Wins and Losses-Month Four of Being a Full-Time Author
The Montey Python boys say that I should always look on the bright side of life.
Johnny Mercer told me that I should accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.
Dozens of kitty and puppy memes a day tell me to be happy.
But it’s so easy to be grouchy!
Especially when things aren’t going exactly according to plan.
In an attempt to accentuate the positive, I’ve been writing wins and not so much wins each day in my journal. It helps remind me that some things are going well, and others—while perhaps unexpected—are awesome.
So that’s what my report for April is going to be.
Writing Wins:
Re-wrote the last book of my Jagged Scars series (again and for the last time) and got it back to my editor
Finished my fairy tale retelling—beta readers loved it!
Entered two flash fiction horror story contests.
Outlined and wrote 25k of a rough draft for New Sight 3.
Learned some marketing stuff.
Went on a super fun writing retreat!
Taught a class on writing action scenes. That went well.
Beta read a novel for a friend.
Blogged every week.
Put up Flash Fiction every week.
Not so much wins:
The rough draft of New Sight 3 was supposed to be finished on April 30th. It will be about 90k words.
I’m a few weeks behind on Jagged Scars 5 as well as a novella in that series.
Didn’t get any marketing done…because I was writing. I need to work on that.
I was supposed to start outlining my next project (just a few hours a week) but got nothing done on that.
Conclusion:
When I look at the good and then the not so good, I feel better than if I just focus on what didn’t get finished.
I took a few hours at the beginning of the month to layout Q2 of this year. And guess what? It’s already in danger.
But one thing came up that I wasn’t prepared for. I had the project I was going to work on after New Sight 3 all picked out, but I got distracted. You know how shiny, new ideas are, they’re so appealing and seductive. So now I’m trying to decide between the shiny new idea, or the awesome old idea. There are pros and cons to each, so I’m weighing them in an attempt to choose.
So basically I’m writing like mad, trying not to get distracted by the internet, family or anything else that comes up during my working time. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail.
