Monthly Archives: February 2015

It’s Wednesday evening, and I’m sitting in my home office, which at the moment is at the end of the dining room table, and working on a guest blog post. I’m in the midst of a cool collaboration with a like-minded soul sister, helping her out with a personal growth program for women that is right up my alley. I’ve been working on my novel again this week, and getting super excited about how the story is unfolding. On Friday, I’ll be attending an in-person workshop that I feel will exponentially expand my ideas about promoting my business.

Life is good.

Here are the details on my progress toward some of my goals, for those following along with this ROW80 journey. And by the way, thanks for all your support and comments! You rock!

• I wrote 4,203 new words on my novel-in-progress. I’m now at 75,821 words on the way to about 100K. I feel like I’m on track to finish this draft by the end of the round, which is a top-priority goal.
• I will finish 4 blog posts this week, two of which are guest posts. Three are done already, and the remaining one will be done by tomorrow evening.
• I’m 45 percent of the way through my latest craft reading; it’s 3 books bundled into one, and I’ve already read the first one, so it’s hard to figure out my exact progress. But if I finish this “bundle” by the end of the round, then I’ll meet my craft-book-reading goal. So yay!
• Living gracefully, which encompasses a whole bunch of cool things. Mostly, at the moment, it means feeling good about what I’m doing, and enjoying life to the fullest. Check!

Have a wonderful week!

After posting here on Wednesday about not working on my novel, I had a breakthrough on Thursday morning. I realized that the main reason I was feeling overwhelmed by it was my own expectations.

I’ve been a writer for quite a long time, and I’ve published two non-fiction books. But I’m relatively new to fiction, and very new to long-form novels. I was thinking about it, and yes, I successfully finished NaNoWriMo in 2013 – but I was working with a partner, and relied on that partnership for support. I finished NaNo again in 2014 – but I didn’t finish the novel, just the 50,000 words that met the goal. That was only half of the book I’m working on.

Apparently, in the back of my mind, I’ve been worried about failing, about the novel not being good enough. It’s because stories are so precious to me, a lifelong bookworm, that I’ve had this resistance.

Just realizing this and bringing it forward in my consciousness has freed up a whole lot of that energy. I recalled how much fun it is to work on the novel, that it’s only a first draft (and I have the tools to make it better once it’s done), and that, as in life itself, it’s the journey that’s the most important thing, not the outcome.

Thursday was already a full day, with work and social plans, but I got up Friday morning and added 1361 words to my novel, which is now at 71,618 out of approximately 100K. Woo hoo! The weekend was busy and full too, so I haven’t done more than that. But I’m not worried any longer. I know I’ll get up tomorrow morning and write some more words. I’m back in the groove. Yay!

Let’s see…as far as other goals go, what have I done since Wednesday? I’ve done some more planning and brainstorming for my business, Feline Dreamers, and a blog post and some other work on it as well. I’ve done a lot of drumming, rehearsing for our upcoming show. Yesterday I went cross-country skiing all day, which was fabulous fun and good exercise to boot. I did a bit of meditation, and some dancing, and journal writing. Life is good, and I’m so thankful.

I’m committing myself to do these twice-weekly ROW 80 updates, or perhaps re-committing to them. I haven’t really accomplished much on my list since Sunday’s check-in. But I think it will encourage me to do more if I actually come here and admit that. At least for now, I feel like it needs to be said, for motivation’s sake.

It actually wasn’t *nothing* at all. I wrote a blog post on Monday for Starcat’s Corner. I’ve done some journal-writing each day. I picked up 3 books from the post office, to read and review (ooh boy, new books!). I’ve done a bunch of planning and correspondence.

Other than that, life’s just been busy. I have extra shifts this week at the radio station, and I had a birthday dinner to host, and kids to drive around, and grocery shopping. Life stuff. It’s snowing again as I write this. The house is tidy and there’s homemade mac & cheese in the oven. So, you know, it’s going along fine, for a winter’s week in Maine.  See you back here again on Sunday. May the rest of your week be productive and fun in the ways you want it to be!

Art supplies at the ready!

I’ve been doing other stuff, still, besides working on my main goal of novel writing. I was going to say that I’m not writing, but that’s not true. Just not novel-ing. I feel like I’ll be ready to get back to it before too long, though.

In the meantime, I’ve been journalling, and blogging. BlackLion and I finished our first mini e-workbook and sent it out to all of our subscribers. It’s about how to use the power of your inner landscape to help make your dreams come true. I wrote all the copy, and he did the layout and the adorable cat drawings. If you’d like to receive it, just let me know and I’ll send you a link!

I’ve been writing in my Leonie Dawson workbook, making cool plans for the year. I signed up for a really awesome in-person workshop called “The Energy of Business.” It’s being led by someone I know and respect, and I’m very much looking forward to it. I started reading Let’s Get Digital by David Gaughran. My online course is going great; I shared my self-love ideas with the women and it went well.

In terms of art, I’ve created a couple of new art journal pages, and done some zentangling too.

Things have been busy at my part-time side job – I fill in as needed, and they’ve had a few folks on vacation, including this coming week. So I doubt I’ll get back to fiction this week, but I plan to add it to my daily agenda for the following week. This week, besides working the side job, I want to do some more blogging, do some research for Feline Dreamers, and get back to daily meditation. That’s the plan! I hope you have a great week.

The playfulness workshop I’ve been taking wrapped up last night. It was fantastic! I’m still integrating the things I’ve been learning. My number one message to myself right now is, no matter what I’m doing, to “just keep playing!” I’m still figuring out how that will play out (pun intended) in my daily writing and other creative work.

This week in the Barefoot Being course, I’m the “resident expert” for the topic of self-love. I’ll be answering members’ questions, and I’m giving away a pdf that’s an excerpt of my book, Cultivating Self-Love: Your Path to Wholeness. I’m excited about the topic, and about helping new folks along on their path to self-love.

BlackLion and I created a free mini-workbook on dreaming for our Feline Dreamers subscribers. I’m really pleased with it. It’ll go out this week in the e-newsletter.

I’m excited because our new refrigerator will be delivered this week. I also have a polarity session. My intentions are to pick up my novel WIP again, and keep up with blogging and business tasks. I’ll also start reading another craft book.

Blessings for a productive week, fellow writers!

Since I last updated this blog, we’ve gotten 3 1/2 feet of snow in a one week period. Yes, that’s FEET! Yowza. Well, it is Maine in winter.

I’ve still been in the process of upgrading my inner software. It’s going super well. I’m getting really clear on my priorities, and how to reach my personal goals. I’m even more involved in the Barefoot Being program that my friend is running. I’m one of her two official helpers now, and I’m an affiliate as well. It’s fun and rewarding, and I’m gleaning lots of new insights. I also joined another online course, on a whim. I know, I know…I already have plenty of projects. But this one is only for a week, and I’m learning SO much. It’s all about playfulness, and how it is “one of the most efficient strategies for exponential growth.” Play and creativity are so entwined for me, anyway. This is lighting me up!

All this extra stuff means I haven’t gotten any new writing done on my novel. I’m not too concerned, though, because it’s all directly feeding into how I am recreating my life and my days so that I’ll be more available for writing. I’ve been letting go of things in my life that eat up time without feeding my soul. I’m making changes in lots of areas of my life, and that’s exciting.

During the biggest of the three snowstorms, I made my vision board for 2015. While I was making it, the electricity went out, so I finished it by candlelight. It was such a magickal process. The lights came back on not long after I finished, so we never got cold or anything. I got to create my vision for the year, sitting in my cozy home with my family, lentil stew bubbling on the stove (gas stove, keeps going when the electricity is gone, yay!), while the winds howled and snow fell outside.

I’m so very excited about 2015. The spiritual work I’m doing now supports what I know is going to be an amazing, game-changing year.

Some of my other goals that I’ve been working on: Blogging has been going well. Today my February post for Kind Over Matter was published. I finished reading Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch. It was pretty good; I gleaned a few useful tips. I took some snow photos, and made an art journal page. Drumming has been going well. I’ve been meditating and paying attention to my dreams, as well as setting daily intentions. I’ve been enjoying doing yoga once again, and I recently re-started my practice of dancing in the evening, freestyle around the kitchen. It’s good exercise and a lot of fun.

My plan as it stands right now is to keep my focus on the online courses for the rest of this week, along with doing some blogging and other tasks for my business. Next week, one of the courses will be done and I’ll get back to work on the novel.