Here we are… already one month done into 2021! Yowzers!
And so, as promised, here I am again to document my challenges and wins as an author over the last month!
THE CHALLENGES
Well, let’s face it. The biggest challenge remains the fact that myself, my hubby, and my son are all home with each other 24/7 these days. The hubby and I are both working 100% from home since covid began (thank goodness we have that ability though!) and we made the choice to have our son do 100% virtual schooling for the foreseeable future, since his school offered that choice (again, thank goodness)!
However, that most definitely adds a whole lot of distractions to my day. Yes, the hubby is mostly busy with his own work all day. And yes, the kid is 10 and almost entirely self-sufficient… not to mention a great kid who is quite responsible and shows up to his live meetings on time and completes his assignments with absolutely no need for me to hound him relentlessly or babysit him. (Let me say this once more – thank goodness!!)
And yet… other bodies in the house still equals more distractions. Not to mention meal times take 3x longer.
So it has taken me a good long while to figure out the best way to adjust to this new reality. After 10 whole months, I think I’ve finally figured it out! (Probably right in time for things to go back to “normal” again, argh.)
In any event, in the last two weeks of January, I finally seemed to find a process that worked. I plan to keep it up for the foreseeable future. And that process is to wake up at 5:45am and get immediately to writing, then write right up until the minute my day job starts at 8am.
Well… okay… so I sometimes have to take some time out to get the kid’s breakfast ready, since he’s not a great cook just yet. But other than that, it’s writing 100% during that time.
I’ve also employed the Freedom app now for those hours, so I’m cut off from all my distracting social media websites. That more than anything has drastically helped my productivity! SCORE!!
THE WINS
According to my ideal publishing schedule for 2021, I need to write 17,250 words in January, February, March, and April in order to be able to publish Bones in Blackbird (The Legacy of Lucky Logan book 3) in May.
Well, it just so happens I managed to write 20,515 words in January! WOOT! So well above my minimum, and I am VERY happy with that number, especially given the challenges mentioned above!
Now, not ALL of those 20k words were on book 3, though. About 2k of them were on another steamy bonus short story I’m working on… so I suppose maybe my target wordcount goal was a little closer to minimum than it seems haha.
But in any event… I’m STILL happy with that count! It IS still above my minimum, and I’ve also managed a good start on another short story freebie that I’ll post here as well eventually.
For the rest of 2021, I’m going to try really hard to have some kind of short story or flash fic to post here every month. Most of them will likely revolved around my character Morgan Grace, but who knows what else might pop up here and there. Some will be steamy, like that short BATHTIME, yes… but others will just be regular ol’ action/adventure. Or maybe more sweet romantic fluff.
Basically, whatever I feel like writing at the time is what will go up here. 🙂
Because that’s another thing…
EMBRACING THE BARELY CONTROLLED CHAOS
I’ve come to realize I’m kind of a chaotic creative. In some areas of my life, I’m extremely organized and efficient… but when it comes to writing and my author business, I’m just really not that organized and efficient.
But I’m learning to be okay with that. I’m gradually streamlining and organizing the more businessy parts of the business, because that’s a bit more critical when it comes to needing to be organized… but for the creative part, and the actual writing part… I’m just letting go of all the notions that any one thing has to be done a certain way.
My brainstorming notes are all over the place. I used to think this was terrible and I should really find a better way to organize and save them all. But now my motto is just… fuck it. 😉
Ya know? What I’m doing now works well enough for me. So I’m just gonna keep rolling with it. And this blog is kinda all over the place… and I’m horrible at being very consistent with it… but ya know… I write a post when I’m feeling like I have something to say, and that’s enough for me.
The genres I want to write, too, are all over the place. They definitely have a core theme, I’m realizing now, but the genres are wide and varied. And that used to stress me out… but now… same motto as before… fuck it. 😀
I’m going to write what I love writing. Hopefully those that follow this blog or my social media or who have read any of my books will understand and come along for the ride. It should be an interesting one, at least, lol. But if you only really enjoy reading one kind of genre and the rest of my books don’t appeal to you, I understand! And no hard feelings. 🙂
NOVELS
So, yes! Bones in Blackbird is rolling right along! I’m having a freaking blast writing it! I’m still using the Writing Into the Dark method, where I don’t pre-plot. I do brainstorm, though, quite a lot. Often I do stream-of-consciousness brain-dumps about what might happen in the future of the book.
And through those I usually work out any problem areas, or think of new ideas to solve problems I didn’t even know I had yet! For example… I am almost to a part of the book where I don’t really know what’s going to happen. Am I panicking? No, not anymore. Doing this during book 2 still made me quite nervous, but I think I’m really getting used to it now!
I know our intrepid band of (anti) heroes needs to go in search of a crazy old woman. They will find her, and there will be some fun supernatural stuff happen at that point.
Right now I have no idea exactly how they end up at her house, nor do I have an exact idea of what kind of supernatural stuff will happen when they get there. But I do know I’ll figure that out right when I need to figure it out, so I’ll just keep writing and see where it takes me!
I’m about halfway done with the draft now!! Whoohoo! Which puts the book at right around 100,000 words. Slightly shorter than book 2. 🙂
I’ve been editing it as I write it, too, meaning I’ve already clocked in 160 pages of editing for the month of January, which saves me butt-loads of time later after this first draft is finished, since it’s a first draft that’s actually already very clean.
ALSO… I should be getting the mastered audio files for book 2 now VERY soon. My narrator Roger Clark sent me an email last night to that effect… so… YAY!
SHORTS
As mentioned, I have a good start on another super steamy short featuring Morgan Grace! It’s maybe halfway done, or almost halfway done. I’m very much enjoying writing these things… seems others really enjoyed reading the first one, too. It’s making me think of some ideas for some super steamy full-length novels…. 😀
Also have two more ideas for Morgan shorts involving her bounty hunting escapades! Hope to have those up here before too long!
FUTURE PLANNING
All of those ideas planted in December are still brewing! (The Logan and Annabelle standalone is getting REAL close to getting started, I can tell you that…)
I also have plans to commission some more art from one of my FAVORITE artists, and that art will be used in giveaways and also eventually available to buy on various merch.
I’ve also been in talks with an AMAZING composer about possibly composing an original soundtrack to go with my Legacy of Lucky Logan series!! <3 Yeah. SUPER excited about this one!!!
Also in February, I’ll be entering Bargain at Bravebank into some Indie Book Award contests… so stay tuned for news on those!
And that’s about it!
We’re still partying over on the Discord server as well, so if you’d like to join in the fun, just let me know and I’ll send you an invite!
Till next time…
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