Week 1 - Trial Runs and Helpful Hints

So here we are—one week into my personal challenge of writing a book per month for the duration of 2024. How did I do?

Not too bad. Not perfect, but not awful enough to plunge me into despair and self-doubt and make me give up within twenty-four hours of the start of the new year. I did that with my resolution to eat better. Went out January 2 for supplies and bought Mounds bars and Cheese Doodles and other unhealthy stuff, which I binged on over the rest of the week. This is not how diets work. Still, it wasn’t a resolution per se, so I can let it go. I just have to be careful not to do that again. Or not do it too often. Maybe I can sneak up on a healthy diet and then give up junk food for Lent. Kind of a practice run. Like the way I’m sneaking up on exercise. I leave the house and move around every other day. Once the weather gets better it’ll be every day. As I phase out the junk food (in particular bakery goods and candy bars with all their processed sugar) the pounds will drop off slowly without undue exercise. By the time spring rolls around and temperatures start to rise, I won’t be hauling around as much body fat and will actually want to move more. I’m slowly getting myself up to the point where I can stroll around stores without using a cart as a walker.

Slow, incremental changes appear to be the key, at least for me. I’ve tried self-challenges and resolutions in the past. My biggest problem seems to be piling too much on my plate at once. Then I get overwhelmed, give up in despair, and go back to my old bad habits. I do this with writing, too. It’s part of the reason I went on an unshakeable block for most of last year. Girl, relax. Build up those muscles, physical and mental, a bit at a time. Every day you do something instead of nothing is a win. Pretty soon the habit muscles will strengthen and you can push yourself a little further. I want to lose five pounds by the end of the month. That’s doable. Losing too much weight too fast isn’t good for you anyway.

I will not be giving up pizza. Just cutting back. My plan there is to treat myself to pizza every time I finish a book. That’s not too bad. Every time I sub something, I’ll have pizza and a soda. Yeah, there’s my motivation.

You’re welcome to try this approach as well, Keep in mind we’re all different, so your mileage may vary.

And now, the Week 1 update, positive division. I started work on a shapeshifter romance, and continued work on the original side project, which is currently in its second draft. I’ve been able to write at least a little something on one or the other, sometimes both, every day. I haven’t had to resort to flash fill-ins at all. I haven’t touched any computer games since at least three weeks before the start of the new year. My attitude has been upbeat, for the most part. I’ve been sleeping better. The fact I’m able to write and post two blogs within a week is a major triumph in itself. All this is while I’m working on a paid assignment which is due this Friday. See that? A couple deep breaths, a reduction in sugar consumption, and miracles can happen.

Things I need to work on: My resolve does tend to peter out as the week wears on. More than once I caught myself slipping back into my well-worn procrastination habits. They’re mainly tied to the laptop (that’s where the internet and all its siren distractions live) but I’ve got a couple of tricks to get me through. For one, I can write longhand, where the Web can’t get at me. That’ll work for the romance, but not for the other one. That one’s already longhand; I’m trying to type it into the system, rewriting as I go. For that I just go for a music channel and tie up the WiFi while I type on the hard drive. Once I get going I don’t have a problem. It’s the “get going” part where I stumble. If things get really bad I’ll just unplug the WiFi. I’ve found if I don’t write first thing in the morning, other obligations start getting in the way and I never get around to the manuscripts. Those are the days I end up frantically scribbling flash scenes right before bed. That cropped up a couple of times this week. Fortunately, I was able to scribble scenes from my works in progress rather than random flash. Eventually my lazy subconscious will realize it’s not going to win and back off. I wanted to write this post two days ago, but the bastard kept distracting me. And yet here we are. Take that, asshole!

Finally, a simple tip I got from Dr. Google is helping me tame my insomnia. Being old, I tend to go to bed early (average bed time, 10 pm) and get up at least once, sometimes two or three times, to clean the pipes. All too often I find I can’t fall back to sleep. That’s when the negative thoughts creep in. Every mistake I’ve ever made, every bad thing that’s happened to me, comes blasting back like a crappy rerun on TV Land. When I do finally fall asleep, I wake up afterwards feeling like shit on toast. Naturally, my attitude is in the hopper. You can imagine how my writing goes.

 The worst time for this is between 2 and 4 am. How do I know? Because I’ve been checking the clock. Dr. Google’s solution: don’t check the clock, especially if it’s one of those digital ones with the glowing screen. Not only does seeing the time stress you out, the blue light messes with your sleep hormones and helps keep you awake. So last week I stopped checking the time when I got up for my pee breaks. And son of a poodle with a litter of puppies, it worked. I do my business, crawl back into bed, lie there for maybe a minute and then drop right off. When I do wake up and look at the clock, it’s around 5-6 am and I’d be getting up anyway. If you’re having sleep problems, give this a try. Again, your mileage may vary.

This week I’m going to see about shutting down the laptop at 7 pm because I’ve been having off-and-on problems with falling asleep to begin with.  You’re supposed to avoid screens at least an hour before bed. I already blew that one today because I wanted to write this blog, so I’ll have to kick that off tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it works out. See you next week!

 

  

If at First...

 

Welp, here we are.

It’s been just short of a year since I announced I was going to write a romance series (eight books total) at the pace of roughly one book a month over the course of the coming year. Checking back over my posts, that was September 21, 2022.

As you can tell, the writing didn’t happen.

However, a lot of other stuff did. I got punched in the wallet by an unexpected tax bill, followed by quarterly tax payments. Then there was the tooth infection, which turned into an expensive root canal. In between receiving the tax bill and getting the tooth fixed, I began bleeding from my lady parts. That can be scary when you’re a decade past menopause. I’m getting surgery done later this month. Even scarier, my freelance job, which has been covering expenses for me since 2015, began to dry up. Over the last several months the assignments have slowed to a trickle, and I can’t in good conscience look for other employment until the issue with my lady parts has been resolved. Be hell to land a new job only to have to tell the boss, “Sorry, I can’t start on Monday. The bulb burned out on my Easy Bake Oven and it has to go into the shop. How about I start next month? Is that good for you?”

Then there’s that issue with my right eye, the one the optometrist told me has developed a cataract, which began acting up around the same time as the tooth, and I only had funds to deal with one. I never did get the eye looked at.

Definitely should have put more effort into completing the book-a-month challenge last year. Or the year before that. I might have had a bit more disposable income to dispense to the doctors and dentists. Yeah well. You know what they say. Life’s a bitch.

They also say try, try again.

Which brings us to the here and now. At the moment my publisher’s still in business, I still get assignments here and there and there’s absolutely nothing on TV. Between that and all the extra free time, I don’t see why I can’t churn out a 45K-50K sex book every four-five weeks or so. I can also go prospecting through all my old notebooks for straw to spin into gold. Gotta do something on the weekends.

Now all I need is a kick in the pants. Oh wait, my utility bill almost doubled this summer due to me running the AC during the various heat waves. And winter heating season’s coming up. And the annual homeowners and car insurance bills. Reminds me of a tale once told by mystery writer Mickey Spillane. Heavily paraphrased, he said, “I used to take walks on the beach, waiting for inspiration. Then my accountant called and told me the bank account was running low. Man, did I get inspired.” Preach, Brother Mickey, preach.

***

It’s not quite as bad as it sounds up there. I did write a book last year, the one I used as a side project to keep words hitting paper when I kept stalling out on the series. I even finished it. I’m on the second draft now, and it’s going great guns. Now that I know the story and the characters better, I can spot and fix all the problems. It’ll probably mean almost totally rewriting the entire first half, but I’m getting all sorts of great ideas and fresh inspirations. I didn’t even have to walk on the beach. The third draft should be golden. Any time I get stuck on the series books I’ll just hop back to this one, and vice versa. If all else fails, I’ve got another possible series waiting in the wings. It’s still in the nebulous stages, though, so I’ll let it simmer for a while.

So once more into the breach. I will write a book a month this year. I don’t have much of a choice. I’ve never had to live with credit card debt and I don’t aim to start. To keep myself on track, and accountable, I’m throwing myself back into the habit of posting a blog once a week. I promise you, every Monday something will appear in this space. Might be an update, might be a rant, might be an excerpt or even a flash scene. Maybe I’ll post redacted copies of my hospital bills. Let them serve as a warning to others. You might have a good job now and be healthy as a horse, but that can change in the blink of an eye. Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel. Happy writing!

The Year of Writing Dangerously

 

Okay, let’s do this one last time (props if you can identify that quote):

Whoa. Has it really been a year since I was here last? Time we fixed that, don’t you think?

I thought so. The last year has been spent mostly working, dealing with (possible) depression and procrastination issues, and writing a book longhand so I wouldn’t get distracted by all the shiny objects on the Intranetz. That book, by the way, wasn’t one of the ones I had planned for that paranormal romance series I’ve been talking about since, oh, around the dawn of time. After I started three different books in the same series and found myself blocked on all three, I switched gears, picked up a pen and notebook and wrote something completely off the wall in an entirely different genre. I figured I needed a break.

Jump ahead to the past weekend. The side project is wrapping up, and even though it’s got a ton of work to go before it’s market-ready, I’m damn proud of it. I started dipping my toes in the series water again, this time going back to Book #1. (I’d already completed Book #3 about two years ago. Books #1, 2, 4 and 7 got started but petered out on me.) With one project wrapping up, I’ve got a decision to make: take another stab at the series, or go on to something else? Or both? Or neither?

Or finally quit the futzing around, knock off the procrastination BS, and commit to being a writer. It’s been my dream, I’ve got the time, I’ve got the income, I’ve got ideas, and it’s not like I’m getting any younger.

And so was born my own personal challenge: over the next year, from September 20, 2022 to September 20, 2023, I’m going to kick the excuses to the curb and actually sit down and write, with publication as my endgame. The main goal will be the completion of the paranormal romance series, all eight volumes of it. With an average book length of 35K-40K words, eight books in twelve months is doable. And expected, if you want to make it in e-book publishing. I picked the series because I know it has a home waiting, so I don’t have to stress about queries and agents and stuff. Those issues I’ll save for the side project, which will be entering the market cold, possibly under a brand-new pen name. I also have a couple other possible side projects waiting in the wings, aimed at the YA market. Just in case I need a break to keep me fresh and productive.

This blog will be my journal of this year-long attempt at writing success, providing an ongoing kick in the pants to make sure I stay on target. This is how I’m going to hold myself accountable. Writing is hard, and the world is not supportive. The world doesn’t care what you do. You have to make the world care, by caring about your dreams and goals and not giving up for anything. That means planting the butt at the keyboard and committing stories to screen instead of playing Spider Solitaire all afternoon. If you want your dreams to become your reality, sacrifices must be made.

I also want to talk about the side project: its origins, its evolution, how it surprised me and re-energized me and helped me to stretch and grow as a writer. (I think I can identify themes now. Yay!) I’m going to need frequent reminders that there will be bad days, sleepless nights, highs balanced out by lows (and vice versa), ups and downs and monotonous flatlands, writer’s blocks and manic stretches, and plenty of darkness before the light of dawn. Any and all positive solutions I find to the negatives, I’ll record here. If someone else can learn from my ignorant stumbles, so much the better.

I can’t promise how often I’ll post. I’m aiming for weekly. We’ll play it by ear. I’ll try to keep topics writing-related, but any subject is fair game. Who knows? Some off-the-wall topic could spark an idea for a story. That’s how the side project happened. Maybe I’ll talk about that next. See you soon, and happy writing!