Losses – Page 2 – Jo Ann Schneider

06
Jun 18
0

Progress Made-Month Five of Being a Full-Time Author

As usual, I started the month off with way too much to do.

I’m like a kid in a candy store whose eyes are bigger than their stomach…

Ooh, a novel to finish. Ooh, a novella to edit. Ooh, covers to pick. Ooh, another novella. Ooh, a rough draft to write. Ooh, an anthology I could write something for. Ooh, two new projects. Ooh, marketing (okay, it’s more like “ewe, marketing”).

I knew there was too much. After four months of missing my goals, I decided I wanted to set reasonable expectations. You know, so I might be able to celebrate at the end of the month instead of being frustrated again.

I went so far as to write down everything I wanted to do, then cut it back to everything I knew I had to do. Then I went through everything that had to get finished and assigned hours to it. (I know, I know, not very creative, but there you go.) Then I calculated how many writing hours I had in the month. Then I compared them.

The hours were exactly the same.

And I know myself. Something always comes up, so I knew something would slip.

I moved forward anyway. I put everything that didn’t need to get done this month on the back burner, prioritized what had to get finished and in what order and dove in.

Guess what?

Almost everything got done.

I’m so excited!

Finally. Finally. Finally I have something to show for five months of writing. It’s been a long road, but I have to tell you that it’s been worth it!

Book five of my Jagged Scars series is out. I finished two novellas and have them ready to go. I’ve started advertising. The wheels are finally moving.

Have sales rocketed? No. But they’re steady. And growing, which is good.

So I guess this is my new process for my monthly goals. I already laid out this month, and it looks good.

02
May 18
0

Wins and Losses-Month Four of Being a Full-Time Author

Tags : Full-Time Author Losses Wins

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.

14
Mar 18
1

Month Two as a Full-Time Author

Tags : Full-Time Author Losses Wins

Yes, this is a little late, because the hubby and I were on a cruise at the beginning of the month. Still, I thought I would report on my full-time authoring.

At the beginning of the year, I laid out my writing goals for 2018. They were, to say the least, lofty. But that’s okay, right, because if you shoot for the stars and only hit the moon, you still hit the moon. Right? Something like that anyway.

Well, as I’ve already mentioned, February got blown up. I started out with twenty writing days. That got cut to eighteen, then the fifteen then to twelve, and then to ten. The only one I had planned for was two days for a local writing conference. The other eight days got sucked away by different things.

First off, my old work called me in for three days. Pretty sure I mentioned that already. My hubby got laid off, got a new job and then we went on a cruise between jobs. (I know, I know, my life is hard.) So three days went to the cruise, and two days went to prep.

None of these things are bad things, but they did interrupt my writing schedule in a big way.

So I had a grand total of ten writing days in February. And guess what happened to my February goals? Yup, most of them are still sitting on my list, staring at me, wondering when they will get worked on.

I reluctantly pulled out my Q1 goals, and saw that not many of them are going to get met either. Which puts several of my 2018 goals in jeopardy. Which does not make me happy.

I thought about leaving most of my goals “as is” and trying to play catch up, but then I realized how frustrating that would be, and decided to revamp instead.

But what is there to do about it? I can’t exactly turn back time. There’s only one way to go, and that’s forward.

So in order to salvage what is left of March, I wrote down all of the projects I’m working on and their due dates. Then I arranged them in order of priority, printed the list out and stuck it right next to my monitor. I wanted to get to marketing my Jagged Scars series this month, but considering the last book and the last novella of the series aren’t finished yet, there’s no point.

Productivity is my biggest concern this year. January went well. February faltered. March is looking…iffy. But I’m going to do my very best to recover what I can.

I hate missing goals, but it’s going to happen. I keep telling myself to breathe and keep going.

31
Jan 18
0

Month One as a Full-Time Author

Tags : Losses Month One Wins

I started this full-time author gig four weeks ago.

On that first day, I rejoiced. I had a daily schedule. I had goals. I had dreams. I wasn’t quite sure how it would turn out, but I knew it would be glorious.

Fast Forward to today.

What’s been working?

Writing. I’ve done a lot of writing. I decided that I was tired of letting Jagged Scars book 5 push me around, so I’ve spent most of January rewriting it. For the fourth time. But this time it’s going to stick, and it should be to my editor by midnight tonight!

Who makes crazy goals the first month of their new career? That’s right, this girl.

Blogging is working. Well, I’ve blogged every week this month, which was my goal. That’s a win. I think I’m going to try to do movie or book reviews every other week.

Flash Fiction Friday has been really fun. I use it as a way to drop my brain out of my work in process and force it to think sideways for an hour or so. I’ve loved the randomness of it, and the stories aren’t bad. My rotten, err awesome, hubby comes up with better ideas than I do, so there’s that. I keep telling him to write the story, but he’s a baby. (That’s right, I’m calling you out, honey.)

I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with my serial series Babes in Spyland. Well, I’m giving the original an overhaul this year, then I plan to write a lot more of it in the years to come. I spent quite a few hours reading through the first five seasons this month, and I’m churning ideas for it already. This is going to be big. Stay tuned for more info later this year.

What’s not working?

Confession time. The thing I’m having the most trouble with is exercising right after I get up in the morning. I’ve been getting up and showering and then going to work or school for like thirty years. I’ve been doing my Kempo class in the evenings since the early 2000s. I’m a morning person, but this getting up and, instead of showering, donning exercise clothes and then exercising is awful.

I think I can comfortably compare it to giving up your morning coffee. It throws me way off. The few days I actually did it, I felt okay, but it took everything I had to drag my sorry butt out of bed, put on my sweats and do it. I should write down the arguments I lose. With myself!

I’ve still been exercising almost every day, but I usually end up doing it during the afternoon, which cuts into writing time, which isn’t good.

Going to bed on time and then getting up on schedule has been rough too. So I need to work on that. As the prince in Ever After says, “Apparently I lack conviction.”

The one thing I totally dropped the ball on (and when I say dropped, I mean tossed it over my shoulder into the corner and purposely forgot about it) is marketing. I did a little, but not much. I felt strongly about getting this book finished first, so marketing begins in February. Which means I sold a total of five books this month on Amazon. Which is horrible, but I didn’t do any marketing, so it makes sense. I’ll have to set a reasonable goal for next month. Double my sales? (Kidding, it’s going to be way more than that!)

So far I haven’t missed my day job. I’m busy enough that the hours fly by and suddenly it’s evening and I’m off to do something besides writing. I do miss more people interaction, so I’ll have to see what I can do about that before I become a strange old cat lady who never leaves her house. Well, except I’m allergic to cats.

All in all things are going well. Thank you to everyone who has supported me through this change. I’m still excited. I’ll report again next month.

Newer posts→

Tag Archives: Losses

Jun 18

0

Progress Made-Month Five of Being a Full-Time Author

May 18

0

Wins and Losses-Month Four of Being a Full-Time Author

Writing Wins:

Not so much wins:

Conclusion:

Mar 18

1

Month Two as a Full-Time Author

Jan 18

0

Month One as a Full-Time Author

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