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1/5/17 Daily… Gaining Speed
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,…
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1/4/17 Daily
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…
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1/3/17 Daily
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…
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1/2/17 Daily… Adjusting Slightly
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…
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1/1/17 Daily… Some Learning…
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…
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Got Your Goals?
New Year Firing Up… The key is to set some goals. Not talking about some sort of silly New Year’s Resolution. I’m talking about real production goals with your writing. You can and should also set business goals, but for this post let me just stay focused on production, the most important aspect of any writing business. Remember: Goals are something that are in your control and that push you toward a desired objective. How to Set a Goal? Start with the objective. Then backtrack to set the daily and monthly goals. Example: Say your objective is to write four novels in 2017. Each novel around 60,000 words. So back that…
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Once More… For the New Year… Pulp Speed
Pulp Speed… Once More (I wrote this post about three years ago, then brought it forward over a year ago. But with these other posts, this one might help for 2017 more than most. Or at least let you know what some people talk about when they say “Pulp Speed.” I have updated it for this coming year.) Not at all sure why this idea of writing at Pulp Speed sort of hits me right. I think because it flies in the face of all the myths. A writer has to have all myths under control to even attempt this. So this post might just make you angry because it hits…
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12/30/16 Daily
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.…
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My Beliefs to Help New Year Perspective
(I wrote this post first off as part of a daily post just over a year ago. But I think bringing it back now might help a little here in the middle of these posts geared to help you all make decisions for the new year and set goals. Might want to figure out your own beliefs about publishing and writing before firing up in 2017.) I thought I should quickly just put my beliefs on the table about writing and publishing. I hope these are clear here on this blog most of the time. 1… I believe anyone with the desire and drive can learn how to write and…
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What’s the Point? A Deadly Saying
What Exactly Is the Point?… (I did this blog just over a year ago. I figured as part of getting ready for 2017, this might help some of you out there clear out some roadblocks.) A couple people got angry at me in letters because I told them that following sales numbers (the number of books you are selling or what Amazon list you are on) is an addiction. A deadly one to your writing and your career for the long term. So what are the first signs you are into the deadly part of this addiction? Easy. When you are sitting at your computer, your creative voice really, really…