Time of Great Forgetting Bad This Year…
Focus Is Really Difficult…
Understandable with the way the world situation is right now, the way prices are slowly increasing, the way that everything seems to be in flux and uncertain. Focus on writing seems to take a back seat for so many, many writers. And then you combine in the natural focus killers of spring, it becomes insanely worse. Sort of a perfect storm holding writers away from writing for months and months.
In 51 years since I sold my first short story, wow do I understand all this. Some years this time of year is just normal, others it seems to be worse, and only a few years have I see the focus killers this bad as this year. And that is sad because so many, many writers will sort of wake up in August or September and wonder why they got very little or nothing done during the summer.
At that point, all goals for the year are shot, and the best thing the writers can do it try to restart (difficult) and get something done and aim for 2027.
But there is a way right now to not have that happen to you. It is just one third of the way through the year. Don’t make the decision to lose the entire year now. Right now you need to focus on the writing.
Not massive amounts, but the writing and the project needs to be consistent and something you will not forget. Forgetting during the time of great forgetting is the major issue. A goal needs to be concrete, and right in your face every day.
My goal is to publish 75 major books in my 75th year. I don’t have the time right now to take a few months off of that goal, not if I am going to make it. If I sort of focus on the world or something else, and just fade from the goal, I will be lost. Just last week I bought a 90 day planner dry-erase and hung it on my wall so that it is in my face every time I step into this office. Like a clock ticking down. I have six months to go until my birthday in November.
Tick, tick, tick…
I will be writing and producing and publishing through this time because I know how to fight this period of the year.
Not only is the publishing a major focus, but I am going to be taking part in the weekly motivation writing challenge with Kris. My goal will be to do 1, 750 words per week (250 words average per day.) This will make sure I get my ass in my writing chair even with the focus on the publishing. And by the time the challenge ends in the middle of August, I will be very happy I decided to do that. Maybe a novel happier.
A novel I would not have gotten to without the focus.
All of us are vulnerable to this time. All of us, no exceptions, and if you don’t take the right precautions, set up the right goals and ways of keeping that goal front and center all the time, you might just wake up a few months down the line. Yeah, I know, it won’t happen to you, until it does.
Kris and I are offering the Kris Motivation Challenge Seminar, with two motivation videos every week (30 total videos) and three webinars. Jump in and make sure you stay focused, even if your family is taking a trip, you can write in a notebook or on a laptop. Or get your words for the week done ahead. The focus in the key, and in the videos Kris and I will be giving a ton of tips on how to stay in the writing, even when the garden is calling, the pool is waiting, and the hamburgers on the grill smell wonderful. You don’t have to give any of those things up if you have the right kind of focus.
Just a little focus will save your entire writing year. Jump into the Kris Motivation Challenge and make sure you get through this time. Join me and Kris.
SUMMARY OF THE BASICS OF THE MOTIVATION CHALLENGE SEMINAR
1… Three months long, starting May 18th, ending August 16th.
2… You must send us before we start the amount of fiction words you want to write EVERY week during those three months. (Keep the total low, but not under 250 words per day, 1,750 words per week is minimum.) Goal starts over every week, not cumulative.
3… Original Fiction Only… No nonfiction or rewrites. ANY GENRE IS FINE.
4… LIMITED to 25 writers.
5… $300 price but $250 early bird sign-up until May 10th late. (THAT IS THIS COMING SUNDAY!!)
6… If you miss on a week, you can jump back in for $150.00
7… No subscriptions or credits on this because for this to work you must have skin in the game (Write me if you want me to explain why that works.)
8… To sign up, send the $250 fee to PayPal to the email address dean@wmgpublishingstore.com
I will get you on the list. Again limited to the first 25 writers signing up. Webinars will be recorded in case you can’t make it on a month.
This is going to be great fun and even though I am focused on the publishing side totally, I am jumping into this as well to start ramping back up my writing. Just as with Kris, I report my progress to everyone.
Questions, write me.