Fiction words written last week: 13.243 words

Blogs/Newsletter articles/non-fiction written:  1,021 words

Writing month to date total: 32,296 words

Writing year to date total: 165,514 words.

Drawing/painting last week: 0 square inches painted.

Illustration year to date total: 131.25 square inches.

Audio: I spent 7.5 hours editing  audio.

Week’s happenings:  This last couple of weeks have been amazing for writing. I am currently on a writing streak of hitting my daily word goals for the last 12 days. I feel like
I’m hitting my stride. It’s not like it’s a hard goal either — I only have to do 1,370 words daily. So, for 12 days in a row now, I’ve exceeded this. Before, the longest streak I ran was about 5 days before something happened and the streak broke. In really focusing down on this, I’ve made this the best week for number of words written and so far the highest month. I’m really starting to reach my goal, though for my yearly goal, I am still a bit behind. Catching up quickly though. I’d really like to hit it. I knew it would be a stretch, but if I wanted something to hit, I would’ve just declared 250,000 words for the year again since I did that in 2016. No, I wanted something I’d really have to strive for.

In case you’re on a path where you think, “Oh, she must have lots of time to do this. Maybe she was on vacation or something,” let me stop you right there. No, I worked a regular summertime week, and even spent some time at the office on Saturday. I watched an episode of Sherlock, then watched The Bucket List — there went three hours! That doesn’t even include the hour I spend watching TV every day as my “veg time.” I like to be entertained too. I spent time with my children. Went for a bike ride along the canyon. Hung out with them at Barnes and Noble. Did some shopping. Walked the dogs. Worked on finishing up the endings class that I was taking. Spent time being a first reader on a story for an author that I know (I’m sure I’ll be able to share more of this with you later). Finished up 2 stories and got them off to my first reader. Worked on some marketing items. I read several pages of about 3 different books I currently am making my way through (1 fiction and 2 non-fiction books). And nearly finished the initial cleanup on all the audio for 1-800-Mischief. Oh, and I even played video games with my children (which is always shocking to them because I don’t often play games). It was a fighting game and one where I could actually punch, not just button mash, so I enjoyed it thoroughly. That might have been my Viking heritage showing.

I don’t say this to make anyone feel badly. Rather, I want it to inspire you. I didn’t lose my life in trying to hit my goals. I just became really focused. I want to hit my word goals. I want to spend time with my family. I want to be healthy. I know all those take time and effort. Which means, I don’t spend a lot of time checking my email or looking at Facebook. Don’t get me wrong; I did both of these, but they weren’t a priority. It was if I had a moment and the second I got tired of the drama on Facebook, I closed it. Trust me, a quick scroll to see if anything important is going on with anyone is all that is needed. Then close it and be done. Just because you open up Facebook doesn’t even mean you have to post or like or share. You can just look and move on. Don’t spend hours there. Focus and work at it ever day.

Believe me. I once believed that I didn’t have time to exercise every day. I’m sure that at certain seasons in my life, that might have been semi-true. I spent time trying to fit it in three days a week and thought that was tough. But now, actually when my son had his bike accident and I had to walk the dog twice a day, I had to really schedule my time to get that done and focus on how long it would actually take. It made a difference. Now, I try to get out every day of the week and do something. I had even started running with Merlin in the morning. I ran a few times on my own too. I had myself convinced that I hated running. I decided it was stupid. I said, “From now on, I’ll walk or ride my bike. I was never meant to be a runner. Running is stupid.” Guess what? Last week, I got up and I didn’t quite have enough time to take a walk, so I decided to go for a run. I ran the furthest I ever had at a time and (I must be crazy) I realized I was enjoying it. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, my legs hurt during the afternoon afterward. Yes, my feet were feeling funky all day (I need to get myself some new shoes badly, but I’m so picky that I hate buying shoes). But my lungs felt good. Even with biking, I rode the canyon and it felt so easy. The first time I road the 7 miles of it, I thought I’d die. By the time I reached the end of it this time, I wanted to do it again. It does get easier. It’s kind of like my writing streak — you just have to get in the groove and go. The more you laser focus on what you want, the more you see yourself actually achieving, the more you crave getting it done.

Well, stay tuned. It’ll be interesting to see if I’m able to keep up the writing streak for another week. Especially since I have the Loki audio in the home stretch and want to get it done.  We’ll see if the writing wins or if Loki does.(grin)