As you might know, February was the month of a big move for me. Busy with wrapping up various official things, packing my belongings, and cleaning my apartment, I didn’t have time and energy to write much, and not only I didn’t manage to write every day, but also didn’t meet my goal of the average 1000 words a day. Have I failed this month’s 365k Club challenge?
No.
I’d rather say February was quite a success for me.
Busy and stressed out, I still managed to get around 25,000 words down, and when I look at it, I’m quite satisfied that even though my life provided me with one of the ultimate challenges, I didn’t drop writing completely and still worked towards my goal. Being only several thousand words behind, I should catch up in March with ease, and even though I won’t have a Club achievement badge to show off this time, I’m very satisfied.
With all the stress, I wasn’t able to focus properly on any of my projects, and I didn’t feel like adding the pressure of writing something worthwhile, so instead I jotted down some story ideas. They had been poking around my head for some time now, but I never considered working on them since I felt some of ideas or plot solutions wouldn’t work. I still took time to write them down, because even though they might never become stories or novels, there’s a lot of interesting ideas there which I might recycle in the future and enhance some other project this way. You never know which piece of text will be useful.
I also played around with an idea of writing another short story in a cyberpunk setting which I used for a short story some time ago, and since it didn’t seem serious, I had a bit of fun with it… until I understood it’s sneakily growing into a full-size project. Of course, at this time I had to stop working on it, not being able to devote proper attention to it. I put it on the back burner at the moment, since I already have too many projects I’m working on.
It seems that my March will be extremely busy. Along adapting to life in a new country on a different continent, I’ll be catching up with my 365k Club challenge, and working on the revisions of “By His Will” as most of my wonderful beta-readers returned their comments. I also plan on catching up with beta-reading myself, since my friends were patient enough to wait through the transition. I also have another project finished, but it’s a raw first draft and it’ll need a lot of my attention, so I don’t think I’ll be able to dive into writing the sequel for “By His Will” just yet or work on other projects I’ve started last year, so to keep up with my 1000 words a day goal I might work on some short stories for a change.
I definitely won’t be bored in the upcoming months, and the 365k Club challenge changes into a challenge of finding balance between the new words and old words. And avoiding any new project that might be lurking around the corner.
Or maybe I shouldn’t?
This post is a part of the “A Month of Writing” series – a monthly report on my progress in the 365k Club challenge.
Oh a cyberpunk story! I would love that one!
Don’t try to avoid new projects at all cost. More often than not I found out I’ve had the best ideas when I was busy like hell. Jot it down in a copybook or in a file and save. They might come in useful one day :).
Yeah, I’m the same. The busier I am, the more ideas I have (unless I’m super-stressed), but then at some point it’s hard to focus on anything or get things finished.
As for the cyberpunk story – it’s still only a short story (well, 1.5 story now), but… check your email. 🙂
Well, that’s just amazing – you managed to just drop 4,000 words with all that you had going on?? You should slip into a Superwoman suit and fly several times in a victory circuit! All the very best in your new life and hope that you very soon settle in. Your work ethic is awesome and I’m sure your cyberpunk creation will see the light of day in due course.
Thank you for your kind words, Sarah. I’d do the fly by, but with all the happening I had to drop the flying classes too! 😉
What sjhigbee said! I’m finding it very hard to get to a writerly time of day and I’m staying in the same country.
All the best Super Melfka!
365k Club helped me immensely when it comes to finding at least a bit of time. I also imposed consequences: if I slacked or procrastinated, I’d lose some sleep (not much, but enough for me to next time start writing earlier).
I don’t know if I’d listen to myself if I tried to punish me.
I’m a master in making myself feel guilty, so I took the punishment. 😉
Own worst enemy, eh? 😀
Pretty much echoing what everyone else has already said: Good for you for finding to write while preparing for your move! Even jotting down story ideas counts. Just remember to take care of yourself, and best wishes for your new life here in the States. 🙂
Thank you! Writing is what helps me relax, I just needed to remember to treat it as fun versus being serious about it. I didn’t write anything very good during February, but at least I kept going. 🙂
And thank you, I’m slowly adapting and settling in.