OctNoWriMo 2018 - All Things On Earth Point Home

Only three months left until the end of the year! It hardly seems possible. At least it's October, my favorite month - and for those still on the fence about participating in NaNoWriMo this year, that means there are only 31 days left to make up your mind!

I'm dialing back on my goals this month - I really want to focus on writing, and nothing else. It's been too long since I've made any real progress. I started over on my WIP a week ago back so I'm going to use my count thus far as a starting point. Still don't know if I want to do NaNo or not; it's not the way I normally write, but maybe a change is what I need.

So...goals:

[ ] Read three books
[ ] Write a blog
[ ] Research Audible
[ ] Write 10k words on my WIP - starting count 7654

What's on your to-do list for October?

I spent the first week of October at my mother's, cleaning house and running errands for her in anticipation of her release from rehab next Saturday. I've mentioned in past threads that she's elderly (97) and still lives alone, and was in rehab for about a month and a half while a pelvic fracture healed. Her doctor has told her she must use her rolling walker all the time now, so most of what I was doing was making sure she has unobstructed paths through the house - not an easy task, since she's a borderline hoarder. I only had four days so I got no writing done, but I did, at least, finish Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamiton, which I feel like I've been reading for a decade. I enjoyed it, but it's very dense.


[ ] Read three books - 1 of 3
[ ] Write a blog
[ ] Research Audible
[ ] Write 10k words on my WIP - starting count 7654

I had an extremely busy week; got back from my mother's on Sunday evening, then had a week's worth of rehearsals for a concert event on Friday evening, then did an author event yesterday at my local library. The concert went well; the author event less so - it was for Indie Author Day and there were seven of us with our books in a room off the main library space, with no signage to indicate where we were and what was going on and consequently, very little traffic. None of us sold a single book.

It was interesting to see how the authors set themselves up: I'd brought a table cover, display easels for my books and all my promo stuff (bookmarks, magnets, business cards and a basket of candy), and thought my space looked pretty nice, but one guy had a full display rack and banners and another had a flat screen to run a book trailer promo and a prize wheel. The other four authors just showed up with their books.

I was surprised to hear from the library rep that audio books are among their most checked-out items. We talked about that a bit, so I got a bit of a start on my Audible research. And I read some on my current book. Other than that, though - no progress on the list this week.


[ ] Read three books - 1 of 3
[ ] Write a blog
[ ] Research Audible
[ ] Write 10k words on my WIP - starting count 7654

Finally made a bit of headway on the WIP; rewriting and re-organizing mostly, but still, I wrote words. I did a fair amount of "putting up" this week - made a gallon of fresh tomato sauce, a quart of applesauce and two pounds of Italian green beans. It all went into the freezer. Since I'm thinking about doing a blog on the making of fresh tomato sauce, I took a lot of photos.

I also spent several hours Thursday at the theatre where I'm an artistic associate, doing readings from scripts under consideration for production next season. Weirdly, I'm pretty good at doing cold readings, and I think it's because of my writing - I can comprehend sentence structure and the playwright's intent with just a glance. I liked two of the four shows I read, was indifferent about the third and HATED the fourth: a spoofy take on Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. I'm afraid I sat there glowering when I wasn't speaking lines.

At about the halfway point on my second read of the month, which is another chewy non-fic. I'll need to finish out October with something a bit lighter and zippier, or I'll never make my goal.


[ ] Read three books - 1 of 3
[ ] Write a blog
[ ] Research Audible
[ ] Write 10k words on my WIP (starting count 7654) current count 9632

Had a fairly productive week. I had a really good writing day - actually, kind of a breaththrough day - and not only wrote words, but words I was happy with. I'm not going to make my goal by a long shot, but that's okay. I also put aside the nonfic I've been reading and roared through Susannah Clarke's short story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Did my Audible research, and decided I'm just not ready to tackle that until I see what happens once I get my rights reverted on my series in mid-December.

I'm still on the fence about doing NaNo. Normally spewing words is not the way I write, but since I've gotten so little done by writing the way I usually write, maybe it's time for a change. Four more days until it starts, so I'd better make up my mind soon.


[ ] Read three books - 2 of 3
[ ] Write a blog
[x] Research Audible - done
[ ] Write 10k words on my WIP (starting count 7654) current count 10,193