FebNoWriMo 2019 - Hold On

Sorry for your loss, mrsmig, and for the non-resolution with the old publisher.

Yay for sisphus finished, Jaymz!

AW is being extremely painful right now so quick update for week two. I've done basically the same as week one; while I was happy with week one, I'm not happy with week two.

A couple more S&M chapters typed up. A few thousand more words on Ginevra. Finished the first pass through SS story; now I've printed it out for the nitty gritty edits. No clue if it's a story or an 8k word ramble. Little bit of game stuff. Only half a book read.

So nothing ticked off and still so much to do.

1. Read five books. 0/5
2. Edit SS story. In progress.
3. Draft one new story. Nope.
4. Game planning. Started.
5. Type up edit for S&M. Started.
6. Send at least one query for it. Nope.
7. Write Ginevra. Some.
8. Read or write/edit each day, with one dedicated writing day per week. Yes!
9. Bake a thing. Chocolate muffins.

Hi everyone,

Since February is a multiple of seven I'm doing updates on Thursdays/Fridays, and only four altogether.

MrsMig--No worries about Incowrimo. Part of why it is so hard, I think, is that we imagine we have legible handwriting and then we *see* it and it sort of sullies the beautiful card. And then I wonder if I'd written long hand all these years if my cursive would be prettier, but in truth I think no, it was never very good.Anyway, I did send one incowrimo card off yesterday.

And Mrs Mig, you can bet I'll be watching your progress on self publication, for personal reasons.

Tamlyn, congrats on getting more words down. Saoirses, BD, Jaymz--keep on trucking and congrats on your progress as well. Well done. Emaree, Eternalised--I trust you are plugging along as well.

I had forgotten the emotional turmoil of the query trenches, and so since I have jumped back in this week it's done a number on me. Yesterday, very little got done. I'll either send out the rest and be done with querying this novel for good (which feels like the right choice) or else get back to drafting the second book.

I toyed with the idea of applying to Clarion this year, but in the end decided against it and crossed it off the list. I finished a longish novel, The Robber Bride by Atwood, which was good for me to accomplish even though it wasn't on my list.

PROGRESS:

[ ] Write two chapters per week on book two, with a 'two chapter forgiveness' for the month
[XX] Week One
[x] Week Two (Meh--I did write, but was more focused on querying. I don't think I added two chapters.)
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four

[XX ] Re-start querying in or before week ~3 Yes, I can check this off.

[ ] Exercise five times per week
[XX] Week One
[XX] Week Two
[ ] Week Three
[ ] Week Four

[sent one yesterday] Try this incowrimo thing I heard about!

[ ] New added goal: Start and finish another published novel; take notes (toward my new year's resolution of learning from 'the greats;' add a goodreads review
[ ] New added goal: Read through an unpublished manuscript of a friend, purely for enjoyment (This has the secondary goal of showing me that sometimes the trade gods get it wrong!)

[ ] get a story submission-ready (yes, another) - making progress! I've gotten 3/4ths of crit that I want to receive for this
[ ] submit four times - 2/4
[ ] finish five books (or magazines; those are usually shorter, and I'm being gentle because I'm starting a new job this month) - 4/5, apparently all the time I'd usually be writing has gone into reading
[ ] spend another three hours on rehauling my office
[] knit another skein of yarn for my sweater
[ ] finish a story draft (or outline)
[ ] export my G+ history
[ ] write/edit on ten different days (possibly more, but again, I'm being gentle with myself) - 2/10

Starting the new job has massively reduced the amount of stress I'm dealing with, and apparently I haven't quite figured out how to cope with this yet. I'm doing a lot of sleeping and reading and watching TV and walking and generally unwinding, but I`m having trouble sitting down to put words on paper. I'm hoping this changes soon.

Holiday here on Monday threw off my schedule, but I am back for the check-in.

I contacted an editor and got the sample back last night, so I'm hoping to wrap that one up this week. (I'm going to count booking the edit as the completion, even if they don't have space in their schedule until next month.)

Managed some more MA lessons, though oddly during the week rather than during the weekend when I usually can. All in all, though, progress!

Oh, and I finished my planned books, but I think I'll leave the ones I'm continuing on to off the list. Nice to have a month where I'm not dragging my feet on that.

[-] ! Get editor booked for novella I've been sitting on. (Seriously, I need to do this already.)
[4] Complete five more lessons of Margaret Atwood's Masterclass on writing.
● Decluttering progress:● Read:● Hit my daily writing goals for the month:

Aphotic Ink - be nice to yourself until you settle into the new job. It does take a couple of weeks. You'll get used to the less stress and the writing will happen again. Right now, you need some recovery time from all the stress you've been under.


As for me, I'm making some progress at least. Only a small x for the cross-stitch because while I have done some work on it, I didn't do much. I'd really like to get it completed before winter when I start knitting again. I've done some good notes for the next writing project, though, and even started the first draft, so I'm pretty happy about that.


[X] finish sisyfus story – DONE – and submitted!
[x] work on counted cross stitch project – going slowly, very slowly
[X] start notes for next writing project - it's a happening thang

Only one week left in February. Here's hoping I can at least get the Grinch's legs done on the cross-stitch by the end of the month.

Week three, and I am absolutely not getting all my goals finished this final week. Especially as I'm going on a family camping trip over the weekend.

But I did get halfway through editing my SS story. It feels more like a story atm, thankfully, though still not sure if I'm pulling it together properly. I only typed up a couple more chapters of S&M because my focus was on the story. Did a little bit of game stuff, but probably not enough. A little bit more Ginevra.

I realised I hadn't thought about the new story yet, so I put aside Ginevra today (I write during my breaks at work). I'd pulled a few potential inspiration bits together (from a very convenient SS thread), and one of them got me started on about 500 words. Then I realised what I wanted the story to do while waiting for my train . Hopefully will get that done this week.

I finished Caliban's War (James SA Corey), and it's such a fat book I'm not the slightest bit guilty that I'm now almost all the way through a Famous Five and will follow up with at least one more.

1. Read five books. 1/5
2. Edit SS story. Halfway there.
3. Draft one new story. Started.
4. Game planning. Started.
5. Type up edit for S&M. Started.
6. Send at least one query for it. Nope.
7. Write Ginevra. Some.
8. Read or write/edit each day, with one dedicated writing day per week. Yes!
9. Bake a thing. Chocolate muffins.

Having surgery on my messed up right foot on March 1st, so everything's insane right now.

Update:

[] Loosely plot Immortal ~Got ideas...do those count?
[] Run Blindsight through How to Think Sideways ~Started
[x] Finish CE of antho story (due 2/1)
[x] Do CE of my own story (due 2/15)
[] Oubliette words
[] Manifestation journal entry for Feb (2/5)~Nope
[x] Feb newsletter
[] BEP: 10 pages ~4 pages done

Ow, good luck with the surgery.

Saoirse--Good luck with the surgery. I hope the recovery is easy, at least as easy as can be with these things.

Tamlyn--Your post, for whatever reason, makes me realize how important these goals are, and the importance of progress over completion. You are making progress of one sort or another on many of yours. That's awesome.

Jaymz--Hello fellow crafter and fiber artist. I'd love to see your cross stitch sometime. I'm working on knitting a sweater i started for my daughter when she was in third grade. She is now 22 years old. I hope to finish it before any children she might have are in 3rd grade.

BDWilson you deserve an award. I stand in awe of your accomplishments.

AphoticInk--LOL I'm sorry you're dealing with so little stress right now, at least if I read that right! I think you are being very cute, and I think this is your intent, but words on a screen are sometimes mischievous and easy to misinterpret. Anyway, I have some stress I can share with anyone who'd like some--our roof is leaking. The bids that were promised aren't coming, even after followup emails to the various roofers. The bids that *have* come in are, of course, much higher than we think they should be. And it's raining.

PROGRESS:
Anyway--I'm trucking along--I thought I wouldn't make the exercise goal this past week, but I did, huzzah, although the fifth day was only half a workout. I got back to drafting book two last weekend and that was great. I started reading a book and was making my way through that every night, also good, but I can't finish it. I can't. One character was sold as a child into slavery. DNF. Nope, not going there. I mean the whole thing is so dystopic, but I really admired how the author dropped in the science and imagined/extrapolated not-unlikely-even-if-extreme-for-fiction-purposes future scenarios based on current tech. I really admired her deftness at that. I just don't want to spend time with the characters anymore, and I don't like being manipulated with things like child slavery. Too close to home, especially with Epstein back in the news. I did read an unpublished MS since last week that was fantastic and I hope it gets picked up.


[ ] Write two chapters per week on book two, with a 'two chapter forgiveness' for the month
[XX] Week One
[x] Week Two (Meh--I did write, but was more focused on querying. I don't think I added two chapters.)
[XX] Week Three
[ ] Week Four

[XX ] Re-start querying in or before week ~3 Yes, I can check this off.

[ ] Exercise five times per week
[XX] Week One
[XX] Week Two
[XX] Week Three
[ ] Week Four

[ ] New added goal: Start and finish another published novel; take notes (toward my new year's resolution of learning from 'the greats;' add a goodreads review I read half and will NF.
[XX] New added goal: Read through an unpublished manuscript of a friend, purely for enjoyment (This has the secondary goal of showing me that sometimes the trade gods get it wrong!)

ETA: Week four is consumed with roof issues--not sure I will meet the goals this week but here's to looking at March!!!

Ouch, Saoirse. Hope the surgery and recovery go well.

Patty, if I ever finish the damn thing I'd be happy to show it. Won't it feel grand to get that sweater completed? I'm so sorry to hear the roofers in your area are so inconsiderate. I hope you can find one with a reasonable quote very soon - AND they do the job quickly and well.

Thank you, everyone!

I feel like this month was going by so slow and then the end snuck up on me.

Anyway, I think I'll just use this post as my end of month check-in, though I'll leave off the final week of my writing goal for now and come back to edit this post when February is officially over.

I've got my editor booked, so I'm marking that off, huzzah! I did finally start watching more lectures. I'm not quite on the schedule I would like to reach, but I did get through more than the five lessons I'd planned, so I'll take it.

I do no expect to clear out the office shelf before the end of the month, so that'll be bumped to next.

[X] ! Get editor booked for novella I've been sitting on. (Seriously, I need to do this already.)
[X] Complete five more lessons of Margaret Atwood's Masterclass on writing.● Decluttering progress:● Read:● Hit my daily writing goals for the month:

Last day of the month. I didn't do a huge amount the last week - camping, birthday, trying to deal with a stubborn computer hard drive - but I made a little more progress.

I finished up the SS story. It still needs another pass, but it's close enough I'm happy to count that goal as complete. I also finished drafting a second story today - it's a mess but I think I know where to take it.

I think I typed maybe one more chapter of S&M, which is not great, and so of course I never got a query out since I needed to finish one before the other. A little game stuff, again, but game is (maybe if people actually respond) in a week and I need a lot more.

Finished Famous Fives numbers 8 and 9 (Five do something!). Hoped to get the next one read by today, but nope, so I didn't do too well on the reading goal (instead of falling just short).

So all up, I'm about half and half on the goals. I did well with the shorts and not so well with the other stuff. I did make more chocolate muffins to take camping since I had leftover icing

1. Read five books. 3/5
2. Edit SS story. Yes!
3. Draft one new story. Yes!
4. Game planning.Someish?
5. Type up edit for S&M. No. Not quite halfway through.
6. Send at least one query for it. Nope.
7. Write Ginevra. About 6.6k.
8. Read or write/edit each day, with one dedicated writing day per week. Yes!
9. Bake a thing. Chocolate muffins.