checking in

Last week had its challenges. All of my produced words weren't gold--by any means--but I kept my butt in the chair, didn't get sidetracked by new work-writing possibilities, or that next new, bright and shiny (or old, dim and dull) novel idea, and kept writing. End result? About 8000 words--I say 'about' because some of this draft was handwritten and I haven't typed everything up yet. I didn't make my 1500 words every single day, but I did make it more than half the time. So, I'm ready to plow into the new week.

Whew! Forgot E-Mail and Password

I'm back! I couldn't get in to JaNo because I couldn't remember how. I have left bread crumbs this time to find my way back in and out.

I've been snowed under with a writing project that has had a few unexpected twists and turns, including writer's block, and as soon as I get that finished (which really HAS to be today) I am back to my real work, which is writing novels.

Notice the use of plural. Novels. Not novel. Because I am going to write more than one. Right after I finish this one.

I'm disappointed with my "progress" this year so far. I've got lots of excuses but not enough gold stars on any calendar. Though I can't recapture that time, I can learn from this experience (can't I?) and accept no excuses. Write first. Make excuses for why I don't get the OTHER stuff done, not for my writing.

Looking for that white hot streak myself. Actually, any kind of streak will do provided it is not a losing streak.

Will try to post and comment more often. We are all moving forward, even if at different speeds.

Good luck! Write much. The more there is, the better it will be even if you throw a third out.

The month is not half over. In fact, it's more than half full.

Ready to March Forward

First I wanted to do 1000 words each day. Well, due to circumstances beyond my control that didn't happen. So, then I wanted to at least make up the "redo" work I lost from two computer crashes. Well, almost. Overall, I have a little over 17,000 for February, which is still less than the amount I lost, but more than I would have had if I didn't keep plowing forward. I'm not going to say part of this hasn't been psychological--I'm notorious for not wanting to redo work that wasn't my fault. But I'm not going to whine. I'm cranking up my goal to 1500 words a day for March and marching forward.

Just try to keep up with me (grin).

Not my fault!

Okay, I'm very late in posting my progress--but that's because some nasty person on the internet apparently wanted to thwart my writing efforts. I had some weird security alerts pop up at the end of last week, and gave me fits when I tried to access various web pages--including this one. I hung back a little and stewed over things, talked to some friends, and as my internet access continued to shrink, I started doing a system back up to DVDs and then yesterday did a full reformatting of my laptop. Several friends told me there are a number if icky things rearing their active little heads that are worming and virusing their way into any systems that show a chink in the armor. I've always used McAfee, and had it going the whole time, but when I did my virus scan late last week it did actually have to isolate 8 viruses that had gotten through it.

The reformat makes my system clean and run very nicely this morning, and after I get all my necessary files back on that should be the best part of the story. Unfortunately, when I finished the reformat last night (really about one in the morning) I pulled the couple of disks I particularly need on my computer and tried to reload the files. Emphasis on tried. Apparently, I also now have a DVD reader/writer that will write to disk, but then can't read what it wrote. I can read all the CDs and older copied DVDs that I want. But not the latest.

So, now to my progress--or I guess I should say regress. I have a copy of my wip that I emailed myself a couple of weeks ago, so instead of gaining the 7000 words I wrote last week, I'm back about 18,000. However, I'm not daunted. I know where I've been and it will be much easier to find my way back. I'm just glad I never back up only one way.

Challenges; what would we do without them?

challenged but still game

I was going to wait and make my confessions tomorrow, but I just received the most wonderful email from my accountability partner and felt ready to hit the blog tonight. Anne, you're my hero.

This has been a very challenged week--not challenging, as that implies a lot of highs--but challenged, as in I had to push a lot to get through each day and its barriers. I've allowed myself to get into one of those pragmatic moods, where I don't allow myself to expect things to get worse, but I keep saying "isn't something going to go easy?".

So why did all that change with the email from Anne? Simple--she put the week into perspective. She can see my life more clearly than I can right now simply because she's 1500 miles away and looking in via my daily messages. She reminded me of how I didn't kill a doctor I was sent to interview who was a complete waste of time, and still figured out how to get an article despite his attempt to torpedo my efforts. She reminded that I will be able to send out at least 6 contest entries Feb 1st for a big yearly contest one of my writers groups holds for members, and may even squeak through with a 7th--and best of all, several of the entries will mean probable sales in publications, and will definitely lighten my load in future months as at least one of the entries will mean I will likely already have three monthly columns completed way ahead of time. She reminded me that I had an epiphany in my JaNo fiction project this week, and though I may have to push to get my goal by the end of the week, the fact that I hit this "mountain top experience" means "it's tough then to come down from the mountain."

So what if I didn't get my fiction writing goal yesterday. I still have a few hours to double today's output to make it up and congratulate myself.

Part of my way of starting the new year was to get a calendar just to document my writing each day. Mine has beautiful pictures of gloriously green Ireland, and at the end of each day I hurriedly sketch out how many words I've written on each project I've worked. You would think that while I was feeling challenged I would have the simple brain power to go to my calendar, look at the progress I'd made this week, and just shrug everything off. But I didn't. It never even came to mind.

Instead, it took someone half a continent away to bring it all into focus for me. And having to account here makes me push harder each day to not look like a slacker to any of you either. I know that none of you are going to judge me--but if this group weren't here, who knows if I would push through at all. Those stone walls are awfully hard to break down, but luckily I have so many helpful people handing me the figurative sledge hammer.