Distracted
Distracted
In case you hadn’t noticed, I haven’t written a word of fiction or nonfiction this month so far. I’ll talk about it in the topic below.
Patreon Supporters and Smith’s Monthly Subscribers
As planned, I got a recent issue of Smith’s Monthly out to subscribers and up on Patreon. The next issue should be out to subscribers and up on Patreon on Friday, and then with luck, the third issue in this run will be on Monday.
Now it’s going to take me some writing to get caught up.
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Topic of the Night: Distracted
I haven’t done a word of writing this month. But honestly, that’s normal for me and I expected it, sort of. I wanted to finish the Death Takes a Partner novel by now, but then decided I would move the deadline to around the first of the month.
My distraction, of course, has been getting close to starting the new store. One week from Wednesday, so I don’t plan on starting to write until one week from Wednesday. (grin)
When I started the first store almost nine years ago now, I didn’t write a word for about six months. This is just going to be less than a month.
Now after all these years of writing, I know myself and when I get like this, I do one thing that most writers don’t do. I accept it.
I don’t push myself to write because I know there is no point, and I don’t punish myself for not writing.
In other words, I keep the writing fun.
Right now my fun is working in the new store. For example, tonight I filled a sixteen foot section of a wall with about a thousand Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Johnny Lightning and other die-cast 1/64 scale cars. They will be sold for a buck each.
Yesterday I was working on hanging toys, Marvel, Star Trek, Star Wars, and you name it.
All fun.
So I will be back writing when the store opens and I hope to finish not only the book I have started but two more before July 1st. And then I hope to do another Stories from July just to temp the writing gods.
So I will be back writing, and I have been having a blast with online workshops.
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Online Workshops
June online workshops all have openings, including the new Teams in Fiction workshop. We are halfway though the month. The list in June is a good one and so is the list in July. And note the July workshops don’t start until well after the 4th.
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Totals For Year 3, Month 10, Day 16
Writing in Public blog streak… Day 971
— Daily Fiction: 00 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 00 words
— Nonfiction: 00 new words. Nonfiction month-to-date total: 00 words
— Blog Posts: 300 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 9,100 words
— E-mail: 14 e-mails. Approx. 1,100 original words. E-mails month-to date: 365 e-mails. Approx. 22,600 words
— Covers Designed and Finished: 0. Covers finished month-to-date: 2 Covers
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5 Comments
Suz Korb
That’s what happened to me when I wrote 10,000 novel words in 1 day, to finish my book. Burned myself out and then didn’t want to write ever again for months and months.
Ken
Hey Dean,
I love how you always seem to have the right advice for me at just the right time. I’m doing the rounds of a life roll and there’s a little guilt in me about being off the writing for nearly 10 days now. Chances are this is the biggest life roll of my entire life and I hate to feel guilty about more things than I have to.
What you said in this post means a lot to me. I’m going to straight up accept that today, tomorrow and probably the next few days to weeks aren’t going to be writing days. It’s definitely not the easiest thing to do, but I love that you and I are at it. Hopefully, as a writer, a man and a human being on this planet, I’ll gain the maturity to accept it the next and next and next and next… time that life comes calling too.
As always I appreciate what you are doing on this blog. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be where I am in my writing and writing business. I appreciate you and what you’ve done for me.
Thank you, dean.
– Ken
dwsmith
Hang in there, Ken. The key in rough times is to make sure your writing isn’t another drag on you, but the place you can go and have fun when you get the time or come back to it. Keep the writing the fun part. Hang in there and good luck with the life roll.
Ken
Thanks, Dean. That’s pretty true. Wrote one book today. Didn’t really feel like doing much more, but I had the itch and it needed scratching. Haha.
Hopefully, things will be better next week. Pushing my way through as best as I can. =)
Harvey
Ken mimicked my thoughts. I even copied and pasted this very short by very valuable topic and saved it to a Word file in my Dean folder to read again and again.