A Quarter of a Million Words, and I’m Still Feeling Like a Slacker?

October is almost over. I can’t believe how crazy it’s been. When it started, I had pie in the sky plans for finishing my third Legally in Love novel, and I was off to a running start, about 45,000 words in ten days. Yay! And then… for the next three weeks, not even 100 words as life high-jacked all my plans.

 

Sometimes, just to feel like a bit of a martyr perhaps or so that I don’t feel like a slouch and a time-wasting loser, I make a “ta-da” list instead of a “to do” list, especially when I am down on myself for not reaching a certain arbitrary deadline or goal I’ve given myself. Looking back on the word count disaster, I have to do this or else I’ll just mope.

 

TA-DA LIST:

  • Edited three 90,000+-word novels, for myself and two crit partners. That, my pretties, is over a quarter of a million words edited in the last 12 days. Shoosh!
  • Cleaned my house, yard, and truck for when my parents came to visit—quite a feat, since I’ve been writing like a maniac, and let’s just say things had started looking like nature was going to take the place back as her own.
  • Planned a lunch for 50 teenage boys
  • Planned and prepared a meal for 35 teenagers—the same day as the 50-kid lunch
  • Formed a committee to create a scholarship
  • Helped my kids enter stuff in the county fair, went to the fair FOUR times, and worked twice at the political booth
  • Went on three all-day trips out of town for kids’ events and stuff for my husband’s work
  • Prepared and taught a church lesson and attended quite a few meetings (normal Mormon life being that we believe in meetings; we believe in all meetings; we have attended many meetings and hope to attend all meetings…)
  • Ran 55 miles and biked about 70
  • Drove for the field trip (I’m sitting in the parking lot at the Observatory writing this right now)
  • Helped kids organize a total of SEVENTEEN (no exaggeration) different costumes, including sewing a skunk costume from scratch (and I don’t really sew)
  • Chauffeured a cute little batch of girls to play practice a dozen times and volunteered to keep the peace in the dressing room
  • Listened to and approved 4 hours of audio for the Immersed audiobook project (yay! It’s happening!)
  • Released TWO novels: Asked & Answered, and Under the Mistletoe (a Timeless Romance Anthology) which went to #1 in Amazon’s “Clean Romance” new releases. Woot!
  • Organized the ARC distribution of those novels to my Review Team
  • Formalized a Review Team
  • Developed an official mailing list
  • Created and distributed an author newsletter
  • Chose covers for two new novels, which I’ll reveal sometime soon
  • Had a great visit with my parents
  • Organized a family lunch for 30 at my house
  • And last but not least, saw my little daughter get baptized on one of the sweetest, happiest days of my entire life.

 

This is only stuff I can think of off the top of my head, and I’m not even going to mention the little skirmishes I had to fight against myself now and then. One thing that’s not on this list: slept eight hours at a stretch even once. One thing I wish weren’t on the list: gained seven pounds. Alas.

 

I know there’s a touch of martyr syndrome in me, and I’m working on that, but when I look at this list it does make me feel a touch better and less like a total slacker as a writer. Now, enough whining. I’m going to go add some padding to my word count. I wish I could get this whole project done in time to start a new book (which I outlined on one of the out of town trips) for NaNoWriMo for November, but I’m going to just cut myself some slack and write this book at a reasonable pace.

 

Meanwhile, ASKED AND ANSWERED comes out tomorrow! I’m really happy with the feedback reviewers have given it so far. It’s still fluff, but I think the characters are sweet, and their story makes me happy. I hope it will make you happy too.

4 Responses

  1. Wendy Jorgensen
    Wendy Jorgensen October 29, 2015 at 2:05 pm |

    Sheesh! Now I’m the one that feels like a real slacker….

  2. Wendy Jorgensen
    Wendy Jorgensen October 29, 2015 at 5:19 pm |

    No apologies! Your post is motivating!

  3. Paige
    Paige November 2, 2015 at 1:36 pm |

    Wow! That ta-da list is amazing! If someone like you feels like a slacker, I’m in big trouble. 🙂 And I like your idea! I’m going to make ta-da lists instead of to-do lists more often.

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