Busy...

Ok, I haven't been so good about keeping up with the blog. Somehow the summer totally slipped away and in a few days it will be fall. Crazy! It's funny because somehow I'm way busier now than I was working in an office full-time. How did that happen? Between working on the novel, freelancing and just keeping up with the house and life in general, I'm swamped.

Early on I set a deadline for myself of the end of September to finish the first draft, but that's clearly not going to happen. Right now I'm at 58,000 words, and I think I might have managed 1,000 words over the past two weeks total, which is terrible. I recently started a new freelance copyediting job, and because of that I haven't had the time I once did earlier in the summer to write.

While I'm excited for the opportunity, it definitely has made it harder for me to stick to my daily word count goal of 1k, which makes me sad since I was managing 1k or close to it every day for a few months. I'm trying my best to plug away at the novel and think a more realistic goal is December at this point. As long as I finish before the end of the year, I will be happy.

On top of everything else, I have my reviews for Examiner and a huge pile of books to get through. I haven't had time to myself to read in weeks, and I really need to do that. I'm determined to get through at least two books this week because I feel SO behind right now...

Word count

I hit 30,000 words on Friday - woo hoo! My celebration was short though, because when I thought about it I realized that I'm not even half-way done. Still, I've come a long way since the beginning of June when I only had 14,000 words.

I just finished Stephen King's "On Writing" and it made me feel a lot better that he writes 2,000 words a day, but suggests the beginning novelist to aim for 1,000. That's exactly where I am (I aim for 1,000 each day, sometimes I write a little more, and sometimes a little less).

I guess sometimes you just need an "authority figure" to confirm that what you're doing is right!

Yesterday wasn't very productive and I was feeling down on myself because I only managed about 500 words. Between an eye doctor appointment and applying for jobs, I just couldn't concentrate on writing. Today I'm feeling a lot better and I've made decent progress this a.m. polishing a short story that I want to submit for a contest. Fingers crossed!

the long and short of it

I finished my first short story today. I don't think I've written a short story since I was a kid and strangely obsessed with writing about teenagers from California. (What? You haven't read "Miss Real Cool?")

I keep hearing about the importance of clips, so I want to start sending out some short stories in hopes of getting published or winning some writing contests. Not having any published works to put in my query letter is somewhat terrifying. Sure I have some online clips, but I feel like those aren't looked at as seriously.

Now comes the part that I dread: feedback. The thought of people reading and critiquing my writing makes me feel a little sick. What if my friends and family think the story sucks? Will they tell me it's good anyway?

Makes this an interesting career choice, huh?

New directions

Since I started writing for Examiner.com about women's fiction, I haven't really had a reason to post reviews on this blog anymore. However, I thought I would turn this into a blog about my writing, since I'm now moving full steam ahead with finishing my novel.

I lost my job earlier this month, and I have to say I'm not so sad about it. Working for a PR agency was not my cup of tea, and after five years in the industry I realized that it wasn't getting any better. I had started looking for a new job and weighing my options months before I was laid off, so at least this has given me an excuse to focus on something that I love. I never would have left my job without having something else lined up ... and now I feel like I have an amazing opportunity to be able to finish my novel while I look for my next position.

It's exciting and scary at the same time ... the transition from a 9-5 job being around coworkers and clients and deadlines to being your own boss with no one to make you do anything is pretty extreme. Deadline-wise I've been setting word count goals for myself each day and have been doing really well in meeting them so far ... as long as I keep distractions to a minimum.

Anyway, so far, so good. For the first time in years, I don't wake up dreading each day ... and that in itself is pretty damn awesome.