Who knew it was possible to hit the finish line after missing half the race?
Seems like I took a shortcut.
More like I got lost. Because it wasn’t intentional.
However, I did follow the Just Jot it January rules: I’ve written 20,375 words on one project, and edited 91 pages on another. Plus I’ve beta-read two other people’s books and written ten pages of feedback for each. And I published a boxed set of Books 1-3 of my paranormal magician series. ( <– That’s a link to the stores that have uploaded it so far. đ Apple and B&N are coming.)
So what about this post is funny or facetious? Maybe the first line. Funny is hard when you feel guilty, as it turns out.
I still plan to post for the prompts I missed, belated as they’ll be.
In the meantime, thanks so much for hanging in there with me! I’ll be back tomorrow with a wrap up post and your participation badge.
Is that actually Linda? Like, writing a real post? On her blog?
And the answer is yes. ‘Tis me. The great and powerful LindOz.
Who we all know was never great nor powerful at all.
Ah, I’ve missed stream of consciousness writing. Can’t delete it now. It’s the rule.
So I’m resolving to do my best to participate in JusJoJan every day. My posts might all be stream of consciousness, for the simple reason that it means I don’t have to plan what I’m going to write.
Because planning what I’m going to write makes my brain ache these days. Since November 1st, I’ve written more than 90K words, and I don’t plan to slow down much.
Aside from my resolve to post this month, my resolve for the year is to publish at least three books, plus a weekly serial I’m writing under a secret pen name. 5K words on each of 52 weeks. I’ve written almost half of it, but I plan to write at least three quarters of it before I start publishing.
Is all this an actual resolution? Like, a new year’s resolution?
I suppose by definition it is.
But I’m almost superstitious about those. I don’t think I’ve ever actually followed through with one.
I’d like to start by saying thank you to Ritu for her prompt word, “publish.” Thank you, Ritu! You can find her Just Jot it January post here. Go visit her and say hi, and give her a follow if you haven’t already!
Now that I’ve decided to take this publishing gig seriously–I plan to publish at least six books this year–I’m considering what to do about creating my own imprint. Mostly so I have a single name to publish under, particularly if I decide to change genres and go with a pen name, but also so I have a name for a company, should I make enough money to register it. Don’t laugh–I have my editing business that I can put in there too.
It means I’ll need a logo … and a name. I have a couple ideas for the latter, which is actually amazing since I can’t come up with a title for five out of the six books I want to publish.
What do you call a romantic comedy series that centers around an Irish pub that has male strippers every Saturday night? And no, I can’t call it anything that will get me booted off Amazon for being too racy. Considering the premise, the writing is actually quite tame. I need titles that will reflect that too.
The sixth book, my passion project, is Book 3 of my PNR series, The Great Dagmaru. It’s a killer story that turned out to be quite difficult to write. Heartbreaking, but hopeful. The plan is to start releasing the romcom series in March, and get one book out every ten weeks, with Book 3 – “The Magician’s Soul” published by summer. I think I can, I think I can …
But back to the publishing business itself.
I’ve toyed with the idea of publishing other authors, but I don’t know if I’m ready for that kind of investment. Especially not when I’m having this much fun writing my own books. I have a thousand ideas but only 365 days in a year. Does 2020 have 366? I’ll have to factor that in if it does.
Still not enough?
I’m determined.
And inspired.
I’m interested to know whether any of my readers out there have set up their own publishing companies to deal with their own books. It seems like a lot of work at the beginning, but it might end up making my life easier in the long run.
First, I’d like to say a warm thank you to Willow for her prompt word of the day, “subscribe.” Thank you, Willow! You can find her Just Jot it January post here. Go visit her and say hi, and give her a follow if you haven’t already!
I don’t really subscribe to this seemingly lackadaisical approach to daily blogging of mine. What was my excuse today?
I was productive at my job!
Unfortunately, that meant, for the most part, staying off of social media. For me, that means avoiding the 100 or so tabs I have open in Firefox, which means staying off Firefox.
And guess what? My blog is open in one of those 100 tabs.
Okay, a few of those 100 tabs.
On to the subject of subscriptions. I have one that’s not online–a magazine I have physically delivered to my physical mail box.
It is MACLEAN’S Magazine, and I could probably subscribe to it online exclusively, but there’s still a part of me that enjoys receiving the actual paper publication.
I worked in their office, once upon a time, long, long ago. It was through an agency, so I didn’t work for them, but I was there for a few weeks while someone was on vacation.
On reception, answering phones and as the first face anyone encountered when they entered the enormous glass lobby of the building, that was me. Little ol’ me.
And when I wasn’t busy?
I was, of course, reading MACLEAN’S Magazine at the reception desk. I think it took me an entire week to get through one issue, though. I was that busy.
What a friggin’ day. I spent most of it working–worked at home in my usual spot on the couch, worked at the library, worked upstairs in my room where it’s boiling hot, worked back on the couch …
I meant to clean up a bit, but it didn’t happen. My son did do some laundry for me though, so I have freshly cleaned-and-dried-outside-on-the-line sheets on my bed. The place is slightly clean-er.
There’s nothing that gets my kitchen floor cleaner than dropping a glass and breaking it. I did that last night, and boy, was my floor sparkling this morning! … Come to think of it, that might mean I didn’t get all the glass …
Just kidding. Alex walks around in bare feet, and then there’s the animals. The floor is clean.
The point is I do do more cleaning when I absolutely have to. Half the time I do laundry when someone is out of underwear. Or the dishes when there’s something there’s none left of. Forks. I should have sixteen forks, but do you think I can find more than five at one time? NO! Forks have become my Tupperware lids. My other sock.
I suppose I should be grateful: if I had more forks, the dishes would pile up more.
My to-do list is once again way over the top. I find it much easier when that list is dominated by stuff I have to do for other people. When I promise someone I will, for instance, have their editing job done on a certain day, nine times out of ten I get it done early. I’m able to concentrate better when I have someone counting on me. I have discipline. When it’s only me counting on me, I have none.
At the moment I’m supposed to be working on three short stories (I have a deadline for two of them, but they’re not motivating me yet), one of which I’ve gone as far as creating a Word document and naming. Not a single word in the document itself. The other two I have great ideas for, but the deadline for the first is closer. As someone wise once said (Stephen King?) starting is the hardest part.
My excuse for not working on my novel is I’m waiting for a beta reader to get back to me. I could work on it anyway, but there’s this short story …
All in all it seems I’m the last person on my to-do list who has any clout. I love to make other people happy by getting their work done on time, but me–meh. I’m not that important. I need to find a way to change that. And I need to find a way to stop procrastinating. In other words, I need to get off my ass and do things for me.
I hadn’t realized until now how much time I was spending on the project I just finished. It was an awesome 150,000 word urban fantasy novel that I enjoyed working on immensely, but the energy it took? Maybe I need to learn to self-regulate a bit.
I mean, I’m sitting down now drinking a bottle glass of wine (no editing, honest đ ), and it occurred to me that this is the first time in almost two months that I’ve allowed myself such a luxury. Through all this time I’ve spend editing this novel, I’ve held back from relaxing — not even listening to music — in case I had an hour to work. I’ve worked on it at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and right up until I’ve gone to bed at midnight. Not that whole time, but for what adds up to four to sometimes eight hours in a day.
In exchange for all this, I have experience. I have a better idea of how to project the amount of time it will take me to edit a novel of this size. Of course it all depends on the level of editing involved too, but I won’t bore you with those details. Suffice to say its given me a better understanding of my chosen career. You know, the one other than being an author, which may or may not earn me millions of dollars and scads of loyal fans. Haha.
I know I have a while to go before I can make any serious money in the editing field… and perhaps stream of consciousness writing that I’m morally obligated not to edit isn’t the time to talk about an editing career… but what the hell.
So much for taking time today to get caught up on blogging; this full-time work thing is crazy, isn’t it? I haven’t had a “real” job in sixteen years, and even then, I was running my own business. The last time I worked for someone who wasn’t me was in 1995. I think.
Even though I haven’t “worked” in more than 20 years, I have worked. My kids were born in ’94, ’95, and ’00 – one might argue that just being a mom is work. But past that, I push myself to do more. Writing, blogging, and taking courses to improve my skills have kept me on my toes for quite a few years now.
What about me is impenetrable? Probably my hard-headedness when it comes to saying anything but, Sure! I can do it! Just pile it all on. My head is as hard as my plate is large. And nothing is going slow me down… until they both overflow that is. So if you see my brains leaking out of my ears, you’ll know I’ve reached my penetration limit.
At the rate I’m going, it won’t be long.
Thanks to Blog Woman!!! for our prompt of the day, “impenetrable.” You can find her here: https://blog-woman.com/
And a special thank you to Shan, for the wonderful job she’s doing as host. Let’s hear it for Shan! đ https://shanjeniah.com/about/
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