Checking In – Feb. 22, 2009

Back in January, when I was all gung-ho with plans to get more organized, take my writing more seriously and network with other writers, I started sending a weekly check-in to some of my favorite inkslingers in an attempt to stay on track and to build a community for those of us living the often times singular life of a writer.

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]