May 2016 Motivation Thread

JonLaidlow

JonLaidlow

Space cowboy
Joined
Jun 20, 2005
Messages
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I feel positive! The sun is shining, the house is tidy and moderately clean (the in-laws were visiting so we had to), I achieved my writing goals for last month, despite a vicious wallow in the pit of despair mid-month. So I thought I'd - for the first time ever - start the monthly Motivation thread.

So guys - it's May - what are we going to achieve in the next 31 days?

I'm going to go for 500 words per day (or 1000 words every two days...)
 
I feel positive too. The sun is hiding, the rain is constant and I'm expectantly staying home to work on my stories. My first goal for the month is to answer some questions for a friend. ;)

Beyond that I'm going to try to get caught up on my annual word target. After last month I'm only 2k words behind. I also plan to make that workshop submission I didn't get to last month.
 
It's snowing and all around nasty-weather weekend...but I won't let that influence me :)
So what does May hold for me? Let's see...
  • Release the rest of the Season Three episodes--nine is all set to go out late tonight, and the season and series finale will be released on May 30.
  • Prep all the files for the full season bundle to release that in June (or early July). I'm well on the way there, hoping to finish that this week, actually.
  • Write one short story
  • Work on revising and submitting some fiction from last year that's still sitting there mostly ready but not quite
  • By the end of the month I may be ready to sit down with February's novella and begin to rewrite/revise that
 
@JonLaidlow, thanks for starting us off!

I'm going to try for 2 new chapters this month in my Changeling series. I also want to try to figure out how best to start this book; I have the first chapter down, but then there is all this information to share, initial world building and character introductions to do, and all in a timely manner... Its going to be a fun challenge :)
 
Time to do my first toe-dip into the Motivation Thread, where all of you seem to be fulfilling your public promises. Due to travels this month, I'll have 19 days in which I vow to write 200 words per day. Round that off to 4000 by month end, or approximately two new chapters in book #5 of The Cyclops' Eye.
 
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It's only 2 or 3 (maybe 4?) years ago the Fort Collins schools (and most of Colorado, I imagine) had a snow day on May 1. So whatever we've been doing, it goes back a few years anyway ;)

Did we overlap in Fort Collins? I moved here almost 11 years ago.
 
danielausema said:
Did we overlap in Fort Collins? I moved here almost 11 years ago.
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Fort Collins is it? I saw on your profile that you lived in Colorado, but I had no idea you were in my home town. No overlap, though. I'm an old fart who left after high school. After my folks died, my visits became few, even though I love the place. Treat it well (and may it treat you well in return).
 
Window Bar said:
Fort Collins is it? I saw on your profile that you lived in Colorado, but I had no idea you were in my home town. No overlap, though. I'm an old fart who left after high school. After my folks died, my visits became few, even though I love the place. Treat it well (and may it treat you well in return).
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Didja ever get to hang out with Connie? (Willis)

She visited the writer's group I used to belong to a couple of times.....this was years ago.
 
kennychaffin said:
Didja ever get to hang out with Connie? (Willis)
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The name doesn't register. Do you know how old she is? Or if she's maybe married and changed her name? Of course, Fort Collins is a big town now: 140,000 I was told.
 
kennychaffin said:
Didja ever get to hang out with Connie? (Willis)

She visited the writer's group I used to belong to a couple of times.....this was years ago.
Click to expand...
She came to a book club meeting once. We sat around in Coopersmith's, drinking beer and chatting with her about Doomsday Book. It was great. One of the guys in our group had her as his high school English teacher. So he used to always bring one of her books as a suggestion, but the group was skeptical of SF (before my time). Finally he told us he would invite her to join us from Greeley if you would pick it. And she came through for him :) Great book, and a wonderful person all around.
 
Goals for May:

The 5000 word minimum seems to be working well for me. When I set lofty goals I end up demotivated if I slip for a couple days and the required word count to get back on track becomes crushing. When I set a small obtainable goal, I crush it by mid-month and then keep expanding it. Then human mind is a finicky animal.
  • 5000 words min.
  • Get back to the novel
  • Finish re-write of Dwarves in the Boardroom
  • Start a re-write of last months map story.
  • Continue to write during my week of vacation this month.
 
May started out with me cleaning up some poison ivy infested vines along my back fence (took precautions) and ended up exhausting myself. Ain't as young as I want to be. Writing-wise, hoping for two more chapters on my current WIP and maybe (?) something from the copy editor for me to chew through on "Siren's Song". Book cover would be nice, but sorta doubt it.
 
The sun's a bit reticent here as well, but I feel great. I had two new stories published today, one of which has been getting excellent reviews. I spent the weekend at a local con reading, going to parties, and doing panels. I signed a zillion books. I'm told the anthology I'm in was the dealer room's best selling book all weekend. Squee!

My short stories are largely wrapped up. I'm on to the Novel. I committed elsewhere to a novel writing challenge, so I am going to try to knock out 100k words by the end of December. My plan, as it stands, is to finish my research, brainstorming, and scene-planning this month, and to write the first 5000 words. Most other months I'm going to aim for 10-15k words, so this is the "easy" month, but I want to be ready with a solid outline before I dive in. Fingers crossed.
 
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