For those of you who don't know: I'm doing Milwordy. For those of you who don't know what that is: it's a writing challenge in which the person doing the challenge writes a million words in a year. Fun fact: I've done this twice before and won well before my goal date.
At the beginning of this year my goal was to write two novels a month. If I was still following that goal I would be at book 12 (or so) for the year. I decided to stop that goal in February because it was just too damned hard. More details here.
For about two weeks in the beginning of March I was really depressed because I didn't think I would hit my million. Well, it's June and I'm at 638K and change in month six of my goal. Seven books have been written and I'm four books away from completing my 13 book thriller/mystery series.
That half million isn't just the 13 book series. It's actually books 3-9 and a few short stories that include the mains from that series as well as shorts that don't include the mains. I also included the query letters and synopsises I wrote (but haven't submitted) but didn't include any blog postings, tweets, or NaNo posts.
So, I'm a bit over half-way on one of my four goals. The other three goals for this year: finish the thriller series, submit a query letter, and lose weight.
Well, I'm 9/13 on the thriller series and unless I stop writing right now I'll finish that by hopefully September with a book a month. I might get a little ahead and finish by August because camp is in July and I tend to do at least two novels during NaNo events. I'm hoping to be done with the series in August so I can take a break, write a stand-alone then plan another trilogy.
Submitting a query letter: I have two different letters written for two different series. One is for the fantasy Cara Series while the other is for the Thriller series. I've got a list of agents that represent fantasy or thriller and I've learned the rules for submitting. Why haven't I submitted? I'm (again) on the fence about self-publishing vs. traditional publishing. I'd like to remain a self-published author and even made a plan to stay self-published but haven't followed through yet. I want to wait until the end of June to see how my 9AM-5PM job is going to turn out.
Losing weight: IT HAPPENED! I went from 195/200 pounds to 188 (as of May 23rd). I still have about 30 pounds to go in order to at my "ideal" weight but we'll see what happens when I get there. The frustrating thing is that it doesn't seem like I've lost any stomach fat. That's where I carry the most weight and yeah, I can get into old clothes I couldn't before but it doesn't look like I've lost any. I still look pregnant even though I'm not.
But I'm still going to the gym (after a month) and I'm enjoying it. It's become a kind of game in where I compete against myself to get better. This is a good thing. I'm hoping that by this time next year I'll be at my goal size and have stayed there for a few months. What is my goal size? About 155-160 pounds. If I go any smaller I'll look too thin and muscle weights more than fat so I figure even if I'm at a higher number I'll still look all right since I'll have muscle. Frankly I'd be happy to get rid of the belly fat.
I haven't pushed as hard as I wanted at the beginning of the year but I am proud of how far I've come. It's the little steps that build up to the big steps, right?
Until next time: comments, questions, rants, rage and everything in between can be directed to the comments.
