There is one constant in my writerly life – as much as I try, wish for, and convince myself that THIS weekend is THE weekend I will get some writing done (with THIS meaning every and any weekend in question) – inevitably, life does seem to get in the way.

I try not to beat myself up for that. Because we all need a break every once in a while, and as long as I get a respectable amount of work done during the week, I allow myself the weekends to watch crappy TV, go for ice cream, talk naps and generally reboot.

That being said – it was Victoria Day this past weekend, so I indulged in all of the above, including a drive to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a little picnic and a stroll along the Niagara River.

Like any good writer, I do carry a notebook with me in case the Muse makes an appearance. But it was nice to get away for a few days and miss writing enough that I am ready to tackle the week again.

So, here's how I did last week:

Works-in-progress:
-    Moral Hygiene: still reworking it. Currently see-sawing between which character should be the protagonist (as you can see from my previous post)
-    Castlehill Story: starting to think about this one again, as I hope to finish MH soon so I can work on something new

What I Did Well:
-    Drove some traffic to the ol' website with new blog posts
-    Started networking a bit more with new Twitter peeps
-    Working on a marketing strategy for my fiction writing, embracing the fact that it, too, is as much of a business as my freelancing and realizing that just by building a website doesn't necessarily mean the readers will come – gotta go out and find them!
-    Tweaked my Writer's Accountability Chart: changed the 250 task to 500 – because 250 words is simply not enough of a challenge to me, even on my busiest days
-    Continued adding to my Idea File

What I Can Improve On
-    Didn't get to my Friday 5 this week. Oops! I think I'm going to need to come up with an alternate "chore" for those times when I can't write that much no matter how much I want to (specifically when I am editing and there is no need to add 5000 words to a story)
-    As I said above, try to write on weekends (maybe every other one)

I know for sure that I've improved upon last week's productivity. I think I should give each sticker a point amount or something so I can be more accurate in grading myself. That might just take some of the fun out of it, though. I also feel that my productivity will go up now that the shows I watch have ended for the season.

[NWC]

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[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]