I Hope Everyone Stays Safe… As I write this both coasts and a bunch of the middle part of the US is getting pounded by some nasty storms. Really nasty stuff. Hang in there, this winter will pass eventually. What I Learned Today (Streak Day 6) I learned once again how easily distracted I am. This challenge project coming up starting Sunday has my imagination, so the novel I am working on just sort of stopped. Actually, it came to a halt at a perfect cliffhanger. I wrote the cliffhanger, started to put in the next chapter header and went, “Nope, perfect place to put this book on hold for…

Getting Ready for a Writing Challenge… I have a writing challenge that will be starting on Sunday, at least in a partial way, and I am slowly trying to do two things at the same time. First, I am trying to pull back my sleep schedule, getting up earlier and going to be earlier. Second, I’m trying to slowly get up to speed on the writing. Managed that today with three sessions and 3,700 words. Might not get this book done by the time the new challenge starts, but it will be easy to finish when the new challenge is over. Also managed some meetings, a bunch of running around,…

Day of Meetings and Planning and Meetings and Planning… Yeah, one of those days. Actually great fun. Not only were we planning for the coming year and beyond at WMG Publishing, but I was doing some planning on a new, short-term challenge I’m going to try starting on Sunday. So stay tuned. It will be just over a week long and is one of the crazier things I have tried to do. At least crazy for me. And I did three sessions of just over 3,000 words. Last session was short. Got tired. What I Learned Today (Streak Day 4) Learned a bunch of stuff today about podcasts. How they make…

Date Not Sinking In Yet… Still getting settled into the new year. But I really like my new system of tracking over on the right of the page the running days and the writing amounts per day. And by having to pay attention to what I learned each day, that seems to be giving me some focus as well. So with the adjustment yesterday, I have a hunch this new system will really work for me. With all the workshop stuff today and me shifting my schedule back slightly, I only managed 1,200 words on the novel, but I also got five miles on the exercise. What I Learned Today…

Learn How To Adjust… My goal of starting streaks with both the writing, learning, and exercise got started in two of the three areas. But I realized that was going to not work exactly as planned in both exercise and writing. So I adjusted. Something I would suggest everyone be willing to do quickly when needed. My adjustment came in how I am tracking this as well as the streak format. I will still try my best to maintain a streak of a fact or detail I learned each day. Some will be minor, some will be topics of entire blog posts. And at the end of the year they…

A New Year Fires Up… My goal of starting streaks with both the writing, learning, and exercise got started in two of the three areas. I got the four miles of the exercise done, but it was difficult at best. I left it too long into the evening instead of doing it earlier in the day and that got me tired out. Live and learn. Any new system has adjustments in it. So I’m not worried that I missed the 4,000 words and got 2,200 instead. So that streak will start tomorrow. The Day Had a great writer’s meeting today. Lots of fun and good conversation about the future, how…

Not a Word of Fiction Today… Also, a link to a great Kris podcast… Spent all afternoon, after getting up early, working to finish off the areas in the big building, from priming and painting a bunch of walls, plus cleaning floors and so on. And thankfully, Josh did the windows. But it’s done. Then tonight worked on workshop stuff all night, until 5:30 in the morning. Letters are all out to those writers signed up for the January online workshops. If you thought you were signed up and didn’t get a letter from me, write me. And still more than enough time to get into any of the workshops.…

Friday again… I tend to be at a loss of energy on Friday nights. I have always wanted to believe the loss of energy was caused by the fact that for 17 years of my life I tended bar and Fridays were the big day. Friday, the day of the week when all the amateur drinkers went out and pretended they knew what they were doing. Now understand, I haven’t tended bar since I sold my first novel in May of 1988. Same day, actually. I wish I could say I was stupid and quit my job when I sold my first novel, but actually I had just been laid off,…

Go Slow… Not sure if anyone is tracking my progress on the fiction page linked below, but I have been starting back up again after having over a month where I did little writing. Very little. And for me it was for no reason other than my attention was diverted to other stuff. But many times all of us stop writing for various reasons from health to family to world events. But then we come back and that’s when things get interesting. I did an entire lecture on starting and restarting. But let me tell you here, quickly, how I am doing this. — My focus is no pressure on the…