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Apr 2

50K by June 1st

I am now officially debt free. It feels good, but the work isn’t done yet. I still have to tackle some of my other financial goals. Time to rebuild my savings, turn my focus on retirement (it’s never to early to start), and get that down payment for a house. All of these goals are long term, so in the immediate future, I shifting more attention to writing.

I’ve been slow these first few months of the year. I always am, so now is about the time I will shift into a more productive mode. So, I’m setting new goal for the next two months.

I want 50,000 words of my novel done.

I have no idea how much I currently have. It’s half written/half typed. I’m not sure where I left off and the book needs to be organized. It’s screaming for attention and I’m going to give it. So from now to June 1, I am going to try my hardest to get to 50K.

Feb 23

The Power of Intentional Intensity

Here I am at the end of February and I’m almost debt free. Crazy to realize this, but I’m so close, I can almost feel it. A year ago, heck 6 months ago, I wouldn’t have believed it. It felt impossible. I remember day dreaming in August and thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if by my birthday all my debt was gone?” I was just dreaming then.

Now, I’m awake.

In June 2016, my debt was about $12, 700. Now I’m at $4,900 and it’ll get even lower in a week or so. (Once I get my next paycheck.) For anyone out there who is struggling, just know that it is possible. I didn’t win the lottery, or sell a kidney. I just worked, sold things, and sucked up my pride and moved in with my folks. After a bit of a shock of living together again, things are going well. Still, I’m itching to have my own place again. This time though, I’ll be an owner.

One drawback is my writing time. I just haven’t had a lot of it. My novel sits untouched these past few months. I have neglected it. Morning time to write is no longer available. My mother is an early riser, so by the time I get up, the house is alive with sounds. But like I said in August, if the old routine isn’t working – Change. I may end up carving out a weekend writing schedule and the rest of the week is devoted to publishing business stuff. I’ll try it. My work may take longer to get done, but I’d rather have something written than nothing at all.

I’ve seen how the small steps add up over time. I see it with my writing, getting my education, and paying off my debts. Slow and steady will make a difference. It’s a hard lesson to learn and I have had set backs. From getting furloughed at my job, to getting lots of rejections, sometimes I want what I want when I want it. And the universe usually pats me on the head and then knocks me around. I felt this the hardest last summer when I wanted to buy a house. The universe was not having that. Looks like it was right to stop me. This way is much better.

Went to AWP a few weeks ago. Gosh, it has been so long since I’ve gone to a writing conference. This one was HUGE and I only went for one day. My fellow writers and I sat through panels, walked the book fair and I saw plenty of other folks (even a few famous writers!!!). Sometimes it’s good to remind yourself that you are in a community and surround yourself with other like-minded people. I know it gave me a bit of a jolt to see so many of us in one place. The saying is true – Writing is a solitary act. Often we are so wrapped up in our own work, we forget to be part of a community too. Celebrate your fellow writers! Go to their readings. If you have the money, go to the conferences and book fairs. AWP energized me and reminded me that it not just about the work.

It’s about living in the world and creating work from those experiences.

Dec 20

2 Comments

Busy. Not much writing.

I wish I could say I’ve been hard at work writing, but real life sometimes has to take the priority. Moving, day job, and all the other things that get in the way of writing have been coming first. We all know how that goes. Sometimes you just don’t get to everything you want to do.

I have been looking over what I have done this year and I am glad I managed to finish a few short stories, start a few more, and make some progress on my novel. It’s better than nothing. While I won’t get anywhere the 500K word count I hoped for this year, I hope to try again next year. Also, I’m still submitting and keeping track.

This was the first year I made money as a fiction writer. Not much. A few bucks and I’ll take it!

After that achievement, I’m not going back. I’m only submitting to places that pay. No more of this exposure compensation. I understand why some people do it when you don’t have a single credit. But I’ve got a few now and I am ready to be more professional. My work is worth something and I should be compensated for it.

So now I’m only submitting to places that pay (including token payments) and trying to write 500K in one year are my goals (so far) for 2017. Wrapped up in those goals is to finish my novel and other unfinished stories. Not sure about my reading goals yet. But stay tuned.

Oct 6

End of September 2016 – Short Story September is a Bust

Not much left to say. This September challenge was a bust. Between my internet deciding after 4 years it would just not work anymore and me getting a bad cold at the end of September, I didn’t finish much.

Seriously, how did I get sick? I haven’t had a cold in…three (?) years? But there I was in the last few days of the month blowing my nose and guzzling cold meds.

Internet is all fixed too. I just felt like I was on the phone everyday. It would work for about an hour at a time. Then, I would have to restart something… again. Honestly, I’m tired just thinking about it. Glad it’s over.

So, I finished one chapter of my book. And started 3 other short stories. I’ll try to get the rest finished by the end of this month. So far this year hasn’t been very productive for me. I’ve gotten a few finished chapters of my book and two stories.

I’d like more, but it is what it is. At least I’m still writing, even if it is slow going.

Sep 6

Summer 100K Results & Beginning of Short Story September

I haven’t finished typing up everything I wrote for the months of July and August 2016, but as I said before, I didn’t hit 100K words. I still estimate that it will be closer to 10 – 11K in words. This is a huge feat when you consider I had barely 1, 000 words this year. Once I finish typing it all up, I’ll give the final results (hopefully this week). So what happened that kicked my productivity into overtime? Here are a few things:

Change of Routine

July chugged along and I didn’t have much success, so in August I threw the game plan out the window and radically changed my routine. Up until that time, I had been an evening writer. My routine was to wake up, have a breakfast, work (I work from home full-time now.), workout, shower, dinner, and then finally write. You know what? By the time I got my workout in, showered, and ate, the last thing I felt like doing was writing. I just wanted to turn my brain off and watch TV or surf the net.

I had tried working out in the morning, but I couldn’t do it. I’m an early riser, but I liked working out at the end of my day after sitting in front of my computer. I was used to writing in the evening, because that’s what I did when I went to an office. But once I started working from home, I had no evening commute. So I got lazy and pushed the time further and further back until I was writing at the same time some TV show was on that I didn’t want to miss. (Side note: I don’t have cable so no DVR.)

So I told myself starting in August I was going to write first thing in the morning. I woke up and before I got dressed, looked at the news, or ate any food, I would write. And it worked. The pages started to pile up. Chapters got finished. I no longer felt worn out or tired when I wrote. I also didn’t feel guilty about staring at the TV, or going out at night. Before I would beat myself up for not writing, but now I could say – I got some writing in this morning. I’m good.

Consistency

Not everyday was perfect. I missed 6 days in August. But today is the 22nd day in a row I have written some fiction. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t want to break the streak. That can be addictive. I would say to myself You’ve made it 10 days, why not go for 11? And I would pick up my notebook and get a few words down, happy as a clam that the streak was still alive. Some days I still had to write at night, but mostly these were morning writing words. They were the first things done before the rest of the world got moving.

Speed

I have accepted at this point in my writing life, I am not a fast writer. I don’t get 1,000 words written a day. I get closer to 200-300 words done. While I admire those that can churn out fast copy, it’s not me. Frankly, I’d rather be slow, but consistent. The words do add up. Maybe one day I will build up my speed, but right now, I just want to be consistent again. Once in a while, I will do a marathon day, but that will burn me out. Yesterday was Labor Day in the US, and a holiday for most. I spent about 5 hours or so finishing a story. I happy it’s done, but I don’t want to do that everyday.

Conclusion

I’m going to stick with this routine until it doesn’t work anymore. That’s the most valuable thing I learned. When your routine doesn’t serve your needs, it’s time to change it. You might have great success.

Also I want to make a note that it is time for my annual challenge to myself called Short Story September. I started in 2014 writing a new short story every week. Last year (2015) I tried writing a story everyday, with not so great results. So I’m back to a new story every week. I’ve already started the story for this week and hope to be done by Saturday. I’m also writing a novel, so I may switch things up and work on that this month too. Either way I want 4 new short stories and/or 4 new chapters.

Submissions are also chugging along. I’m at 55 rejections, and I have four currently out for consideration. Hope to have a few more by the end of the month.

Thanks everyone for reading. Happy Writing!

 

Aug 30

Not Going to Hit 100K, But That’s OK…

I have two more days until the end of the challenge, but I already know I’m not going to hit my goal for the summer. I’m bummed, because I wanted to really knock it out of the park. I’m so jealous of those people who can easily write thousands and thousands of words in a short amount of time. I guess that is a speed I’ll have to build up to.

But I’m still pretty proud of what I did do.

As I said before, I hand write almost everything. So I haven’t typed up all my words yet for the summer. I believe it will come in around 10-11K worth of words. Not bad considering that is one completed short story and I’m deep into chapter three of my novel. I’m so proud that I actually have two completed chapters of my novel. This is from almost nothing at the beginning of July.

I’ll take it.

Another great thing? For the month of August I have written 23 out of 29 days. (I don’t count today,  because I haven’t gotten my writing finished. BUT I will.) I still have two more days of writing to go. I plan to use them to finish another short story.

In a longer post (probably over the weekend.), I’ll go into more depth on how I did as well as the final word count. And an update on my submission journey.

Later folks!

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