Back On Track

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My writing efforts had a rough month in April. I've decided to work at it with a different approach. There were aspects of the task that were getting shunted aside – like editing. What was getting me stuck the worst though was my at times one track mind. I got my mind on things that were not appropriate to share publicly and had trouble shifting to something else.

Without going into detail, I've established a private daily journal where I will not only write things that I don't feel I can safely share but also track my progress. There are other things like review work and editing that I've made part of my schedule. In theory the world may hear less from me on a daily basis but I will be accomplishing more. I'll still be doing blog posts and articles but it will be different. Busy at work already.

Several of my sites are approaching milestones. Pico's Cycling – Tales of the Road recently surpassed 19,000 views all time. Not sure when I can get that restarted. At least I have a new chain for the bike and will soon be riding again. Close to one hundred entries on my writing practice blog and close to 5,000 views there. Looking forward to seeing those going past those marks.

The Current Plan

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My article/blogpost/story per day came crashing to an end about two and half three weeks ago. Part of me feels bad about it, but another part of me realizes that the approach was imperfect.  I've spent quite a bit of time rethinking how I want to proceed from here. Kudos to me for keeping it up for three straight months.

Reasons that it wasn't working are fairly straightforward. I have a one track mind and there were a few thing dominating my thoughts that I couldn't publicly write about. Generally I don't discuss employment problems or confidential issues with the whole world. I'll leave it at that because I don't want to give any additions clues as to what I'm referring to.

New plan isn't fully developed yet. I want to base it on a minimum daily word count but it can't just that without dooming it all to failure. There will be days when circumstances will not allow me to write at all. Something along the lines of 4000 words per week with an understood minimum of five hundred words per day. Getting ahead on the count would allow me the occasional missed day. To overcome the one track mind, I intend to establish a private journal where I have the freedom to write some of those things. Should have a workable plan within the week.

In the meantime, I haven't been just spinning my wheels doing nothing the past couple weeks. I have learned how to create publishable ebooks from scratch without spending a dime.  I will be adding that skill to my freelancing website. I have access to additional tools for that purpose so I'm still learning. I do have the capability right now to load a professional looking ebook onto the Amazon site. We'll see where that leads me.

Quickie Update

Just writing something quick before starting my shift at work today. Whole family is feeling under the weather including your's truly. Brandon wanted to come to work even though he isn't sure he'll make it through his shift. I don't know if I feel better or worse than he does. If he hadn't decided to try and tough it out, I'm not sure I would have come in myself.

Twitter campaign has been paused because I debate its effectiveness. I think the strategy needs some tweaks. My intention is to make some improvements, set things up so the family can send the tweets even when I'm doing other things. The work load is too much for me for what I'm getting back out of it. It'll be back better than ever.

I'm having a tough month with writing.  Still at minus one for the month but on the plus side for the year. Things are better than they were and there is hope that I'll be on the plus side for the month again.

Hopefully in a few days everyone will be healthy again and I'll be feeling more positive. Nicer weather would sure make a difference. It's been really cold or really wet or both.

Inspiration will come again and then I'll have dozens of stories and articles to work on.

Dug a Writing Hole

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First time I've been in this position this year. My goal of writing something each day is mired at minus two for the month. I fell behind by one early in the month and then caught it back up. Unfortunately I used up a lot of writing energy if you can call it that doing so. Missed the first one upset over something unrelated. I have a hard time writing anything other than a rant about the issue at hand in those situations and I this wasn't something I cared to share with the world. The following day I had my work hours extended and I didn't have much time or energy left by the time I got home.

Being ahead by one or two is far different than being behind. No pressure. Being behind is worse than it looks. Writing this today allows my to hold the line and keep things from getting worse but it doesn't make up any of the lost ground. It is hard to be happy with that. There is a lot of month to regain the lost ground but for the next few days my schedule is not going to help me.

Part of me is feeling out of ideas, but that is probably just a mood thing. There are times when I have more ideas than I could ever write. That just isn't the case right now though. I have to sit down and generate a new list of writing ideas. That might be more useful than trying to force things right now. Friday is a mostly free day and if all goes well I will catch up then and hopefully put myself ahead. That will kill all the perceived writing pressure again.

Got a few other things on my plate to take care of before I go to bed. Betting tomorrow I'll be feeling more positive.

March Progress Report

March Progress Report

May seem to be a little odd for me to be making a progress report this early in the month. There is progress though and besides that I'm stranded at work for a few hours and really don't have much else to do.

At the beginning of the month, I started a Twitter campaign. It's taken a week and a half but it is finally in full swing. This is the point where I wanted to start but couldn't quite get it all together that fast. I have created four sets of tweets that I post from twice per day rotating through. I needs serious refinement but I'm happy with how it is progressing.

I don't know what all this work is translating into but there are statistics that I can look to and at least feel like I'm accomplishing something. Twitter impressions have skyrocketed. I'm doing in a day what used to take me a whole month and the numbers are still going up. There is an increase in views on the websites I'm advertising so it is translating that far. I don't know if my book has been experiencing increased sales or not. I have no way of knowing. I'll keep plugging away. At least I know I'm not doing any harm.

I am minus one on the month for articles produced. Still on the plus side for the year but I have work to do. No excuses for this right now. Might catch up before the day is out.

My freelance work is still mired near the beginning. Been slow to add work to Francine's art site. It's moving forward but I'd like to see more happening. I may break down and try to pick up some lower paying work from some of the freelancing sites. Staying patient isn't an easy task for me.

I need to be more disciplined with my time and be more aggressive in pursuing my goals. Don't need to be too hard on myself though. Progress is being made. My writing goals are moving forward.