I am a non-planner planner/goal-setter. If I have plans and goals, I’ll fight tooth and nail to reach those goals. I don’t miss deadlines. Planning works for me, but I shy away from setting aggressive goals (or goals at all) so I can’t disappoint myself if I miss them. (Silly, right?) When I started writing my novel, I purposefully set a long goal: nearly two years to complete my first draft. Two years. Someone commented on a post of mine [...]
Several years ago, before our kids were born, my husband and I started buying half gallons of organic, grass-fed milk in glass jugs. I loved buying good milk, and I loved the reusable jugs. During one shopping trip, I spotted a quart of grass-fed, glass-bottled chocolate milk. I wanted so badly to try it, but I’m frugal, and that kind of milk is already expensive. The added expense of chocolate was too frivolous. So, I passed it by. A handful [...]
The moment has come that I have been dreading since the emanation of this project: I’m stuck. I’m really, really stuck. I’ve had blips here and there in the last couple of months, but I could power through them and end up with at least a scene if not two. But, the kids got sick, I got sick, I stopped writing for a few weeks, and the excuses piled up. After just a few weeks of not writing, I am [...]
As I mentioned before, I hit 25,000 words on Tuesday. I managed to squeak in extra writing time during a better-than-average nap time and thanks to an amazing husband who took over dinner time duties. I have approximately a 460-word daily average I need to accomplish to hit my goal of 100,000 by September 30th. When I managed just shy of 3,000 words on Tuesday, I had visions of hitting 30,000 words by the end of this week. It was [...]
Short and sweet update: 52 days into writing, and I'm a quarter of the way there! If I can maintain this pace, I'll hit my goal of finishing by September 30th.
I don’t see myself as a brave person. I’m not willing to skydive, I don’t want to dive into the depths of the sea, and I never ever want to orbit the earth. I would like to keep my feet on solid dry land. I’m also afraid of daily life things at times. I’m terrified anytime one of my children runs a high fever, I’m not fond of social interactions full of people I’ve never met, and driving a car [...]
Starting my serious pursuit of writing as a stay-at-home-mom comes with its advantages: I have no outside income that I have to ever question whether I should quit in order to pursue writing full time. I’m (nearly) by a computer or a pen and paper whenever I need to be (unless someone needs a nose wiped or more breakfast). But, it also comes with its disadvantages. When I started getting bolder about telling others about my writing, writers overwhelmingly responded [...]
For people who know me well at all, this will shock you (or make you laugh), but around the time I started writing my novel, I also started to exercise at least four times a week. For those of you who don’t know, I hate exercise. It’s like broccoli: I hate it, but I know it’s good for me. I found a vlogger who posts workout videos who doesn’t charge for her videos, and she has created routines that don’t [...]
I opened up Facebook, did my usual browsing, and stopped on a prayer request. Someone from our church, 37 years old, a newlywed, was killed in a car accident yesterday. When I read the name, my heart stopped and tears welled in my eyes. My throat tightened. I knew this man. Six or seven years ago (it may have even been longer ago), my husband and I were newlyweds ourselves, and we didn’t have many joint friends. I attended school [...]
When I started all of my previous creative endeavors, I always was discouraged when I hit my endpoint and gave up. I was completely burnt out on each, and the effort I put into it was not worth the results. I would look at all the other successful bloggers or makers, and I would honestly wonder what made me so lazy. Why were they succeeding in their projects and businesses? Why did I not follow through on any of it? [...]
