The first week

Today is January 7th, and it marks the first week of 2012. Some people are asking, “So how did we all do?” When I saw a question similar to that in a newsletter I am subscribed to, I had to pause and take stock of just how my first week went.

On the writing level, it went well. On a personal level ... well, it COULD have been better, but at least some things are happening that will help me reach my goals.

I’m posting about my personal stuff on the Palms to Pines blog.

Here, I’ll cover the writing stuff.

On the writing level, I had a good week.

I have a system in place for the rewrites of Shadow of Samhain, and if I follow this system to the letter, and my beta readers get back to me in the time I have set aside for that, I should have the manuscript ready to submit by April. Part of that system calls for getting five chapters done in the first week, and I have accomplished that. Things got held up the other night when we had some problems with the power and I had to hurry up and write a summary of what happens in the scene I was writing before the computer shut down for the night, but I was able to get back to that, fix it, and so now the five chapters are complete. Yay! I’m going to spend the weekend editing and revising them, then it’s on to the next five next week! (I am also going to work on my outline this weekend. The story is moving too fast in my head and I couldn’t possibly remember everything. So I have to write it all down and decide what goes into which chapter.)

Also, I received good news this week: My charity ebook, On the Wings of Pink Angels, is a go with Gypsy Shadow Publishing. HOORAY!! I am so excited and thrilled that this ebook will be a reality in the near future. While the ebook’s topic is mostly about breast cancer, the charity it will benefit, Courageous Kids, is for any child who has experienced the loss of a parent, sibling or relative to anything, not just breast cancer. One of the people I included in this ebook suggested the charity, as her friend who lost her battle against breast cancer had two boys who went through this program, and I’m glad that they accepted my proposal to have proceeds of this ebook to go towards supporting them. It feels so good to be able to “write for a cause” and I’m so glad that this project will finally reach completion.

Since my focus this year is mostly on book work, those are pretty much the accomplishments I have made so far, in this first week. My publisher and I discussed plans with the GHOST Group series yesterday, so I’ve also adjusted my “writing schedule” to include time to revise/edit Book 3 in that series.

It’s not so much of a “writing schedule,” though. I am so done with using weekly schedules or weekly “to do” lists this year! (And it actually feels kinda strange not having one.) But what I did was decide what books I’m going to be working on this year (one for writing, one for editing), and I set aside time for each project that will last me throughout the year. Some will probably take longer than others; I gave myself 9 months to write a new nonfiction book, as it is. But others won’t take very long – and I know this because I have worked on those types of books before, and I have an idea of how long it will take me to complete them. So that is set up and I’m eager to see everything fall into place.

(And for the record, I may not use a weekly “to-do” list for my writing stuff anymore, but I AM using a dayplanner to chart my progress with my book projects. That has been a huge help and it’s definitely allowed me to stick with my system.)

And while I was planning to take a scriptwriting or songwriting class/workshop this year, that has not fallen into place yet, mainly because I don’t have the funds for it. (This is tied to a personal goal, actually.) Once that’s in place, I’ll start looking for one.

For now, I’ve made progress with the book goals, and that’s a good thing. I had a good first week of the year, writing-wise.