Last night I realized that I would be able to take today off. Not a day off from work but a day off from the usual routine of my busy days. That meant no running to school, no running to stores and no running anywhere. The entire week went by in a blur of school trips, doctor trips, dropping off kids here and there and just plain busyness. I hadn't had a chance to accomplish the writing goals I had set for myself. So when I figured out that I would have an entire day free of errands and jumping in and out of my car, I leaped on it!
I actually wrote "Mom's Day Off" on the blackboard that hangs on the kitchen wall. Yup, today for the first time in weeks I would actually have an entire day to myself. I would finally be able to work uninterrupted and accomplish at least some of the goals that were sitting neglected on my 'to do' list all week.
First up was the long overdue synopsis for my newest online workshop, Marketing for The Savvy Writer. I have been teaching a magazine writing workshop online for several years, but after an inquiry from a potential student, I realized I needed to expand. Marketing is one of my favorite jobs and I'm good at it. I've had more than two hundred articles published and I enjoy the challenge of finding the right market for an article. The hardest part of this new workshop was actually finding the time to sit down and put together the synopsis.
Well, check it off! The synopsis is completed and it's about as thorough as can be. I'm now in the process of developing the lessons for the workshop and with a completed synopsis to guide me I'm looking forward to it!
Second due was the updating of my websites. Right now I have four websites that I try to keep up with. I have a copywriting website that I refer potential copywriting clients to. I have a magazine writing site that editors can find out about my nonfiction skills as well as view samples of my work. I also have a fiction writing site that is still under construction but where I hope to include information about books in progress and books that will be coming out. Last but not least I have a website for the two online writing workshops that I teach. With the completion of the marketing workshop synopsis it only made sense that I update the workshop website. It felt great to be able to paste in the newest workshop's information for potential students to view. I jumped from site to site, adding little details and links that I had been meaning to get to.
Big red check there!
And since I was on such a roll I picked up the outline for my novel in progress and fleshed out two new characters and some more details for the setting that I'll need for the next draft. Check, check, check!
While a day off for most people might mean a chance to lay around, nap or read a good book, the rare day off for me means a chance to attack that 'to do' list of mine. With three big red check marks added to my list, I'm enjoying the feeling of accomplishment from a day off well spent.
Now all I need to do is grab the calendar and calculate the next 'day off' that I can find.....I've got a great idea for a new novel if I can just find the time to squeeze it in!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
What A One Week Book Challenge Taught Me
Where have I been? Lost in the land of procrastination until one of the writing chapters I belong to through the RWA held a Book In A Week challenge or BIAW. The manuscript I had been dragging my legs on already had about 30,000 words. I saw the BIAW as the perfect way to charge back into it and get something done. It was my intention to possibly write enough to finish the rough draft so that I could move on to the first round of editing. So I joined in and sent my word count goal for the week to the writer who was so wonderful to offer this challenge. I chose to write 1000 words a day or 7000 words total. I have to say having this wonderful group of ladies to answer to worked for me. I knew with my crazy schedule I would need to attack those daily goals first thing in the morning for fear it would not get done. And for more than half of those days I did it.
There I planted myself at my computer first thing each morning, knocking out not only the 1000 words but a little bit extra each day. Then came the final two days and I stalled. One of those days I felt so guilty not to be able to report back to my 'sisters in writing' that I ended up writing my 1000 words close to midnight. But the last day I found myself drowning in errands, housework, children who needed to go here and there and a fatigue that I can thank menopause for. I caved and on that very last day I just didn't make it. A big fat zero.
On the upside I learned a few new things about myself. I found out that even though I am a 'stay at home' mom, being 'at home' doesn't mean I have oodles of time to wait for the muse. For me, the best way to get those words on paper was to make it the first thing on my 'to do' list each day. I could be a morning person after all! Second, I learned that I was much more productive when I had a deadline, specific goal or some kind of accountability.
So here I am, several weeks after the conclusion of the first BIAW I ever took part in and I'm trying to get back into the swing of my story. Another lesson I learned? If I don't write every day I lose momentum and motivation both. Slowly I am working my way back to a morning routine...but I'm counting down the days to the next BIAW because this time I'm going to set the bar even higher....and there will no zeros for me!
There I planted myself at my computer first thing each morning, knocking out not only the 1000 words but a little bit extra each day. Then came the final two days and I stalled. One of those days I felt so guilty not to be able to report back to my 'sisters in writing' that I ended up writing my 1000 words close to midnight. But the last day I found myself drowning in errands, housework, children who needed to go here and there and a fatigue that I can thank menopause for. I caved and on that very last day I just didn't make it. A big fat zero.
On the upside I learned a few new things about myself. I found out that even though I am a 'stay at home' mom, being 'at home' doesn't mean I have oodles of time to wait for the muse. For me, the best way to get those words on paper was to make it the first thing on my 'to do' list each day. I could be a morning person after all! Second, I learned that I was much more productive when I had a deadline, specific goal or some kind of accountability.
So here I am, several weeks after the conclusion of the first BIAW I ever took part in and I'm trying to get back into the swing of my story. Another lesson I learned? If I don't write every day I lose momentum and motivation both. Slowly I am working my way back to a morning routine...but I'm counting down the days to the next BIAW because this time I'm going to set the bar even higher....and there will no zeros for me!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Buddying up and the morning run with my cats
Well, my plan has taken yet another positive turn. Not only am I all set to take on Nano, but I've found a buddy to Nano with. I've known Cathy for several years as we have both been long time members of an online writing group. Unfortunately for me, I've fallen out of touch with some of the wonderful people that have been part of this list for so long. Years ago Cathy, I and another writer,Peg,were writing buddies. We would email back and forth daily and share word counts, problems with stories and just our daily goings on.
The last few years I've moved away from my writing groups, rarely posting and talking with anyone.
However, yesterday I posted about a book that I was debating on using to help me set up my book when my old friend, Cathy, posted back. After emails back and forth, we decided it would be great for us both to sign up at Nano as writing buddies. What better way to stay motivated and accountable than with an old writing buddy?
So I'm ready to go and so looking forward to the experience.
It's a windy day today and thankfully cooler than it's been the last few days. It feels like fall has finally arrived! I set out my feral friends cat bowls this morning and waited to see their reaction.
I guess I've corrupted them that one morning when I treated them to a can of wet food. Now they come to the bowl, look at their old dry food and wrinkle their noses in disgust. Feral cats are smart. Let's face it. They would have to be to survive for years on the streets through all kinds of weather conditions. After seeing the boring dry food in their bowl they don't just stand around the bowl in protest. They've learned that the way to get to a soft touch like me is to just come right up the porch steps and peer in to my glass storm door. Too smart.
I walked into the livingroom to see Big Wiskers' big gray face smushed against the glass door and turned promptly around to go back to the kitchen. And of course I did what I always do --- grabbed a can of wet food for him and his companion, Noey, and headed right back to those bowls. I can't do it. I can't ignore the staring, the indignant look in their eyes as they glare at me as if to say "You expect us to eat that?". And so I walk back outside, tear open the wet food envelopes and pour what they want into the bowls. Before I can step on the first porch step they're at the bowls, hungrily gulping down chunks of food masquerading as turkey bits or chicken nibbles.
I've been told that I'm a sucker, that they're playing me like a fiddle but I don't care. Besides reading a good book, nothing gives me more pleasure than watching those cats relish a meal that without me they wouldn't have.
It may takes years to write and sell my book, it may never come at all, but taking care of those two cats, and any others that show up at my doorstep, has become something of a mission for me. It's a feeling of knowing that however small, I am contributing something to this world if nothing more than just being the local cat lady.
The last few years I've moved away from my writing groups, rarely posting and talking with anyone.
However, yesterday I posted about a book that I was debating on using to help me set up my book when my old friend, Cathy, posted back. After emails back and forth, we decided it would be great for us both to sign up at Nano as writing buddies. What better way to stay motivated and accountable than with an old writing buddy?
So I'm ready to go and so looking forward to the experience.
It's a windy day today and thankfully cooler than it's been the last few days. It feels like fall has finally arrived! I set out my feral friends cat bowls this morning and waited to see their reaction.
I guess I've corrupted them that one morning when I treated them to a can of wet food. Now they come to the bowl, look at their old dry food and wrinkle their noses in disgust. Feral cats are smart. Let's face it. They would have to be to survive for years on the streets through all kinds of weather conditions. After seeing the boring dry food in their bowl they don't just stand around the bowl in protest. They've learned that the way to get to a soft touch like me is to just come right up the porch steps and peer in to my glass storm door. Too smart.
I walked into the livingroom to see Big Wiskers' big gray face smushed against the glass door and turned promptly around to go back to the kitchen. And of course I did what I always do --- grabbed a can of wet food for him and his companion, Noey, and headed right back to those bowls. I can't do it. I can't ignore the staring, the indignant look in their eyes as they glare at me as if to say "You expect us to eat that?". And so I walk back outside, tear open the wet food envelopes and pour what they want into the bowls. Before I can step on the first porch step they're at the bowls, hungrily gulping down chunks of food masquerading as turkey bits or chicken nibbles.
I've been told that I'm a sucker, that they're playing me like a fiddle but I don't care. Besides reading a good book, nothing gives me more pleasure than watching those cats relish a meal that without me they wouldn't have.
It may takes years to write and sell my book, it may never come at all, but taking care of those two cats, and any others that show up at my doorstep, has become something of a mission for me. It's a feeling of knowing that however small, I am contributing something to this world if nothing more than just being the local cat lady.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Gearing up for Nanowrimo
I've got a plan. I've decided to spend the month of October writing an outline, character sketches, setting descriptions and more in order to be ready for Nanowrimo. For those who don't know, Nanowrimo is National Novel Writng Month and it happens every November thanks to the ingenuity of Chris Baty. I participated last in 2006 and am proud that I reached the finish line - a rough draft of 50,000 words.
For some of us, we need Nanowrimo to get our bottoms in the chair and our pens moving across the paper (or fingers tapping the keyboard). For me, having been a freelance writer used to working with a set deadline, fiction has been a tough change. As exciting as the prospect of creating worlds and stories is, I have found it very difficult to work every day without a deadline date circled on my calendar. I've even tried to make my own deadlines, only to see those dates come and gone and still no further along in my work.
Nanowrimo is the push that some writers need to get moving and keep moving. With a goal of 1,667 words to write daily, you not only have to answer to yourself, but to the thousands of other particpants that flock to the Nanowrimo boards. Some days it can be exciting and the words flow like water bursting a dam. Then there are those days where each word is achingly slow, painfully placed on the page, while a little voice (that nasty inner editor) whispers "it's no good anyway". Yet you churn on, eager to exchange your daily word count with fellow Nanowrimos.
So with my copy of "No Plot? No Problem!", the famous Chris Baty book, in my hand and a fresh new notebook on my desk, I sit here bright eyed, planning, dreaming and waiting for November 1st, for yet another chance to put that novel on paper that I know I can write.
For some of us, we need Nanowrimo to get our bottoms in the chair and our pens moving across the paper (or fingers tapping the keyboard). For me, having been a freelance writer used to working with a set deadline, fiction has been a tough change. As exciting as the prospect of creating worlds and stories is, I have found it very difficult to work every day without a deadline date circled on my calendar. I've even tried to make my own deadlines, only to see those dates come and gone and still no further along in my work.
Nanowrimo is the push that some writers need to get moving and keep moving. With a goal of 1,667 words to write daily, you not only have to answer to yourself, but to the thousands of other particpants that flock to the Nanowrimo boards. Some days it can be exciting and the words flow like water bursting a dam. Then there are those days where each word is achingly slow, painfully placed on the page, while a little voice (that nasty inner editor) whispers "it's no good anyway". Yet you churn on, eager to exchange your daily word count with fellow Nanowrimos.
So with my copy of "No Plot? No Problem!", the famous Chris Baty book, in my hand and a fresh new notebook on my desk, I sit here bright eyed, planning, dreaming and waiting for November 1st, for yet another chance to put that novel on paper that I know I can write.
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