The Marathon Has Begun!

I mentioned a couple of months ago I was setting up a reading project for myself, but stayed vague on the details. So, what's the project? I've embarked on a reading marathon. I'm giving myself a year (hopefully that's enough time!) to read the entire Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin--plus Super Specials, Mysteries, and spinoffs. Thanks to a user on this BSC board for the complete list, I know that it is 367 books. But they are children's books, so maybe I have to invest an hour and a half to each, including note-taking time.

Why am I doing this? Honestly, I don't entirely know. There was a hankering to do it, so I decided now is the time. I know what it's not--it's not some desperate attempt to recapture my youth, because most of the time I spent reading these stories as a kid I finished each book wishing I was a character in it and totally jealous that I wasn't. Though I can see it being beneficial to me as a writer, because it's a deep study of a successful series that's stood the test of time. And I never got to read them all as a kid, so now I can fill in the gaps.

Originally, this marathon was supposed to be for Sweet Valley High and all of those spinoffs because I only read a few Sweet Valley University titles in middle school (and loved them, of course), but there were a few problems with a SVH marathon--the major problem being the spinoffs are not available for Kindle yet. And I'm a stickler about reading in chronological order, which means there are three or four spinoffs that take place before the original series. The additional problem with a SVH marathon is that there is no single list of every title available like the BSC has, and as far as I can tell while I'm putting one together myself, there has to be close to 600 books. I'm a good reader, but whoa... maybe that marathon needs a little more planning.

Along with this is all that regular, mundane adulting I have to do. Like finishing the third installment for my Kindle Worlds series. It's going slow, but it's going. I still hope to succeed with 10k words before the end of the month. I just need to give myself a little boost to get through that first draft.

Prepping The Project

The children's book project I started last week has consumed most of my time, which is good because that just means I'm more determined to see it through. I have also been considering a more serious approach to getting the project out there by using a project funding website such as IndieGoGo. A few weeks ago I saw this story about Kickstarter and fell in love with the idea that writers, filmmakers and artists can reach out the community to get their projects completed.

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I wasn't thinking about my own work at first, but now I'm leaning towards putting my project up there to see what happens. In terms of networking, though, my reach is a little small. Before I take the plunge, I just wanted to ask: has anyone tried any of these websites? If you have, were you successful in raising the money for your project?

Starting the Process

I didn't know that a fun project was all I needed to get me out of my slump. I have been working on the children's book idea for about an hour now. It's so much fun I really don't want to stop. I guess I shouldn't stop either--the faster I get it done, the faster I can start getting it prepared for publication. It's a long road, but we'll see what happens. As always, thanks for the encouraging words. I couldn't do it without my readers!

The Aches and Pains of Freelancing

It's been two months without steady work, but I've survived so far. I keep having daydreams that I'll just come up with a great idea, get it out of my brain, and get instant success. No one in their right mind believes that to be true, but it is an easy way get the motivation back into working. I may be suffering from a creative block, but it's starting to chip away piece by piece. Of course none of this will pay the bills but it's better than watching movies during my periods of insomnia. At least I'll feel somewhat accomplished.

On Sunday I almost dove head-first into a children's picture book project. I wrote the outline of what I thought was a really cute, informative book. I didn't do anything else beyond that because I wanted to research the market before I continue. Apparently children's illustrated books are just about the hardest type of story to sell to publishers. Very few are produced, and since we all know that many celebrities also choose to write these types of stories, they are at the top of any publishers list. This discouraged me. I have no name recognition and that's becoming a bigger issue with getting any of my work out into the world. It won't stop me from writing, but it's still something I can't help thinking about every time I research new markets.