Goal achieved!

Okay. That feels good. I set myself the goal to submit to Chicken Soup for the Soul - My Resolution and I did it! Only a small step, and a short piece, but I did what I set out to do. Next, enter the High Five contest of RWAustralia. Close date, 21 September. Oh. It's September now. Get on with it!

So, what now?

Full of post conference energy, I'm making a commitment to my fiction writing career. I've stepped down from all responsbilities for RWA and am now aiming to build my freelance portfolio and submit my fiction to all sorts of places. I have two contests I want to enter, one each in September and October. Then it's a focus on NaNoWriMo and the From Start to Publish challenge with my RWANano buddies. Good stuff!

BIAW - Come and Gone

So, another BIAW. Seemed like a good idea. Was a good idea. Just had that 'life getting in the way' thing happen, in a big way. BUT, that said, managed 3078 or a targeted 5000 words. Certainly a better percentage than the 50ks effort.

Everything's focusing on conferences right now. A big Oz/NZ contingent attended the RWAmerica bash in San Francisco. It's under a week until NZ's 08 conference, just out of Auckland, to be followed by the Australian conference, in Melbourne this year. All of these, writers conferences. Early next year, the first Australian Romance READERS conference will take place, also in Melbourne. Nice to have one some distance from the others. Time to recover!

At sixes and sevens

Made myself smile with that post heading. Haven't heard that saying in years.

I haven't been writing very much. Haven't had any paid work for about a month. I have lost my organisation and application. You know - if you want something done, ask a busy person. Haven't been a busy person.

I did manage about a page today, in writing an application for an online magazine. I've also updated my blogs. It feels good to be back to it. I've promised myself to get organised this week. We'll see.

A lull... then new challenges

So, while it was a good idea at the time, it's taken me two weeks to catch up with life after 50k in 30 days. So, what next?

Our group has established a 'page a day' challenge to keep us ticking over - this to be ongoing.

RWA is to run a BIAW commencing 28 July - should be ready for another intense 'go' by then.

The 50K group is proposing a year long challenge. Bit of a scary prospect, but the idea is to draft, edit and submit a manuscript in that time. We'll kick of with NaNoWriMo in November. So, September/October is for planning/plotting. This will be a real challenge. Can't wait!

Still here

Well, I survived June and stayed with the challenge right through. Managed another 750 words, handwritten in pencil while travelling. So, while not 50k, June 2008 saw me write more in one month than I ever have done. So I am well pleased.

From this challenge I learned that I can just sit down at will and write for concentrated periods of time. More, I can put the internal editor into pause mode while I do it. I won't say I'm satisfied with what I've written in June - but I've written it. I've also learned how fab it is to have a supportive group of friends behind you and around you and holding you up. I predict great things for this group.

DH was on annual leave last week - when we came home there was always something to do (NOW being the male time frame for everything - except for stuff HE needs to do which is 'at some stage' - LOL) and the weekend was a crazy social whirl.

My new goal - write for three periods of 30 minutes every day. That should see me write 500-750 words a day most days. Here goes.

50k day 29

So, the penultimate day. Had a reasonably productive day - more done today than in the last four. Still far from my target. I have one more day - although will be travelling some of it.

Will add any further words when I get back, but the counter shows the current state of the nation. The most I have ever written in one month. I'm happy.