Projects with Abandonment Issues

I've been immersed in my latest poetry project over the past couple of week. It's fun, it's challenging, and I'm finding constant inspiration. That's good, right? Because I'm trying to reign it in when I can, knowing poetry is low on the totem pole of professional success stories. Like a good investor, I need a diverse portfolio of work to make sure that success has a long-term reach. And that thought leads me to all of that other stuff I started working on and have yet to finish. Right now, I want to take time to acknowledge all of the projects I've put on hold.

Love Bites the Big Apple: My first foray into a story for the Episode app is still on my mind, it just hasn't been updated for awhile. I promise that when I get back to it, I'll do a major multi-chapter drop.

Completed first drafts such as Verses and Vows, In Another Life, 277 Miles: Hang in there, kids. We'll meet again--hopefully soon!

Numerous incomplete first drafts: I admire the dedication of these stories. They always come back to my mind in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. Usually right in the middle of NaNoWriMo, but what can you do?

And I can't forget the two other projects sharing my non-freelance time: Honorable mentions go to the draft of my current YA novel and to Pieces, which may have to take a short hiatus in a few weeks due to lack of new pieces to post.

Hopefully all of my projects with abandonment issues will come back to me at the right time to be completed. As always, you can be a part of the action: don't forget to join my journey on Patreon to get more details about my latest poetry project, exclusives, and much more.

What's on the Plate for February

It's February, which for writers with monthly goals means that you have to cram more words in a short amount of time. After the January I've had, I feel like it's totally doable.

The year 2018 will go down as the year I finally got back on track. I spent January releasing Melody's Valentine, finishing up the first draft of the diamond thief novel (title still TBD), launched Pieces on Wattpad, submitted a wide range of poetry and short stories to lit journals and magazines, and I even managed to finish up the first draft of a television pilot. The script is pretty terrible right now, but I'll fix that. All of this progress puts me halfway to my goal of having four works published in 2018. It's a pretty awesome place to be. 

This month I have planned to work on three separate projects. First, I'm going to finish the first draft of Avery Night, P.I. It's been a really fun story to write so far, and I already have the plot outlines for the next five books with these characters--I'm in a good place with this one.

For my revision project, 277 Miles is getting the full treatment (thanks to everyone who voted in my Patreon poll and chose this as my next revision project). Like almost every other first draft I've finished, it comes up short in the word count to be labeled a novel. The fix for that is to get into more of the character's heads and dig into their backgrounds. It'll still lead to the same conclusion, just with a wider understanding of where all the characters are coming from.

I will also be working on a brand new poetry project that I have a title for, but not much else. That's a strange place for me to be in because I almost never have titles first. I'm taking the plunge into the modern style with this collection--not what poetry professors label as modern, which is something like a century old by now, but what's going on in contemporary poetry right this minute. I know I've scoffed at it a little before, and it is taking a big hit by critics calling it consumer-driven and populist drivel. I clearly don't want to mimic a style, but instead take the same accessibility to readers that these poets have had and put my own twist on it. Simple, but deep. I guess that's what all poetry is supposed to be, but you know how taste can range.

I'm in the middle of reading some new releases of these poets, so I'll have to be careful that I'm not overly influenced by their style or subject matter. I have quite a few ideas. I'll just have to see where the pen and paper takes me.

What are you planning to work on February?

Maintenance and Imagination

This weekend is going to be full of stuff to do around the house. First, I just finished spraying lemon Pledge all around the windows, doors, etc. I'm having a huge problem with spiders (even in this cold!) and heard that may help. If it doesn't, the apt. will smell lemony fresh.

Then I have to clean the rest of the place. I tend to keep things neat, but I do find dusting and sweeping a major kink my daily activities. After that's all done, I'll need to hop back on the Wii Fit. It's been telling me lately that I'm not doing so hot on keeping a daily routine so... yeah. The video game is telling me to step it up.

When all the chores are finally out of the way, I get to go back to 277 Miles. This novel is seriously getting on my nerves because it is so close to being done (at least done enough for someone to beta read). My goal is to finish it by the end of the month so that I can get on to a couple of other projects waiting in the wings.

Monday Roundup

It's Monday, and as always I partly dread the week ahead. I know there's going to be lot of work, but if I convince myself that it's all worth it, I tend to feel accomplished. And starting this week, my time is freed up a bit. Friday was the last episode of As the World Turns (I know, I know--I did love my stories) so now I have absolutely nothing to keep me from working from the time I get up until dinner time. I'm using this extra hour to my advantage. I will bee working on 277 Miles revisions for the full hour until I can get it into a polished, workable manuscript.

One other thing I have to get out of the way: my shameless promotion of the week. This week (and for many more weeks to come) I'm going to be letting you guys know about the estate jewelry I have up on eBay. This week I have two lovely bracelets. Check them out.

This little writer has to get back to her work, so have a happy week!

Setting Goals for Writing... and Life

I wanted to take the normal Wednesday writing post and use it to explain my goals for the coming year. Since it's my birthday, I wanted to use this as a time to make some changes and lay out a plan to get it all done. Besides, waiting until New Year's to set goals is a little too predictable. Since the goals are personal, why not start them on a personal holiday like a birthday?

My horoscope this morning sealed the deal:

From tarot.com:

"It's difficult now for you to keep your mind on the present moment. Instead, the Moon in your 11th House of Long-Term Goals has you scheming and dreaming about the possibilities of tomorrow. Nevertheless, you are quite realistic. Even if the details of your strategy aren't concrete, fantasizing is part of the process that makes your future more tangible. Common sense enables you to manifest ideas that still seem impossible today."

I love it when horoscopes are actually correct with what's going on in my life. :)

So what are these goals? 99% of them have to do with writing. I really want to put the finishing touches on 277 Miles (the only novel that's made it close to being finished), get everything together for Personas (the poetry book) and I have also set goals for my online article writing. I want to have 300 published articles by the end of the year. Since I have a little over 100 already out there, I'm well on my way to meeting that one.

As far as the personal goals go, I want to take more photos, get out of the house more and just enjoy life (more than I already do). That will take some effort with my usual pessimistic attitude, but that's what goals are for!

Oh--and before I forget--happy birthday Ringo Starr! I'm glad I share a birthday with you.

Brand new week, brand new work

It's really been a long weekend. I spent most of my time at the new place while stacks of boxes sit in corners all over my current residence. Movers are coming in two weeks and then I will be relocated for at least the next ten months, or until I win the lottery (fat chance!). I've decided to live on the least amount of money as I possibly can to maximize savings. That will give me the resources to make my next move permanent.

During all this chaos, I finally found a writing schedule that works best for my current needs. Only problem? I forgot to put in any time to look for new work! I guess I'll have to tack that on at the end of the day.

Well, it's back to work. Hopefully by Wednesday I will have something positive to report on either 277 Miles or Personas. Until then... happy writing!

Some big questions to ask myself

Instead of wallowing in my free time, I have been using it to finally set up a website for my freelancing services, general writing news, links to my blogs, etc. It's going to be through Google Sites because I just don't have the money to front for my own domain/web host yet. But there are still so many questions I have because I want to do this right. It's for my business, after all. Some of my questions include:

* Do I have to register a business name if I want to use something other than my legal name?

* Should I advertise prices or make customers query every project?

* Is there a way to add html/javascript (easily) apps to these types of sites?

And I know I'll have many more questions as I get further into this process. Also, through all of this I need to keep up writing, working and find a better job to replace the last one (yep, I'm still procrastinating about that one).

That's why I spent the day yesterday finishing up the revisions on 277 Miles. These are finally out of the way so I can leave that project for awhile to get a fresh perspective later. This will also leave a little time for my poetry book. But, I still can't find the time to write any new work.

That's where a lifesaver is coming in: Yahoo Calendar. I have used this service off an on for years, but never really got the hang of checking it on a daily basis to make sure that I stick to my schedule. Now it will be pulled up every morning so I can better manage my time. This will keep me from those mid-morning podcast breaks and mid-afternoon Twitter checks.

So close

I'm so close to finishing this round of revisions for 277 Miles. I'm on chapter 8 of 12. But there's a pattern emerging, and it isn't good. The first few chapters had solid edits/revisions written all over the margins and even on the back of some of the pages. The later chapters have brackets around sentences or phrases that I wanted to fix, but no additional comments. Apparently I was in a hurry when I was editing!

I have put aside the poetry book, at least for today. I need to concentrate on getting some more work. I've been working on some of those $2 articles, but not enough for what I need. Now I'm grateful that my last job waited 60 to pay me. That means I have until the end of August to really find a replacement for the income that I lost. UP SIDE: more time to find the right one. DOWNSIDE: I'm lazy and procrastinate until the very end. And like I have probably said before, I think I'm more interested in an editing job rather than a writing job this time. So I have to be better and greater than my writing to actually have a chance at an editing job. It's really hard to prove how good of an editor you are when you can't seem to edit your own work!

That little positive attitude I pushed to the side needs to come back. Without work, there's really nothing else in my life. Sad, but true.

Having less work also means I'm on Twitter a lot more. For anyone who follows me -- sorry about the influx of messages today! For some reason, I feel compelled to share a lot more thoughts today. It's not a habit I'm looking to feed, so worry not!

Progress... it feels good

I've been working on that self-published poetry book I'm planning. I'm still not sure when it will be completed, but I do know that it's at least half done! When I started this project, I thought I had 12 or 13 poems that were completed, that fit a broad theme, and that I wanted to include in the book. Well, things didn't turn out exactly as planned. I have 7 finished poems for the book, but the other 6 I want to include still need either a major revision or me to actually get off my butt and finish writing them! But it's fun work. Obviously it doesn't pay anything (yet), but I think I'm managing a good balance of work for pay and work for career.

I have also finalized what I want the title to be: Personas. Usually titles are the hardest part of it all, but this one came organically from the way that the poems tie together.

There is one downfall: I reinstalled Sim City on my computer Friday night. It's trying to keep me away from all of this work. Not a good habit to get into -- trust me. But with a little perseverance and the "uninstall" button, I should be able to get a manuscript together by the end of July. If not, at least I know that 277 Miles will be through the first set of revisions and well on its way to round 2.

Setting aside time

I think I'm pretty lucky when it comes to my career. Even though I make no money from it compared to most other careers, it gives me the freedom to retreat from work life for awhile. Today starts a three day weekend for me. It's a self-imposed mini vacation, but it's with a purpose. I'm using the free time for relaxing and sleeping in, of course, but when I'm awake I'm deep into my novel. It's been neglected for way too long. There's no way I will ever have a real shot at writing as a successful career if i can't finish the work I start. So this is the beginning of the way to make that happen. Three glorious days of revising my novel... it's going to be fun.

One more related post

I continue to work on genealogy in my spare time, but since it started taken over my life I hid my research. I also hid the tempting website links where I go to do my research. But I did want to share one more little find for historical/genealogical writers out there. Yesterday I found a website called Genwriters. This is exactly what I needed to see. I was feeling really guilty about doing this research because I didn't know what I could do with it once it was all collected. After reading some things at Genwriters, now I finally know what I can do. And once I actually finish my novel in progress, I think this could be the next project to replace it. But that's going to be some time, for both finishing 277 Miles and for getting enough research to start a genealogical writing project.

Other than all of that hoopla, I finally found a schedule I can stick with. It gives me plenty of time for all types of writing, lets me meet my monthly goals, and also provides a little wiggle room for earning extra cash if I need to (and who doesn't?). I'm a slacker when it comes to my own projects though. I never finished my Indianapolis project, so I will have to push back the next city I wanted to write about. The poll winner was Jamestown, NY with two votes. I'm going to have a lot of fun with that one, since it's the hometown of Lucille Ball.

I also have some great ideas for blog posts, but those are still in the planning stages, so I will reveal more later. Get excited.

Nearly mid-week updates

For me, it feels like the middle of the week already. I'm ahead of schedule, which means I'll definitely be able to take off work most of the day tomorrow. It's silly but TCM is running a Jimmy Stewart marathon to celebrate his birthday. While I have seen all the movies being shown, I would like to catch Vertigo and Bell, Book, and Candle again. So really I only have to sacrifice 4 hours... and during that time I can multitask by editing the last two chapters of 277 Miles. It got lost in the shuffle of packing away office junk two weeks ago, and I just recovered it from the depths of the closet. Don't know how it ended up in there, but stranger things have happened...

Other work is going great. Either I'm getting better or people are tired of having me fix things, because I haven't had a major editing disaster in almost two weeks. Yay! But I'm also working at a slower pace. Maybe that was all I needed. Once I get used to a format, I tend to speed up, but maybe I get a little sloppy sometimes. Wouldn't be the first time someone told me that. I'm just finally able to recognize it in myself. So now the schedule is finally working for me.

But now comes the real work. For the next two months, I have to write, pack, clean, and keep my sanity at the same time. I might have to call in reinforcements in a couple of weeks to really pack it all in and live on only the essentials. I did it last summer, and it made me realize just how materialistic I am. I didn't need anything that was packed in a box, so why keep it? I should have gotten rid of it when I had the chance, but at least I have not collected many more possessions since that time. I think this whole year I've bought 2 DVDs and an iPod dock. That's it.

Well, it's back to work for me now. I really want to get everything out of the way so I can finally start something new. Short stories... here I come!

Back to the good old days

I've started working on My novel 277 Miles again. I just need to edit the last two chapters and then I can finally go into the first revision stage. This one is going to be the hard one, because I have a lot of things to fix, including the random details of the main character's life I slapped in for a better word count without much of an explanation why it matters.

I'm also catching up on a lot of work after the first half of the week was slow. That means another working weekend, unless I can write 13-14 more articles tonight. Not impossible, but it's probably pushing it. For the bare minimum to meet commitments, I should get at least 7 done before the weekend is over. It's very doable if I just commit to it.

And guess what? I finally bought my new laptop. It's a Dell Inspiron 1545. I opted for the free pacific blue color because I think paying an extra $40 for any other color is absolutely insane.I'm also proud of my additional purchase of a laptop sleeve that is made from recycled PET materials. Yay for helping to save the environment!

New articles, new outlook

I just published two new articles on eHow. If your into spring cleaning and want to take this time to go green in your home, check out How to Spring Clean Green. If you live in an apartment, get tips on How to Spring Clean an Apartment.

And I have already found out that this new schedule needs some tweaking. I all of my surfing (+ Entrecard drops!) and research is easier to complete in the morning. Articles are easier to write in the afternoons. It's a small change, but I think it's going to work out much better for productivity. And you can't make money as a freelancer without productivity!! But the good news is that my new job has rated my work so far, and I'm still doing well. I expected that, but with all the doubts I had recently, it was a nice thing to hear.

277 Miles update: I've been editing the manuscript during my lunch hour, and I have 5 of 12 chapters line edited so far. I'm hoping to finish the editing off this weekend and start working on the revising part of it all.

And before I forget: I had a huge blogroll on this blog for awhile, but when I made changes on it a few weeks ago, it accidentally disappeared. So if you were on that blogroll, or if you just want to join it now, I would be more than happy to exchange links.

It's out

I dug out the novel: 277 Miles. It's under 100 pages and very rough, but I think that the structure of the story is strong. I'll probably be editing and revising it for the rest of the day. It's just warm enough here to open the windows, so I'll do all of my work in the dining room, where I get plenty of light. It also helps to be near the kitchen for various amounts of caffeinated drinks!

I also found a new job -- sort of. I'm back to taking articles for $1-$3, but I can easily get as a many as I want to write each day. That's what I love -- less rigidity in deadlines and schedules. But obviously its more work to make up for the amount of money I make through my other job. I still have that job, but all the luster has worn and I'm not sure how much longer I can stay there. I'm still working through edits, but I should be able to write new work again soon. And if the same old issues come up, there's no point in staying. After reading my novel-in-progress, I have a renewed sense of confidence in myself. The main character is eerily similar to me, only with more vivaciousness and bite. If she can do it, why can't I?

Today was a good day. I had plenty of work to keep me busy and I still got in 4 episodes of I Love Lucy, season 4. Oh! And my chocolate chip muffins are almost ready... excuse for a moment, won't you?


Oh... they look and smell so good! I can't wait to sink my teeth into one of them. Back to my babbling...

I even got to work on my novel (recently renamed 277 Miles) yesterday. I pushed out three chapters. I think I'll try and get at least one more out tonight, if I don't take on any more work. Though I might if it's available. Plus I need to clear my iPod... I think I have three or four movies left on it, plus a few episodes of the Today Show. Better get busy!