Friday September 22, 2023

Hello!

Sometimes we need to stop and take a look at our goals and decide if they are still what we want. We need to know if we are following our path, or if we managed to step off into the bush.

Do we want to stay in the bush? It could be fun and exciting.

Do we want to get back to where we were?

Is there a new, more important goal we need to be accountable for?

My goal is to become a published author. To be traditionally published (unless I go with a smaller publishing house), I need an agent. To get an agent, I need to finish my book.

I have no other goal that is as all-consuming as becoming a published author, preferably at one of the big publishing houses.

Last year, when I went back to work, I stopped writing for two months. This year, I am struggling to write during the week. I am writing, but not the plus-thousand words I became used to during the summer months. It’s frustrating because I can’t seem to do what I used to. It’s frustrating because this is not new. I’ve had this schedule for nearly twenty years. You’d think I’d be used to it by now.

My goal hasn’t changed, but how I get there looks like it will need to be adjusted.

The plan is to aim for a thousand words each day Friday to Monday. I don’t milk the cows Friday or Monday, so I can have a nap before I write (not joking). The weekend is easy, even when I have the writer’s group meeting for two and a half hours.

That’s my plan. I hope it works. I’d have to check, but I think I followed this schedule for several months last year. Not writing one thousand words, that’s new, but a four day writing week.

I really want to have this draft of my ghost story done by the end of this year, but I don’t know if I am able to get back to one-thousand words a day/6-thousand a week.

Last night I was listening to the podcast “Publishing Rodeo: The Good, The Bad, and the Bloody Ugly”. Episode 26 with Kameron Hurley: Why Don’t We Just Quit? Oh, wow. It was a sobering episode. What sticks in my mind are the reasons people quit writing. Basically, while writing is hard, the publishing world is unforgiving.

This is getting long, so I’ll stop here. Listen to The Publishing Rodeo. It’s very interesting. I hope you’ve had a great week. Until next time.

Jewel

“Give someone a book, they’ll read for a day. Teach someone how to write, they’ll experience a lifetime of paralyzing self doubt.” Lauren DeStefano