January Stats

I wrote a total of 3 short stories this month for a total of 25,382 words. The goal was 19,250 words.

I worked on editing 2 shorts, and got one in good enough condition to have read, but I didn't get it submitted yesterday. The Challenge Master gave me a few extra days to clean it up and submit since he won't be able to read it until today or tomorrow. I'm a little disapointed that I didn't get the story submitted, but it's a learning process, and I'm still figuring out how to manage my time.

I read a total of 7 books this month. Books read in January include:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Trading in Danger (Vatta's War) by Elizabeth Moon
Marque and Reprisal (Vatta's War) by Elizabeth Moon
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Overall, I'm pretty damn pleased. Writing everyday, though tough, was much easier than editing. One thing I'm working on today is setting up a real schedule. That should help. Hopefully I can keep up the momenum for February. I'll blog later w/ Feb's goals.

So I Lied

Yeah, I seem to suck at this blogging thing. Well, I'm challenging myself to do two blogs a week for two weeks. I will set aside 5-10 minutes for it. I really think that's reasonable. It's a much more attainable goal than others that I've set for myself in the pass. Why do I set myself up to fail? I know we all do it, but why? Is it because failure is easier to deal with/justify than success?

Okay, I wasn't trying to get on a philosophical bender. Really.

My boyfriend challanged me to write this year. He actually created this whole Challenge, complete with daily word goals, and end of the year quota, and submission goals. In addition the writing, there's the reading. 1 fiction book a week. Last year I read roughly 37 books (a few I stopped because I just didn't have the time or I really loathed them). This year, I have to read 50 books.

I've been at The Challenge now for nearly a month. I've written 22,509 total this month. I have three short stories completed, one of which I'm polishing up to get it out the door by 1/31. I've also read 6 books this month.

Currently, I'm reading Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton by Martin van Creveld (yes it's non-fiction, but it's for research purposes) and Green Angel by Alice Hoffman. I have until Sunday to finish one of those books, and I highly doubt it will be Supplying War.

My 5 minutes are up. Back to work. Wish me luck.