Classes and Life Rolls

Yes, I've been taking two writing classes this month because even with all my releases, there's always new things to learn. Both of them are through WMG Publishing (aka Dean Wesley Smith and Kris Rusch). Both of them involve adjusting my mindset when it comes to productivity.

Part of the initial coursework in both classes is taking a very real look at your output over the last three to five years.

My best year was 2020: 342,816.

2020 was also the first year out of the last five where I wasn't a full-time parent, plus I didn't have a major life roll until the end of the year. *eyeroll*

I'm keeping my fingers crossed 2022 doesn't have any looming disasters.

The more interesting class involves the old pulp writers of the beginning of the 20th century. Back when they were paid a penny a word (because a penny went much farther in those days), so they wrote. A lot.

And much of it survives and is read to this day. People like Erle Stanley Gardner and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Gardner's goal was writing 1.2 MILLION words a year. That's roughly four times what I write in an average year.

I know I can't do 1.2 million this year, but it's a quota to work towards over the next couple of year.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I just woke up at 1 p.m. EDT, and the only reason I'm awake is because DH came in to get me up.

My sleep cycles were finally getting back into a "normal" pattern after Groundhog Day, then came the damn cold virus. I didn't worry about my sleep patterns because sleep and lots of fluids are what's needed in that situation.

But now, I reasonably healthy again. DH and I are back to walking every evening. And my sleep is still screwed up.

I haven't had to do a reset in five years, but it looks like it's time to consider it. What's a reset? I go to bed a little later each day until I'm back to going to bed at my normal time. I just have to make sure I have no daytime appointments over the couple of weeks I need to do it right.

I could do a hard reset over a weekend, but I'm getting too old to stay awake 36 hours straight. Often the stress leads to getting sick. That's unacceptable when I'm trying to finish my next two releases.

On the plus side, being self-employed makes a longer reset so much easier than when I was employed by a third party. I lost a bit vacation time by sleeping through it to rest my internal clock.

40 Books and Counting...

Last week, Angry Sheep Publishing got the okay to sell books on Google Play. As part of the application process, I had to let them know how many books I'd be uploading. And so I counted them up because I couldn't remember.

Then this week, the question came up again when we were going over family income with a bank mortgage officer. (Yeah, we've decided to look for a house in West Bumfuck, Ohio. My condition for staying here is that I get an actual office that's a separate room in the new house.)

Long-term writers have said again and again that after so many years they forgot how many stories they had written. Part of me didn't believe them. I couldn't imagine forgetting any of the worlds I'd created.

But it's starting to happen.

Part of it can be attributed to age. Part of it is due to stress. Part of it is just my head getting full of new ideas, so the old ones that have been completed get tossed into a long-term storage unit. Literally. LOL

But you know something? It's all okay. Because it means I have the career I wanted. And that's a pretty damn good thing.

Oh, and the number? A Modicum of Truth and Sacrificed will be my thirty-ninth and fortieth releases respectively. And that's only what Angry Sheep has released. It doesn't count the stories I've licensed to a third party for publishing.

I love this job!

Productivity and the Whiney Writer

There are times I'm amused by the excuses people come up with for not writing. Then there are times when I'm less amused.

Today is one of the latter.

I've been back to work for a week now after the flu from hell. I still have a lovely little bronchitis cough that will not go away. It still doesn't take much to fatigue me.

For example, I had my annual gynecological exam this morning. After my visit, I stopped at Starbucks to pick up coffee for DH, tea for me and some breakfast. Everything took me a whole whopping hour. By the time I got home from just those two errands, I was so tired I could barely crawl up the stairs to our apartment.

Despite the lingering health issues, I've written a hair over two thousand words this week, and edited a good chuck of a novel. So when I read yet another article about some writer whining she can't make a living because it takes her ten years to write one novel, I'm like "What da fuck?!"

You get out of writing what you put in. If you don't put in much, you aren't going to get much out.

I've been writing, but not publishing (much) over the last couple years. My income has dropped because my readers aren't getting new stories from me. And it's no one else's fault but my own.

I'm trying to finish the multitude of stories I have started over the last two years. Granted, the month of April has been a total waste thanks to the hell flu, but I'm hoping I can stay healthy and finish a few things.

And if I don't get them finished and published, then I have no fucking reason to whine about not making money. Right?

Writing in the Middle of a Crisis

If one more person tells me how much they want to write a novel, but they just don't have the time, I might just bitchslap them.

Because I'm sure as hell not going to waste my Starbucks Venti Peppermint Mocha throwing it in their face.

(Praise Murphy and all other deities! There's a Starbucks in our town now! I can retain my Gold status for 2016. Actually, this news is a very good thing for those who irritate me. Buying me a Venti Peppermint Mocha will make me bitchslapping you less likely.)

The new Starbucks has helped me cope with the family drama. We started 2016 with MIL still in the Physical Rehab/Skilled Nursing facility. Only to have Blue Cross/Blue Shield try to say she doesn't need such care. Mind you, the woman has a gaping open wound on her leg that is the length and twice the width of my forearm. As in, she could be an extra on The Walking Dead without any make-up. It's bad enough that we'll be consulting with a plastic surgeon later next week.

On a side note: I fucking hate Blue Cross/Blue Shield! These are the same assholes who tried to deny coverage on DH's emergency surgery when a cancer tumor literally ripped open his colon. Their reason? Not getting preauthorization.

Back in the current time frame, FIL hasn't been dealing with the absence of MIL very well. He's been eating less and less. He complained about intense pain in his leg (ironically, the same side MIL is having problems with). DH took him to the ER on the 30th. After a CAT scan, the doc thought the problem was sciatica, i.e. pressure on the sciatic nerve due to inflammation and spasming of his back muscles, probably from stress. Unfortunately, things got worse.

So, Monday started with BC/BS being assholes and ended with FIL back in the ER with more symptoms than his original sciatica.

What does any of this have to do with writing?

In the middle of helping DH with his parents, I actually got words in.

Nope, not lying. I have words. Maybe not thousands, but I've got hundreds over the last seven days. A hair over 200 per day for the first six days.

For one thing, writing has actually been my method of relaxing prior to publication. I lost that along the way. Finding the fun again has been one of my goals this year.

Which brings me to letting go of the pressure I've been putting on myself to publish faster and faster. The more pressure I loaded in my head, the more I felt like a failure for not living up to unobtainable, unrealistic goals given all the family issues over the last two and a half years.

The last trick was not getting caught up in some weird ritual before I wrote. And yes, I've tried them all. My only ritual now is pulling out my iPhone when I'm waiting in line or sitting in a doctor's office and typing a sentence or a paragraph or a chapter.

An iPhone? Yep, an iPhone, using the Notes app. So far, I'm five chapters into Sacrificed which will be Bloodlines Book 8.

And right now, there's someone reading this, screaming "I can't do that! The screen's too small." Remember "weird ritual" above?

Yep, that's what the screamer is doing. Not letting go of a weird ritual. If you don't like my method, that's fine, but don't tie yourself to one method. I didn't think I could write on a smartphone, one sentence at a time, either. Surprise!

So yes, you can write in the middle of a major family crisis. Just let go of your preconceived notions first.

Mathematical Proof of the Long Tail

Back when I was in college, my econ professor was trying to demonstrate the value of interest and the psychology of long-term investing. To give you perspective, it was during Reagan's second term, and many of my classmates were paying ten percent or more even with government loans.

His example assumed you got a job right after school. It's the crappiest job on the planet, and you are only paid a penny on your first. But each day, your salary doubled from the day before. You could quit any time. It went something like this:

Day 1 - $0.01
Day 2 - $0.02
Day 3 - $0.04
Day 4 - $0.08
-
Day 10 - $5.12
-
-
Day 30 - $10,737,418.24

Add each days income together, and you'll have $21,474,836.47.

Yep, that's right. You'd have over TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS IN A MONTH if you could stick out the the world's crappiest job. If you couldn't handle it, you could quit and get a normal Day Job.

Now, imagine that you're working the greatest job ever, a job you absolute love, and you only get paid a penny for the first year. Each year your income would double. Would you still do the job you absolutely loved?

Sound familiar?

I uploaded three novels, two novellas, and one non-fiction guide in 2011. My total self-publishing income for 2011 was $131.40.

In addition to last year's stories, I uploaded one novel, six novellas, and two short stories in 2012. My total self-publishing income was $4,058.12.

I've already got a novel, a novella and a short story in the pipeline for publishing in the next two months. More stories will be written this year.

Do you think this is unusual? It's not. The only question you have to ask yourself--how long can you stick to the job you love in order to be rewarded?

Productivity

Currently reading - Undead and Unfinished by MaryJanice Davidson

Yesterday was fairly productive. Not a lot of new pages, but at least I hit the 100-page mark on the new wip. What I'm mainly doing is re-reading for cohesiveness and editing for clarity.

DGW was my 2009 NaNoWriMo project. Needless to say, between homeschooling GK and working the Day Job, I didn't make the 50K goal. Going back to work on it, I realized the pacing was rushed, so most of the last thirty-five pages I've written put the story back on a managable roller coaster ride instead of the Saturn V with no parachutes it was originally on.

Now, I'm not saying my story-telling is perfect, but I think it shows growth that I can go back to a work months after I had to put it aside and see exactly where I went wrong.

So what about the rest of you? Met any goals this week? Learned something new?