It's been a while since I did one of my weekly writing check-ins. I miss 'em! And it really does help me stay on track by putting the info out there instead of simply keeping it all in my head. Even if no one else calls me on my slacking, these posts sort of do. A virtual nudging from myself, if you will. So, here we go.

State of the WIPs:

• completed the first draft of my tweet-inspired tale (tentatively titled Graveyard Shift at The Institute)
• did some brainstorming for my WeSeWriMo project
• took a look at one of my NaNo 2010 stories, hoping to submit it to Red Penny Papers

What I Did Well:

• got back on track with my WAC
• spent some "Me Time" reading (aka feeding the creative Muse)

What I Can Improve Upon:

• trying to get back into hitting a 500-word minimum at the very least (I'm o.k. with this when polishing up a WIP, but would prefer a 1KDay when working on something new)
• try not to get stuck on the perpetual Twitter refresh too often
• socializing seems to be either feast or famine for me. Would like to balance this out more so I can interact and bond (instead of drive-by hellos) with my peeps without sacrificing too much writing time

All in all, it was a good week. Not great…but these things wax and wane so I'm determined to get more accomplished next week.

How did you do with your goals last week? What are you hoping to tackle this week?

Well, I think I lasted 2 weeks. And then life's little distractions (and responsibilities) took over, and I lost momentum.

While a weekly check-in may seem a little ambitious, I've decided to start posting my check-ins here – to maybe bring a few more of you along for the ride, to invite you to share your own goals and hopefully help keep you on track with them and/or, as I put it to my writing group, "at the very least, inspire you to write me into your next story where I die a gloriously melodramatic and bloody death!"

So, here's how I fared this past week:

How My Week Went
All in all, it was okay. Even though some people may think "Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing,” I managed to do a little bit of all of the above. And it all helped me in one way or another.

What I Did Well
– Finally, FINALLY finished The Lockwood Collection and sent it to my writing group for critique
– Moved on to another piece I've been thinking about for a while, with hopes to submit it to Sand
– tried to stay on track with 1KDay, thanks to the poking and prodding of fellow writers on Twitter

What I Can Improve On
– Continue updating my Daily Word Count on my blog to keep me on track
– Get back into the swing of updating the NWG website
– Update my blog more often so people remain interested and as JLK said, "I now do my blogs over at my website.  Frankly, I need the traffic to justify having the damned thing"

Sidenote #1: NWG is Nocturne Writers Group, my online critique group
Sidenote #2: for some reason I tend to abbreviate friends' names with their initials. Just a little quirk of mine

Goals for This Week
– finish the Sand piece and submit to NWG for critique
– read over The Lockwood Collection once more and send it to market
– finish my 3 other works-in-progress and find places to submit them
– continue with NWG updates, at least twice a week
– source some freelance projects
– keep posting to my writing blog, get more readers, more return readers!
– stop checking my inbox so often to see if my copies of Northern Haunts have shipped

What About You?
So, how was your week? Any big things in the works? What have you got planned for next week? Feel free to share, fellow scribes!

[NWC]

And while I was not as accomplished this January as some of my favorite writerly people I like to watch, I did manage to write 22 days in January.

Here's what happened:

Works-in-progress

• The Lockwood Collection: currently pared down to just over 2000 words, working on it as we speak
• The Hanging Garden: put on the backburner at 6775 words, I plan to get back to that one when The Lockwood Collection is finished

Ideas Brewing for:

• Sand: A Journal of Strange Tales
• Raw Terror Antho.
• Return of the Raven

Since most of these stories are being written with specific markets in mind, I really need to get them finished and submitted before the deadlines!

Publications:

• Northern Haunts was finally released and so far, I've had one person's feedback. I'm looking forward to more people reading it, and to receiving my bog box o'books that I ordered for my entire family!

If you've read Creepy Crawleys, please feel free to send me a little note and let me know what you thought about it.

I imagine my output will be much better this month, as I've decided to join an online writing buddy of mine (and a host of other nutters!) in his February Writing Challenge, in which we each try to write at least 1000 words a day, every day, no matter what. If you want to get in on the challenge, join us on Twitter and look for the posts tagged with #1kday

I'm looking forward to the challenge! I find I do well with clear-cut goals, like NaNoWriMo, though I might go a little insane, as I plan to finish/edit my book next month for NaNoEdMo.

But this is what I love. I can't say that enough – I LOVE it. I could never see myself doing anything else. And to think – I stopped writing for like 5 years there. No wonder I was so miserable (the photo above is proof positive!).

[NWC]