So after all this time, I finally managed to be way late for my own bloghop. It’s been a long week and I got home so late that I just couldn’t focus. I decided to sit back and sort through my goals for July in the morning (because I didn’t have time to do it all week).
And when I finally managed to sit down and put this post together, I realized that I’ve got to be realistic and completely change the way I’m approaching my goals.
Why?
Let me show you…
Writing Goals:
1) 60 000 words written, 60 hours of edits or some combination of those.
The equivalent of 23k words.
2) Find and submit to Critique Partners for Wo6C3
Sent to one CP and in short, Wo6C3 needs only a ton more work before I can send it out to more.
3) Critique works by critique partners.
I’m waiting for my CP’s work.
4) Edit ES1
Didn’t look at it.
5) Prep rewrite for BvB2.
I managed to think of this a few times before I had to do something else.
6) Complete revisions to O1
I revised two chapters.
7) Add 10000 words to StW1
Added almost 8k words.
8) Work on CdW concept
Nope.
9) Start Sci Fi Project. (Still thinking about an suitable acronym.)
Nope and Nope.
10) Work on concept for a new story that came to me while I rested.
A little bit of this done, but not much in the way of a concrete start.
11) Edit my Untethered Realms anthology story.
Done. Yay. I managed one thing.
Reading:
Read 6 books.
I read 4.
Read some chapters of Les Trois Mousquetaires.
Nope.
Networking and Marketing:
Rethink Social Network Strategy
This I did and it’s huge. So much so that it’s taking a chunk of my writing time to implement.
Regular updates to at least some of the social networks.
This I was spotty on because I’m basically rebuiling my entire social network from scratch in some places.
Confirm new covers for Wo6C series.
Done.
Life:
Maintain balance between life, writing and work.
Bahahahahahaha *cries*
Go to dancing classes once a week.
Didn’t go because the week before I was to go to my first lesson, I discovered that I’m moving again, so I couldn’t sign the membership contract.
Get into the habit of eating more frequent, smaller meals. (Stress and an ulcer don’t mix, so I have to help where I can.)
This I did and also cut way back on carbs and sugars to help even further.
In short: I managed to do precious little that I set out to do.
There are a variety of reasons for this:
1) I’m having to rebuild my day-job business from scratch yet again. Which means I have to put in more hours.
2) I’m having to restructure my social networking (see here if you’re curious as to why and what I’m doing.)
3) I’m a bit of an emotional mess due to reason number 1
4) While being an emotional mess, I default to working on The War of Six Crowns, which means that I broke my own rule of not working on a sequel before the earlier book is ready for publishing, so that I could work on Book 4 while waiting for CP feed back on Book 3. And now Book 3 needs more work.
5) People, I feel like crying this morning.
In short, it’s taken just about two years of unrelenting pressure, but I’ve buckled under. This month was the most unproductive I’ve ever been and it’s been a downward trend from January.
Yesterday, I spoke to my mother about how I’m feeling right now and… It’s not good. I’m exhausted. Completely and utterly. I’ve expended every ounce of my energy to keep going earlier this year and in return I got my suppliers and clients stolen by someone I trusted and nothing to show for it because all the money I’d earned went into surviving.
So.
The situation is this.
I’m not catching a break.
My hard work does not result in anything. Because in this life, it seems, the only thing that matters is being rich or being lucky. I’m neither.
And yet, I can’t just give up, so I have to keep going.
I have to keep working in the hopes that this time I strike it lucky. And heaven knows I’ll keep writing because the day I stop that I might as well stop living.
But I can’t keep trying to do so much because I have readers waiting for Book 3. I probably have one or two people hoping I get the sequel to Endless out too. Since The War of Six Crowns is my happy place, that’s my priority, but other than that, my only priority right now is to survive rebuilding, moving house, and doing everything else I need to do in order to have a shot at making it as a writer.
Sorry if this is way too much of a downer, but this is where I am right now. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.