Rough Week

It's been a rough week for me with the day job. But inspite of that, I have been able to get some writing and research done on my new WIP. It hasn't been easy, yet some days are easier than others.

I find that I can get the most work done Monday through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday's are harder.

Forgot to blog yesterday totally, and today I've got a bug. Had an appointment this morning that I couldn't cancel so I went, came home and fell back into bed and slept another four and half hours. Mayb ethat will kick the bugs butt.

Have a great weekend.

Marie

New Month New Goals

It’s March. Not sure what happened to January and February, it seems just like yesterday it was New Year’s Day and I was working on setting up my yearly goals.

I talk a lot about goals, because the are the way I keep focused. With February over with, I sat down this weekend reviewed February goals to see if I accomplished everything I set out to do. And I’m please to report, that I did, with one tiny exception, I expected to have chapter 2 of my WIP done, I had started it but not finished it. But that was the only goal that wasn’t completed.

Next I figured out what I wanted to do in March. One of the things I always need to take into account is unexpected time killers. What do I mean by that.

This is something I hadn’t planned for because I didn’t know about it. Such as needing to take someone to the doctor, needing to go out and buy an new appliance because one died, family dropping by, or finding out you’re expected to be at a party and only give two day’s notice.

I had a few of these in February, but I worked around them. For March, I’m hoping not to have too many of them. I have family coming for a visit for 1 ½ weeks, so I’ve already taken that time out of my schedule.

That’s why for me it is important not only to do my goals monthly, but to update them weekly as well, because you never know when a time killer will creep up and get you.

Have a great week.

Marie

TGIF

That’s says it all for me today. It’s been a long week and while the month seems to have gone by rather quickly, I find myself looking back and being please that I accomplished almost all of my month goals.

I may not be as far along in the book I’m writing right now, I’m a lot further along than I wouldn’t be if I hadn’t put in the effort.

I’ll admit that some days its more than difficult after putting in a full day at the day job, with the commute on top of it, to sit down at my computer after dinner and work on my book. But I’ve been making a concentrated effort to do it. I’ve also been making a concentrated effort to exercise as well.

While I’m please with my progress, I know I can’t let myself get too excited. I still have a way to go before the book is finished and polished for an editor. But I am determined to keep moving forward and working toward my goals for the year.

What about you? Do you have that drive to complete your goals?

Have a great weekend.

Marie

Technology

I’m a day late, Monday was so hectic that I totally forgot to blog.

I’ve been wondering about technology lately, mainly because discussion has come up within my RWA chapter about electronic contest entries, plus how manuscripts should be submitted to a publisher.

There is one person who insists that everything should be done in PDF (Adobe) that Word, WordPerfect are outdated modes of word processing. Or to use another software that translates from one program to another. Or buy a new computer with a better operating system.

Almost everyone else, says that any word processing program is good, even if there are a few formatting issues.

I stopped and asked the person, while this may seem like the way “you” feel things should go, most writers don’t have the money to go out and buy full version of Adobe (it’s well over $400), nor do they have the money to buy a software package to translate, nor do they have the money to buy a new computer system, even if they start at $500.

For me, I couldn’t understand this person insistence that PDF was the way to go. Almost all publisher prefer a word processing program, be it Word, WordPerfect, a plain text program. Even in my own job where I write Methods and Procedures, we don’t use Adobe. Adobe is a type of publishing software, something like Publisher is. It is not made for everyday use.

Word is good for most publishers because the advent of doing more and more on-line they are able to use “track changes” within the document and email back to you. Also, almost all of the word processing programs out there allow you to save as RTF (Rich Text Format). And while it may mess up the actually formatting of the document, the contents are there in a readable form.

Technology is a good thing, but I feel that publishers are not going to demand that a writers goes out and spends tons of money on a certain program. And while most publishers won’t take type writer manuscripts anymore, I can’t see them every demanding writers using one type of program. While I could be wrong, it would be very expensive for the publisher and the writer.

What I want to get across is just because the technology is there to help, not make things harder, and not to cause a person to spend money they really don’t have to satisfy a few. Word processing programs have been around for a long time, and they’ve evolved and will continue to get better and better.

Marie

Podcast

I listened to my very first podcast today. Yes, I'm a bit behind the times. Harlequin has decided to do podcast about their editors and the lines they aquire for. The first up was Melissa Jeglinski, senior editor and Diana Ventimiglia, associate editor both for the Silhouette Desire line.

I found the podcast interesting and look forward to more of them. Harlequin plans on having a new one every two weeks. Plus they also have podcast from some of their bestselling authors.

So if you want a little insight to how Harlequin works, take a listen to the podcast.

Have a great weekend.

Marie

Sorry I Missed

I forgot all about doing Friday's blog. Last week was a difficult week for me with the day job. I did get some writing time in but by Friday afternoon I was so totally exhausted, I couldn't see straight.

The weekend wasn't much better, the new stove arrived on Saturday, spent time cleaning the kitchen before it arrived, then getting it in and hooked up (thanks to my brother) then loading junk into the back of my SUV and hauling it off to the dump. By the time all that was done, on Saturday all I wanted to do was fall into bed.

Sunday was a bit better, took a mile walk then a long nap, then not much else. Today hasn't been too bad. Day job is crazy, I'm used to it, but it does get very frustrating.

This week will be better.

Have a great one.

Marie

Starting the Week off Right

Since the beginning of the year, I've been working on keeping my daily goals simple and achievable.

I'm happy to say that I've made my goals 95% of the time. This is a major accomplishment in my book. I leaned in a on-line class last month that I was seriously over estimating what I could accomplish in what little time I had in the evenings to write.

It really opened my eyes to take 24 hours and break them down hour by hour and put in what I did during those hours, that includes sleeping and the day job, my commute, exercising, dinner, clean up from dinner, etc. I must say that I was really surprised at how little time I had each day. No wondering I was finding it hard to write more.

Now, I'm aware of how much time I really have, and set my goals to that time. Instead of saying I'm going to write chapter 1 which is 20 pages, I now tell myself to write the opening scene, or scene 3 in chapter 1 or scene 2 in chapter 4, whatever.

I've broken down the daily goal into achievable manageable chunks, even if sometimes my daily goal is to figure out the conflict in the next scene. It helps, it is keeping me focused on what needs to be done with my writing.

So, if you're strapped for time make a list with numbers from 1 to 24 and knowing each number is 1 hour figure out where your time is going, you might be surprised.

Have a great week.

Marie