Dawn Colclasure's Blog

Author and poet Dawn Colclasure

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

One VERY productive day inspires one very can-do atitude

Yesterday was a VERY busy day in this writer's life. I'm glad I had such a productive day yesterday, because there are things going on today and I don't know how much I'll manage to get done. Probably not as much as yesterday, and for this reason I'm grateful for yesterday. It can make up for all the other things I might not be able to do today! I'm not blogging about it in order to "brag," or anything. It's just so that I can talk about a couple of things from yesterday as well as take a look at all the things I managed to do.

And what a bunch of things they were! Wow! Honestly, I don't know how I fit it all into one day. (Well, I
was up past midnight wrapping up the last thing, so maybe that's how I managed to do all of them!) In addition to taking care of my kids and doing the domestic responsibilities. I am just really, really surprised that I managed to do so much. I did more things yesterday than I normally do in one day! Instead of 3-5 things, I did seven.

One of the things I did was write and submit a sample for a Web site. I got a reply for one of the jobs I applied for before being accepted at Suite101.com, and they wanted a sample from me. I'll admit, this initial request for the job made me pretty uncomfortable, but after I discussed my concerns with one of the reps, I felt better about doing it and went through with it. We'll see how that turns out.

I also worked on the
Revisions book, worked on the RGT book, fired off a query to a magazine (my goal was to send three queries but I could only submit one), did editing in a manuscript and wrote up a short article.

I also did the networking thing, which will turn into "the promotion thing" after a new book comes out. The networking took up a considerable amount of time. Still, I know it's important to network. And it even inspired a new book idea. Hooray! I've been wanting a new idea for a writing book. The
Revisions book is my third writing book, and I kept wondering, what kind of writing book will I do after this one? Right then and there, I couldn't think of anything. So I was delighted when I got this idea for my next writing book. Woot-woot! Still, I have YET to check and see if it has been done already. I will have to look into that. If it hasn't been done already, then, it's on! Erm...next year, maybe. Haha.

Even though I wasn't sure if that kind of book has been done yet, I still wrote up the outline for it. And I realized that, up until the time I actually start writing it and putting it together, I can spend this time putting what the book teaches to the test. I can use my own writing career as the "guinea pig" and try out everything this book will cover. What an exciting experiment this will be!

Today is the last day to enter the "dialogue only" short story contest. I am entering and must remember to send in my story. I've made a note of it on my "to do" list for today.

I was reading a writer friend's blog yesterday, and she noted how she's making preparations to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, and it happens every November. I have participated in the past. The first time I tried out, I had to stop because work came up. The second time, I got distracted with other things and abandoned the project. The third time, I did complete my novel, but it didn't come in at the required 50K words. This hung over me as I debated whether or not I should participate this year. My first thought when I asked myself that question was 'My plate's already overflowing! The last thing I need this year is YET ANOTHER book project going on!' (I don't know what it is about me, but I can never just work on only one thing. I need a variety of things going on and more than one book project going on. Somehow or another, I work better that way. Maybe it's a Gemini thing!) And add to this the fact that I don't have a new novel idea that I want to work on right now. Well, sure, I have ideas, but my mindset is on the middle grade paranormal mystery series I have written two books for so far. I want to write the next book in that series, if there was anything for me to write for fiction. But the publisher hasn't gotten back to me yet about the first book and those books are not 50,000 words. If I do NaNoWriMo, then I'll have to go over my list of book ideas and see if any of the novel ideas grab me. I love the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year and I'm anxious to see it in print ONE of these days (after these OTHER four books get taken care of first). I want to experience that excitement with writing fiction again. The adrenaline rush of writing a whole 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Besides, by the time November gets here, I really SHOULD have one of my current book projects done and sent in to the publisher. I'll be one book lighter! If I can manage the two books now, how will adding my Nano novel be any different?

This excitement made me move away from my initial reservations over being able to do NaNoWriMo again. I'm sure I'll be able to come up with something. And as far as even being able to find time to work on it every day, I can only look at how productive I was yesterday. At how I was able to do SO MUCH and find a way to fit all of those writing tasks into my day. This gives me confidence that I WILL be able to do NaNoWriMo this year. That I WILL be able to find time for it. NaNoWriMo 2009? Bring it on!

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