ROW80-2 -10/04 -Snow-ish still, good for writing
April 10, 2019
Well, we're well into April and winter is still popping in now and then. That makes it easier to stay in and write, but dampens my enthusiasm for leisurely strolls of the neighbourhood. I suppose I'll have to blend them, as in stroll to a nearby cafe or pub with my laptop and work from there. I have been examining how to better market my existing two novels, and what to do with my growing collection of very short stories, my Flash Fiction. I'm enjoying cranking these out, as opposed to day after day of editing my novels. Lots of ideas for short story writing and marketing, but a focus will be needed.
Objectives (writerly and an 'other' section):
- Write - Because I do enjoy it. I'll set a new and very modest target of 1h/day, early in the day.
- Write new material - one draft Flash Fiction a week. Outline done for next story. No actual writing yet - later today.
- Edit existing material - to send in for publication - see below.
- Work on my next novel I think I'll drop this for now, as I focus on other stories.
- Write better - Read about how to write, and get constructive feedback.
- My main source of writing info is a series of writerly blogs. Objective -stay current. Yup, current.
- Continue with setting Flash Fiction prompts. Good for challenge, practice, and feedback. Objective - set a challenge a week.
- Resuming Masterclass on Storytelling, by Neil Gaiman. Completed #6, discussion of The Graveyard Book. #7 Short Fiction done.
- Publish/market - We publish partially for the glory and bags of money, but also for the feedback and increased marketability.
- I have many FF written already, here. I'll re-examine them, and send off one a week to some publishers. Working on a plan -review my FF to assess which are good as-is, which need work; send some off to publishers, survey existing FF books to see prices and content; gather mine into a beta version; get feedback.
- Facebook ad is done, gathered some likes, but need to tweak these better.
- I adjusted my Amazon Marketing Campaigns on KDP for my two Kindle books. Getting some hits and sales.
- Discovered that to get a print version in my KDP account, rather than publisher's, we need to un-publish then re-publish. My publisher could send me the cover and text files, but I'm not sure if it's worth it.
- Read with purpose
- Objective - read and review a book a week. Reading Circe.
- Better health
- It's spring now. Set Fitbit target to 3500 steps a day. Objective - 7 day average 3500. 7 day average higher, 3171
- Set sleep target to 7.5 hours, starting at midnight. Objective - 5 times a week. Erratic, but still 7h, 5/7 days.
- Stay social - That's a given, what with walking about, visits to local cafes and bars, and all my grandkids being in Ottawa. I'm getting to be a regular at my new local. Good and bad thing. I am talking up my writing and giving out cards.
- Again, limits for some of this. No more than three pub visits a week. 5/7 days last week.
- Have fun - Gaming, Netflix - both indoors. Outdoors? I had this objective last year for casual fun, like Netflix and video games. But now gaming, and Twitch streaming, has grown to several hours a day, at various times, for various durations. Sometimes I have viewers to chat with, sometimes not.
- Set up a regular schedule (try again!)
- Using Map My Walk to track my exercise, when I remember to trun it on and off. Fit Bit still better
- Chores - I added this to capture bigger jobs. None tackled yet - all too big. Need to sub-divide. Taxes??
Ohhh, how is the Neil Gaiman masterclass? I want to take it but simply don't have the time this year. Is it amazing and worthwhile? Have you tried the podcast "Writing Excuses"? It's a lot of great information about all parts of the writing process all in ~20minute chunks. I often listen to it when going for walks myself, and it gives me the inspiration to write more.
Posted by: Shannon Yseult | April 11, 2019 at 06:29 PM