I'm not in the mood... Or am I? (Big Dreams Blog Update #21)

It’s Update Day!

I’ve been doing this for a while, but if you’re too lazy to scroll back to my previous Update posts, then allow me to tell you what this day means.

Along with 16 other bloggers, I’m part of the Do You Have a Goal? blog hop (a.k.a. the Big Dreams blog hop); hosted by authors Misha Gericke and Beth Fred, this blog hop has been a real kick-in-the-pants for a procrastinator like me.

In order to sign up the only real requirements are having simple keyboard skills, a really crazy dream you’re willing to share with the world, and the drive to regularly update on the last Friday of every month on the deets with said goal!

Still interested? Click on the “Do You Have a Goal?” banner above or right HERE to sign up now and join the crazy good fun.

Still on the fence? Then let me show you how this works…

SOOO my big crazy dream is to write a million words worth of “bad” words in order to write the first “good” one as per the adage. In truth I don’t believe that baloney – most first drafts can do better, but I have yet to hate EVERYTHING about my writing, y’know. So all baloney…

But I liked the idea of challenging myself to a million word-goal and so I started what is now an almost 2-year-long journey.

Last month I mentioned how I cleaned the slate on my word count. Thus far I’d passed the 25% mark for the million words, but I realized I hadn’t read any of the works I was counting towards my goal total.

Ok-aaay. Who DOES that?

Yeah. Seriously. Bad form.

Now I’m remedying that, and so far I’m happy to say I’ve read one of my works and after getting over the initial fear of entirely turning myself off writing in general, I finished my 55K category romance (also my first EVER finished novel) surprisingly pleased with some of what I’d written – although some of it was really atrocious, like never-will-see-daylight-in-this-form atrocious, some of it was pretty good (and you better believe I marked those with a sticky note, just so I can always flip through and find the good parts xD).

Anyways it’s under my bed now while I work out the kinks to an outline for the rewrite, and if anything it’s lit my spirit to get that couple’s story down and in front of an editor by the end of the year!

Until then I’ve got plans to read another of my completed stories soon, but at the moment I’m gearing up for Camp NaNo July edition. On that note, it’s always really surprising how much I’m ready to get going with NaNo and then how much I really hate myself on the first few days of the writing project…but I’m still looking forward to it. Mercurial mood be darned.

Blahblahblah –

In short I’m joining Camp this month. I’ve decided by settling on a writing project. I’m writing another short category romance targeting Harlequin.

I need to do some research and really dig for the heroine and hero’s stakes and obstacles so their motivations don’t fall flat, and thereby the internal conflicts will be stronger.

Since I’m planning to do this Camp thing, I’ll probably do what I did back in April which was a series of weekly vlogs with updates on Camp progress and other writer-ly peeves and maybe random things I want to talk about. I’m still fixing up a schedule for that, but right now it’s looking like vlogs every Thursday starting July 2^nd.

In reading-related goals – because this blog also features some book reviews, and a lot more recently because of the abundance of free time I have on my hands – I’ve completed my 52-book goal for the year, but I don’t really see that as an excuse to stop reading (there’s just several lifetimes-worth of books to read out there). On this front I’ll keep marching on, reading and reviewing through to the end of the year.

That being said I probably won’t have too much reading/review-related updates in the coming Update posts for July forward. Cool?

And that’s about it for June.

Overall this month has been a big fat thumbs down with writing, but I’ve been working on getting my head straight and keep myself above the sea of sadness and anxiety that sometimes suffocates me. For instance I learned I have a problem where I wait for the mood to strike me before I write. What I'm beginning to do is figure out that although there are definite times for breaks, that I can't always wait to be "in the mood" to begin treating my writing as a job (especially when I would love to have the luxury of making a living as a F/T author some day).

Part of that meant I had to make some life decisions that might help improve how I view my time, and not only where writing is concerned. But it does feel like I’m making better decisions. Hopefully with summer here there'll be more days of light than dark, metaphorically speaking as well. :) 
Something about blue skies, greenery as far as the eye wants to see, and people out and about enjoying their leisure time never fails to put a smile on my face and keep it there...

Annnnnnd back to Camp – OMGosh, it’s officially T-minus 5 days you guys!

Who else is joining Camp this summer???