginning

As a Christian, I try to keep the Sabbath day holy, this means separating my weekly activities from my Sabbath ones. Part of this is trying not to write on Sundays and spending that time with my family. I'm not always successful at it, but it's my ideal.

A couple weeks ago I got really fed up with my writing failures from the last year and decided things REALLY needed to change. So I came up with the idea for the Writer's Confessional. A place where I can evaluate my success--and failures--over the last week. A place not to work on my stories, but instead, evaluate how I'm doing as a writer.

I also thought this could be an important idea for the writing community as well.

Religiosity

I'm gonna quote a little scripture here, so you writers of a non-religious persuasion, bear with me and I promise to be short and tie it together.

In the New Testament (1 Corinthians chapter 11), Paul is explaining to the Christians in Corinth the importance of the sacrament--particularly taking it worthily.

28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
33 Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.

From this scripture, Paul is teaching the early church about the importance of evaluating their process--whether they were successful or not in following the teachings of Christ. But more than this, he encourages them to support each other when they come together.

The Writer's Sacrament
Whatever your writing schedule, whether its daily or weekly, when we sit down to write, we are dedicating time to our stories. When we fail to do so--for whatever reason--we are failing as writers. But just like Christians, we can overcome our personal failings, repent, and try again. We can "judge ourselves" so that we're no longer "weak and sickly" as writers. Best of all, we can support each other doing it.

My hope is that the Sunday Writer's Confessional will be a place where we can come together, share our failings from the last week, chat a bit over our skinned knees, and plan for a successful next week.

And So...
The confessional is open.

My sin from last week is not using my new Death Star timer when I get on Facebook. See I get into reading articles other people post and then I've competently blown three hours. So I planned on using my new Christmas present--bought specifically for my writing--and set the timer for 15-30 minutes. When it went off, I'd get off and start writing. I had two or three days that I didn't. INEXCUSABLE! So, as a penance this next week, I'm only going to allow myself to check Facebook ONCE a day. If I choose the 'one' time wisely, I won't have much time to spend on it. The worst time to check it is after work because I can write for a couple hours then. The best time is when I get up in the afternoon, right before I get ready for work.

So! What are your writing 'sins' from the last week?