Thank Goodness its February (and it's almost over!)

Special Tuesday TGIF (again)!

PB Marathon Update:

Another short post to keep you updated.

Only two days and two picture books left.  I have written 24, plus, this week I did my picture book for 12x12 in 12!  I'm looking forward to a little relaxation in March.  More about my efforts and results next blog!

Keep writing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

Interesting or useless quote:

Who needs sleep?!

Thank Goodness its February (once more)

Special Tuesday TGIF!

Marathon Update:  Just a short post to keep you updated

I am still on track to finish.  I did use both of my remaining rest days this weekend (I was busy), but I only have nine books to write in nine days!  (Actually ten books, because I haven't written my 12x12 book for February yet either...)  Easy!  ;)

Anyway, stay motivated.  Stay focused.  And:

Keep writing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

Interesting or useless quote:

Shouldn't it be spelled:  Fonetic ?!?

Thank Goodness its February (yet again)

I'm still doing well on the Picture Book Marathon.  Yesterday was the ninth of the month and I've written eight picture books.  I did use one of my 'rest' days, but I have two left.

As for ideas for the books I'm working on this month, I've been looking back through ideas I have stored in notebooks, on my computer and on my phone and iPod.  However, some of my better ideas (I think) have just come up--sometimes from being around my kids.  So, you've got to keep your eyes and ears open for ideas that may strike you!  And keep something handy for jotting down those ideas.  It doesn't hurt to hang around children either.  :)

I have also been looking at sending out some of my poems to magazines.  I just need to decide which ones and to what magazine(s).  I want to send a few to at least two or three different magazines this month.

Stay motivated.  Stay focused.  And:

Keep writing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

Interesting or useless quote:

I'm out of bed and made it to the keyboard.  What more do you want?!

Thank Goodness its February (again)

So far so good for me and the Picture Book Marathon.  Yesterday was February 2nd and I have written two picture book manuscripts this month.

It is working to keep me motivated so far as well.  I also joined another marathon of sorts, the 12 x 12 in 2012 challenge.  I wrote my PB manuscript for January, so at the end of the Picture Book Marathon, I should have at least 28 new manuscripts (at least 26 for the PB Marathon and 2 for 12x12in2012) to sort through and work on.

I've been busy with typing notes and manuscripts on my iPod, phone and computer.  I generate a lot of ideas when I'm trying to finish a manuscript.  That's a good thing if I don't get distracted from finishing the idea I'm working on.

Well, that's going to be it for the blog this week, but I hope to have more numbers and motivation for you next week!

Keep writing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will


Interesting or useless quote:

Even if the voices aren't real, they have some good ideas...

Thank Goodness I'm Functioning (again)

It's Picture Book Marathon time again!

This February is the 4th annual Picture Book Marathon.  Last year, I completed the marathon and finished 30 picture books in 28 days.  I had wanted to go through them and revise them and actually send some of them out.  I think I only sent out one of them last year, however, I have recently been going through them and I plan to send some out soon.

That's what I'm hoping the marathon will do for me this year:  motivate me to send out more manuscripts.  Also, I'm planning on blogging about the marathon (at least once a week) this year--that should hopefully get me back into the blogging mode, since I've been sadly lax on maintaining this blog (but the job is going well!).

Anyway, looking back through all the manuscripts, many of them don't work, and might not ever work without being completely rewritten from scratch (which is a valid endeavor!), and some of them might work better as another literary form (magazine story, magazine poem, etc.).  But some of them could be quite nice!

Well, here's to your writing life and mine!  May we all have success in publishing (or whatever your goal is) this year!  Keep your eyes open for 4 new TGIF blogs next month!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will


Interesting or useless quote:

Top Ten Reasons to Procrastinate:

1.

This Guy Is Funded

So, I have not kept up with my blog as I would have liked.  Yes, I've been busy, but that's no excuse.  Yes, I recently started a new job (and I wasn't even really looking--funny, I looked for a year and a half, then when I stop, the job finds me!), and I had to prep for and go to two interviews, but that is no excuse either.

I'm a slacker.  There.  Now you know.  (Perhaps this blog should have been titled:  This Guy Is a Fritterer ??)

Oh, I work well with deadlines and can do a job well, but for things that don't have to get done...well, they might slide a little.

That is why I have some writing projects that have stalled.  I need to get back to them.  (I need to take my own advice from my last blog.)  I have plenty of projects that are completed (with minor revisions still to come, I'm sure), but I have more that could be finished.  Of course, if I actually sold some of my completed projects, that would give me more motivation to finish incomplete projects and less need to tweak those 'completed' projects.

Anyway, it feels good to be working full-time again.  It feels good to be writing another blog.  Another reason I haven't blogged consistently is that I'm a perfectionist.  If I don't think I can do it well, I might just let it slide another week (and another, and another...).  Maybe I should be less perfect and more prolific?

Well, keep checking back and see which I am.

Thanks for stopping by.

Will

The Ground is Final

OK.  I believe in an afterlife.  I am a Christian, and everything I do is guided by my relationship with Jesus Christ (on good days...).  So, in that sense, the ground is not final.

But in another sense, it is.  You do not get to continue to do things in this world once you die.  People you knew do not get to experience you anymore.  You're done here.  Finito.

We lost another dog today.  We lost Rudy, a boxer, back in June.  His companion for the last 11 or 12 years, Gracie, another boxer, was put down today.  She was not the dog that she had been.  In her day, if anything with four legs came onto the nursery property, it had a slim chance of surviving.  She was a great guard dog.  But in the last couple of years, she moved much slower and even had to suffer our two cats rubbing up on her--not the same dog she had been.  She had a tumor on her head that the vet said would worsen her ability to get around and make life more painful, and surgery at her age (15+) would be highly suspect.

What does all this have to do with writing?  I'm glad you, er, asked!

When you're gone, you can't write anymore.  You can't send out that story to that magazine or publisher.  You can't read that book or go to that writing conference you always wanted to attend.

A new Shel Silverstein book is being released in about two weeks.  (Woohoo!)  His family went through his writings and found some more poems and drawings to have published.  That kind of thing is not going to happen for most of us.  (My wife likes most of my writing, but I'm not expecting this kind of treatment when I'm gone.)

So, make time to write NOW.  Do the things that you want NOW.  Don't put them off.

This applies to your entire life as well.  Want to go on that vacation?  Go.  Need to right that relationship with a friend/family member?  Do it.  None of us knows when our time will come.

So keep writing!

Thanks for stopping by.

Will



Rudy

Gracie

P.S. - I've been lax with my blog all summer.  More on that next time...