"It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants.
The question is: what are we busy about?"
-- Henry David Thoreau
Have we been busy? I know I have. Last week I had the privilege of being stuck home in bed with a nasty cold and I took the opportunity to write like a madwoman, making up for lost time. I've noticed there hasn't been much #wipmadness activity on Twitter which could mean either of two things:
(A) We are so busy writing, we haven't had time to fart around on the Internet.
I'm hoping for most of us, it's been A, and if it's been B, I hope things are calming down.
Today we reach the halfway mark of the month and I am a few hundred words short of 10K, half of my 20K goal for August. With the obstacles that have come up, I am quite happy with where I am.
So how are all of you doing? Are you busy writing or is life keeping you running around like an ant? If you're discouraged, try reevaluating your goals and setting something more attainable for the rest of the month. It's okay. Life happens. If you've somehow managed to get ahead of your goals, maybe you could up the ante?
(A) We are so busy writing, we haven't had time to fart around on the Internet.
OR
(B) Life has been so busy, we haven't had time to write or fart around on the Internet.I'm hoping for most of us, it's been A, and if it's been B, I hope things are calming down.
Today we reach the halfway mark of the month and I am a few hundred words short of 10K, half of my 20K goal for August. With the obstacles that have come up, I am quite happy with where I am.
So how are all of you doing? Are you busy writing or is life keeping you running around like an ant? If you're discouraged, try reevaluating your goals and setting something more attainable for the rest of the month. It's okay. Life happens. If you've somehow managed to get ahead of your goals, maybe you could up the ante?
It's been a hamster kind of week for the Ghost Girl. Spinning with this chapter, writing, un-writing, rewriting. Just running the wheel and not getting anywhere.
ReplyDeleteAs for the distractions that kept me from full-on writing mode: School started on Friday, so a lot of the week was last minute supply hunting and open houses and faculty workshops at my job. I managed to squeak out an additional 800 words or so, but thought through a lot of the plot/character elements that were giving me fits.
So this week I'm off the hamster wheel and heading for the open road.
Woohoo!
Have fun out of the cage, Mary Ann!
ReplyDeleteI've done pretty well this week! I caught up after starting over last week and I'm about halfway to my 15000 word goal. Hoping to keep up the momentum.
ReplyDeleteYay, Jamie! You've been working really hard. Having fun, too, I think. . .
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful to read that you're halfway to your goal! Yay, that's worth celebrating :)
ReplyDeleteThe last few days haven't been productive for me, but I'm back in the spirit today, so I expect a better week. Sometimes I take on too many things at once and need to step back and figure out why exactly I'm trying to do it all, lol.
Balance. I seek it. Sometimes I find it. But then I throw too much on the one side and have to start over.
:)
Marie
Your quote gave me a laugh! Thanks for reminding me to get busy writing. Oh, wait, that's the title of my blog...I'm such a hypocrite. LOL!
ReplyDeleteGlad you're feeling better and have kept up with your goal despite being sick!
ReplyDeleteMy limited internet presence has been due to A for the past couple of weeks. Revisions are due by the end of the week and so far I'm on track. Seeing as how I got my editorial letter over two months ago and have had my brain in revision mode since then, you can imagine what A GINORMOUS RELIEF it'll be to hit the send button.
Until a day later when I second-guess everything I've done. ;)
Have a great writing week, everyone!
Balance is the ever-elusive goal, Marie. When you find it, let us know. . .
ReplyDeleteE.R. We all need that tattooed on our hands, right?
Yay, Jeanne! Congrats on making it the revision finish line. SCARY! Know that send button regret. Wish we could send our self-doubting minds along with the revisions, right?
I'm not adding a comment from Lora Rivera who is out in the desert and can't read blogs:
ReplyDelete"1st wk I wrote 5k. Last week I killed 5k then wrote 2.5k, so nowhere near goal. Will have to sprint to make it."
We'll look forward to hearing about her trip when she returns!
I'm up to about 3700 of my 15k goal - I shut myself in a room Saturday and told myself I wasn't leaving until I made it to 5k. Didn't quite make it...but at least I have a better idea of where my story is headed. So yay to progress - slow and steady, right???
ReplyDeleteHope you're feeling better, Angelina!
Angelina,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on setting goals, but accepting the variables life throws at us. Keep moving in the write direction!
Last week was a bit of a stand still for me, but I pulled out of it last night. Didn't even care about the word count. Just happy to be writing again.
Jennifer you should be proud. Progress is progress, right?
ReplyDeleteinluvwithwords--the happiest writing time is when you stop noticing the word counts. Write on!
Good going on writing so much while sick, Angelina!
ReplyDeleteI started out with A, finishing up my revision on what I can call WIP #1 and then I slipped into some very busy B time, with a sudden sale of our tiny condo (a good thing) and a visit from my sister-in-law (also a good thing) so I've been doing a lot of playing with my little girls and such. My second big goal for this month is to finish a detailed outline for what I can call WIP #2. Made some progress last week, but I'm looking forward to getting back into it this week.
Congrats to all on making big dents into writing goals! I hope to be back on twitter more now that my life is settling back to "normal" so hopefully I'll see you all there. :-)
Good to have you back, Kip. Happy to hear you've made progress AND had some fun, play time.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think I'm at A.5. Got some writing done, but was out of town for the weekend. Also, I'm entering a contest for the first 2,000 words, so that's had me occupied (read panicked), editing and writing a cover letter. I'll be super relieved when I hit send and move on.
ReplyDeleteProud of you, Girl Parker. Putting your work out there is a big, brave step. You never know. . .
ReplyDeleteFor me it has most definitely been B). Some of it has been fun, other parts of it, not fun. But for the "not fun", at this point, I'm of the opinion that whatever will be, will be.
ReplyDeleteBut I did, on Friday, make a *bit* of progress editing. The last third of my WIP is mostly new material and it feels like a glommed up chunk that I can't seem to spot the errors in. Partly because they're not errors, they're deficiencies. Such as, there needs to be more description in places, more 5 senses, etc. So I am in the process of *slowly* unglomming it, but it's painstaking work and I find myself backtracking frequently.
Que sera, sera.
Good luck in the contest!
Keep plugging away L.S. Great writing is all about revision. That's where you give it ***sparkle***
ReplyDeleteLife has been so busy because I received last year's test scores for the students. Now I'm deep in the trenches analyzing them... :P
ReplyDeleteIt was so nice seeing you last week!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're in a good place. I am too. Life has been busy, but good busy. :)
Busy beats boredom any day, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI was on a roll in the beginning, and sort of fell off the wagon last week. But, back on track again! About 6,000 words out of 20,000. Will promise to do better!
ReplyDeleteIn the past two weeks, I've done practically nothing but write. I wrote 79K, which was a complete first draft of my new YA novel. Now I'm not to revisions.
ReplyDeleteWe'll hold you to that, Candy. Congrats on 6K.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, Kelly! You must have sore fingers. Have fun with those revisions.