The first week of February passed by like a flash. I really don’t know where the days went. I mean that. If I think back it is like they did not exist. I had a very mixed week, on all fronts.
I started, finished and published a new erotic short story under my pen name. I didn’t expect this, it just came to me and needed to be written. It was good fun and a welcome change of pace compared to the two novels I am working on. I will be getting back to those today and in the coming week.
I felt somewhat adrift this week, my writing was running smooth, but I just had one of those weeks, we all get them. The only thing to do with them is keep your head down and plough through the funk!
I started a new position at work on Jan 1st, and it is taking some time to transition, and get used to being on the other side of things. IT instead of Customer Support. Plus my role is still being defined a little, so I was also a little adrift there this week. That is settling down, and I really love my new job, so will not grumble about it for a second.
I lost a lot of my Wednesday to my neurologist’s appointment, which was as much use as trying to make tea in chocolate teapot. I sat there, they pulled on my leg, stabbed me in the foot with a needle to see if I felt it or not, only to say “yes, you have a herniated disc, take it easy and come back in eight weeks, it will have probably healed itself by then.”
With that I was sent on my way. With the instruction to take it easy… with four young kids. Yeah right!
I also didn’t have any freelance work come through this week. Both of my regular gigs had a week off, although I have two articles that have been cleared for writing so I might try to work on them this afternoon.
Let’s Take a Look at the Numbers.
Having ended January with 64,000 words, February was set to be a good month, but with the reduced number of days, I am not expecting to hit such high total
This past week this blog post now included, I managed to write 12,224 words, and almost all of that was on fiction, which was even more pleasing. That averages out to 1,746.14 words a day. That is lower than January at this point, but I did not get anything written yesterday as I was editing the erotic story, and making the cover, etc. My 12,223 was technically written over 6 days.
This good week stands me in perfect stead for a good month, and while I am sure there will be periods where I run dry, I am going to ride this productive wave as long as I can. I am planning out the two novels I’m working on, a very basic framework, mainly to keep me on track and stop from rambling. I think they are both novels that will benefit from a little structure as I work, and hopefully will push my productivity up even higher.
The Plan for the Week Ahead.
I have three things I want to work on this week. Today is for Freelance. I want to get both articles written, if I can. I need to do a bit of research for one, so we will see. In any case, I will blast through them early, so I can focus on fiction for the rest. I want to keep working on my vampire novel, as I feel that has the most momentum at the moment. However, knowing I have the dark romance to fall back on it a nice safety net.
I also want to look further at both a newsletter, and a mailing list.
I am thinking that I might turn this weekly post into the basis of the newsletter, with a few extras thrown in also, of course. The mailing list would then be used for new releases, pre-orders, and the like.
I need to do a lot more research first. I signed up to Mail Chimp for my mailing list, but I have no clue still what that site actually does, I will need to spend some time reading up on this. My sales have stalled, and even the blog is failing miserable with regards visits and things, so it is time I took my promotion and my writing along a different path. I won’t stop using the blog, but rather supplement it with the other campaigns, to hopefully generate a little bit of interest in my writing. After all, I think it is pretty decent, and at least worth trying.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to share this post around with anybody you think might enjoy it. The more the merrier, that’s what I always say.
Do you fancy giving one of my books a try? Come on over to my author page on Amazon and take your pick. I have novels such as Highway to Hell and Blood of the Tainted, through my chapter book zombie series, Diaries of the Damned.
The majority of my books are enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program, so if you are an Amazon Prime member, you can read them for free!
Official Site of Alex Laybourne - Author 