October 1st…
Coming Up In Three Days…
So many, many writers had really bad writing summers. And October first is a chance to save the year.
Three months until the end of the year. You can get a lot of writing done in three months.
Set a new challenge, focus on some project that will be fun and get you restarted.
October 1st is a wonderful date. Wash away all the “I wish I had…” from the spring and summer and just sit down and have fun telling stories. Stupidly enough, it really is that simple.
I will follow my own advice and let you know what I am going to do in the next day or so. Different than what I had planned just four days ago, thanks to a simple comment from Kris.
But right now, if you had a bad summer, fell off your goal for the year, whatever, reset your goal and when you get to January 1st, you will be feeling positive.
Weird as it may seem, October 1st is a magic date. Use it.
7 Comments
David Blackwood
I was already thinking along these lines.
Summer wasn’t too bad, but I did have a pretty bad spring as far as writing was concerned. I started a small business this year (not book-related, but it pays the bills) so in the spring all of my energy was devoted to fun stuff like filling out governement paperwork, applying for licenses, and shopping for insurance. My brain was too fried to write. The business is up and running and I got back into the swing of things over the summer, finishing up a previous project. Now I’ve decided that I’m going to spend the fall writing something fun that I can hopefully get out by the end of the year.
Kat Faitour
I’m with you! Firming up my personal challenge in the next couple of days. Thanks for the encouragement!
Mihnea Manduteanu
haven’t written since April 13th so yeah…bad summer. I need to write. October 1st sounds like as perfect time to reset.
Linda Maye Adams
I’m just wrapping up my space opera (final scene has to be done). Then it’s off to finish the Time Management for Fiction Writers, since that’s close and tackle a mystery novella, which I want done by the end of the year. Despite stalling out during the Great Forgetting, I’ve finished more longer works this year than ever before.
Eli Jones
I restarted on the 23rd, for a clean 100 days to the end of the year. It’s a light challenge compared to what you’ve been doing (or some of the other impressive commenters!) but I set a goal of 15 stories in 100 days. It’s been getting my butt in the chair 5 days running, and I’m back to having fun writing again, which was missing earlier this year.
Ovidia Yu
Good idea, thanks I will do that. But mainly I came to say I’d started re reading some of your Cold Poker Gang books (just finished and was surprised how much I liked them. The major problem with Kill Game and Cold Call is how much they make me Crave KFC! But thanks very much.
A Johnson
I was thinking something similar. It was a hard summer, just in general, so while I may not have been writing, I was at least editing some older pieces. Fortunatley, there’s something about October that always sort of inspires me, and Fall is the time of year when I ususally try to write some longer fantasy piece.