Starcat's Writing Desk

It’s been two weeks since my last update here. Time flies! I’m still working on my WIP, and that’s my main focus this Round. I’m now at 68,212 words, on my way to 120K or so. That means I’ve written 8,106 new words in the past two weeks. Not bad, but not the pace I’m looking for, if I’m to reach my goal of finishing the draft by early September. I guess it’s my stately summer pace. I want to find ways to pick up that pace, while still enjoying all the summer activities and getting other work done.

I’m not sure how to do that. I do have some research that I still need to do before writing some of the sections, so that will help. I’ve made it a priority to do that research in the near future. Other suggestions for picking up the pace are certainly welcome! It’s not that easy to do writing sprints with a non-fiction project. I might need to start scheduling multiple writing sessions in the day, since I only seem able to come up with 700 to 1000 words in each session.

My goal of building community for my business, Feline Dreamers, is going well. We’re now compiling the interviews for our Feminine Divine e-book project, and the content is fantastic. We have a bunch of really inspiring leaders who are participating. I’m very excited about that! We’re plugging along with the monthly workshops, and gradually preparing for our other upcoming events, all while keeping up with our blog and newsletter. I’m happy with our progress so far, though of course I wish we were bringing in some money.

My physical health goals are going well, too. I’ve been doing lots of swimming – in ocean, river, and lake – and walking. I’m eating less, and have lost a few pounds over the past couple of weeks. My spiritual practices are going strongly, and for the most part I’m having fun. The family is generally well, and I really can’t complain. So I won’t.

I’m writing this with my dear Percy cat on my lap, and a steady rain falling outside my window – we’ve had a bit of a drought here, so it’s much needed. It’s also good weather for getting some blogging and other tasks done. I hope your week is productive and enjoyable. Blessings!

Good news! I reached 60K words on my WIP draft today, which means I’m halfway to my target of about 120K words. Don’t get too excited, though – it’s taken me much longer than just this Round to get to the halfway point, and I’d like to reach my target by the end of the Round. So, lots of focus and work still left to do. But I’m feeling good about it, and ready to rock and roll.

Our first of a series of monthly workshops went well, though we had trouble finding folks who could actually attend it live. Summer is busy, and evenings are often family time. That’s okay, though, as we recorded the workshop and will offer it for sale on our website. The plan is to build a whole series, some for free and others that we’ll charge for, and have them available to those who are interested. I’d say we’ve gotten off to a good start.

My rewards this week have been a swim in the river, some blueberry cake, and a long walk (during which I played Pokemon Go, yes indeed). I’m also going out for a lobster roll with my Mom and Aunt on Friday, which will be fun.

I’m thankful for my writing going well, new inspiration, swimming, Dr. Who, good friends, deep sleep, and summer. I hope you’re doing well and reaching your goals.

Here I am, still in my summer groove. I missed Sunday’s check-in, but I’ve still been making progress toward my goals – even though I started playing Pokemon Go with my late-teen kids. Don’t knock it, people, it’s actually a lot of fun and has me taking more walks than usual!

I’ve written 5,522 new words on my WIP since last Wednesday’s check-in. That seems pretty on-pace. I’m still making good progress with my biz stuff – getting more partners for our big project (more about that at a future date), and promoting the first of our monthly series of workshops.

Rewards for myself this week included a massage, playing Pokemon Go, and swimming in the ocean at a women’s Full Moon gathering last night (cold but so delightful!).

I’m thankful for my writing going well, my awesome accountability partner, getting outside in this amazing weather, and my family, friends, and extended clan. I’m so blessed to be surrounded by funny, loving, and inspiring people, both online and in person. You, dear reader, included! Thanks for reading my update, and may your creativity flourish!

This is my first check-in since the new Round began, and things are going well. I feel like I’ve finally found my balance in terms of summertime schedule. I’m getting things done at a goodly pace (that sounds so 19th century) and still taking time to enjoy the lovely weather.

I joined the Pacemaker challenge website, and I like the ability to really track my word count achievements. So far I’ve written 6,859 new words on my WIP since I started last week, which feels good.

Tonight I participated in a workshop that my biz coach did, and it was fantastic. Really helpful. Our community-building work for Feline Dreamers is going very well. We’re getting a lot of interest about the e-book collaboration we’re working on, and we’ve started promoting the first of our monthly online workshops, taking place on July 27th.

The weather here is gorgeous, so yesterday I decided to go swimming every day, for my exercise this week. I love to swim! So it’s also been sort of like a reward for after I finish my writing and biz work.

So, a positive check-in overall. I plan to keep up the momentum and the fun. I hope your week is fantastic as well!

Here we are, at the beginning of July, and also a new Round of writing. As it’s summer, which is traditionally a busy time around here, and since I have a lot to do, I decided to pare down my goals. I’ve kept the list shorter and more focused this time. I’m trying to integrate all the things I’m doing, so I won’t be continually trying to live up to unrealistic standards that I set for myself. I’m a Virgo, and we tend to be over-achievers, so we’ll see how well that goes…

Anyway, here’s the list:

2016 ROW 80 Round 3 Goals

Draft Heart of the Goddess book. Work on it daily (on weekdays). Finish the first draft (target of 120,000 words) by the end of August. I’m starting the Round at 44K words already written.

Re-read draft of Patterns in the Void and make revision notes. Make a plan for writing the revisions during Round 4.

Continue my craft & business learning. Participate in summer events offered by In Arms Coaching. Read at least 3 books about writing craft and/or making a living as a writer.

Build community for Feline Dreamers. Create and promote monthly online workshops. Do interviews for JV project and compile into an e-book. Complete 2 more videos for Lauren’s new website, by August 1. Sign up and prepare for presenting and vending at psychic fairs and conferences this fall. Write 4 new guided meditations.

Focus on blogging. Post to my Starcat’s Corner blog at least once per week, Feline Dreamers each month, and on this blog twice per week. Write, edit, and submit monthly guest blog posts for Kind Over Matter. Submit a guest blog proposal to Mike Dooley’s site. Start and keep a running list of blog post ideas, drafts, and picture ideas.

Enhance my physical health. Devote time to daily exercise, including but not limited to walking, yoga, dancing, hula-hooping, and swimming. Stop eating sugar. Eat less in general.

Live AUTHENTICally and spiritually in my daily life. Do things I love: write in my journal, read, do yoga, dance, spend time with loved ones, and express my gratitude. Pay attention to my dreams and keep records of them. Set intentions before sleep and upon waking. Meditate and do my chakra clearing daily.

I can’t believe Round 2 is over and done. Once again I feel like I haven’t made the progress that I wanted to, yet at the same time, my life is full of love, creativity, and fun, so I guess I’m doing something right. Looking at my goals list today makes me wonder, a bit, what in the world I’ve been doing with my time. I feel like in some ways I’m just along for the ride that is life, this year so far. It’s not a bad thing. It makes it challenging to adhere to the plans I’ve set out for myself, yet I’m certainly learning and growing and making progress. And when I look at my calendar, I can see that I have indeed accomplished a lot, even though it might not have been exactly what I planned.

So, onward and upward, eternally!

Here is my more detailed progress report:

2016 Row 80 Round 2 Goals

Draft Heart of the Goddess book. Work on it daily (on weekdays). Finish the first draft (target of 120,000 words) by the end of the Round. I didn’t manage to work on it daily, but I have made a good chunk of progress on the draft. I’m now at about 44000 words. My new plan is to finish the draft by the end of August. I’m excited about this book and have plenty of ideas and material in my head, and some notes on paper. With focus, I can certainly do this.

Re-read draft of Patterns in the Void and make revision notes. Make a plan for writing the revisions during Round 3. I didn’t get to this work at all. I think I have some resistance around revisions, especially on fiction works. I’ll ponder and see where I’m at with it for the next Round.

Continue my craft & business learning. Participate fully in my In Arms Coaching biz program. Read at least 3 books about writing craft and/or making a living as a writer. Check out a couple of writer podcasts. Keep notes on ideas to use, and begin implementing them. The biz coaching program is going super well, and I just signed up for another year. It’s really helpful, and I’ve been diving in fully with the work. I did manage to read my 3 books that I set out to, yet I haven’t looked into the podcasts yet.

Build community for Feline Dreamers through strategic use of video.Send show proposal to Conscious Consumer Network. Do weekly Blab chats, building our audience. Complete at least 2 more videos for Love Alike website. Make promotional videos for our programs. This will all involve writing, in the form of scripts and outlines. We got the proposal approved for Conscious Consumer Network, but didn’t realize that the monthly cost for doing the show would be so high – it doesn’t fit into our budget at this time, so we’ve set it aside. We did make more videos, and the Love Alike project launches next month. We experimented a bit with Blab and other video options, but haven’t done as much as we could. I’ll continue this goal and update it accordingly.

Complete various behind-the-scenes marketing tasks: Add my author name domain to my website(s). Decide if we still want to create weekday Fae Musings e-mails for our Feline Dreamers subscribers, and if yes, do so. Update our freebies for folks who sign up for our Feline Dreamers list. Add new folks to both of our mailing lists. Most of this is still pending. We did add new people to our Feline Dreamers subscriber list, and got back on track with sending them regular newsletters, so that’s good.

De-clutter and organize my life, creating beautiful spaces. Clean and organize my upstairs desk and filing cabinets. Finish our “punch list” for the rest of the downstairs project. Finish de-cluttering and organizing the eaves. Create the photo gallery for the stairwell wall. Haven’t gotten to any of this yet.

Focus on blogging. Post to my Starcat’s Corner blog at least once per week, Feline Dreamers each month, and on this blog twice per week. Write, edit, and submit monthly guest blog posts for Kind Over Matter. Submit a guest blog proposal to Mike Dooley’s site. Write book reviews for Facing North website. Start and keep a running list of blog post ideas, drafts, and picture ideas. I would say I had moderate success here. This goal will be continued.

Make inspiring art and music. Practice zentangling. Create new scrapbook pages and art journal pages. Take nature photographs to use on my websites and blog posts. Practice drumming regularly. Haven’t done too much of this, yet just this month I’ve been getting back to drumming, which feels good. I have been taking plenty of photos on my trips and hikes.

Enhance my physical health. Devote time to daily exercise, including but not limited to walking, yoga, dancing, and swimming. Stop eating sugar. Eat less in general. Doing moderately well here. Definitely needs some more attention.

Live AUTHENTICally and spiritually in my daily life. Do things I love: write in my journal, read, do yoga, dance, spend time with loved ones, and express my gratitude. Pay attention to my dreams and keep records of them. Set intentions before sleep and upon waking. Meditate and do my chakra clearing daily. Yes. This goal is foremost in my daily schedule, and I feel like I’m living spiritually and tending to my joys and passions. I’m so thankful!

Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice, the official start of summer, my favorite season! It is also the Full Moon in Sagittarius. We’ll be having a late Father’s Day celebration with my Dad and the family tomorrow evening, and then on Tuesday evening I’ll be celebrating the Solstice with my women’s group.

I’ve been away on vacation, and it was super fun! Quester and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by going to the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee (21 hours drive away from home). We danced and danced and danced, and had a fantastic time. Dead & Company (3 of the members of the Grateful Dead, plus John Mayer and a couple other musicians) was of course my favorite (the picture is me getting ready for the show). But really, there was SO much good music there that we didn’t even have time to see it all! Very inspiring.

Before I left, I met my goal of working on my book two days that week. This week was pretty much all vacation – I continued to take time off even after we got home, because I needed some down time to recover from our adventure. But I did work on the book one day. So, since I last wrote here, I’ve added 3841 new words, for a current total of 41661. That means I’m just over one-third of the way through the first draft. I’m feeling good about it. My current goal is to have the draft done by the end of August. That feels do-able.

It’s hard to believe this Round is almost done, already. I’ll have to gather my thoughts about my progress, and the goals I’ll be working on in Round 3. In the meantime, here are my mini-goals for the upcoming week:

• Work on my Heart of the Goddess book draft at least 5 days.
• Find a partner to host our September workshop in NYC.
• Catch up on blogging and book reviews
• Listen to recorded coaching course calls that I missed while I was away.
• Write copy for our JV project.

I hope your week is full of writing and nature and sunshine! Happy Summer!

All of a sudden I’m in full-on summer mode. This weekend some dear friends got married, and I was the officiant. It was an outdoor wedding, and the weather was perfect. It was a lovely day and I’m so happy to have been part of it, but now I’m rather tired. It’s also the New Moon, which tends to be a kind of low-energy time for me. This week I also facilitated a workshop, went to visit a friend who lives a couple hours away, and worked at the radio station.

Despite all of that, I wrote 5,065 words on my book draft this week! I achieved my goal of working on it 4 days. That feels really good. I also got some planning and strategizing done for Feline Dreamers, with help from my biz coach and BlackLion. I set up the timeline I mentioned in my last post, and created a marketing calendar for the rest of 2016. I kept up with blogging and my biz course work. I got plenty of exercise, walking and dancing.

Next up: getting ready for my vacation, which begins on Wednesday!

Here are this week’s mini-goals:

• Work on my Heart of the Goddess book draft on Monday and Tuesday.
• Find a partner to host our September workshop in NYC.
• Finish up work that needs to be done before vacation.
• Enjoy my vacation!!! (oh yeah, and I suppose I should pack and such, too)

Have a creative week!

My retreat was fantastic! A terrific group of women, lots of learning, deep insights, mapping out plans for the rest of the year, laughter and inspiration. I left feeling very empowered. The picture is of the Tarot card I received there – “Seeing the True You.” That makes sense. I’m finally feeling like a Real Biz Owner and author-entrepreneur.

I haven’t written any new words since I last updated you, well, except in my journal. I’ve had lots of wonderful nature time this weekend, and good exercise. I’ve been making plans and getting ready to implement them. I’m feeling excited.

Oh, and something very cool – several of the women at the retreat are interested in forming a smaller group for those of us working on writing projects as part of our businesses. There will probably be about 6 of us in the sub-group, and a few folks have also offered to serve as beta readers. So that’s awesome!

Here are my mini-goals for this coming week:

• Work on my Heart of the Goddess book draft four out of five weekdays.
• Set up a timeline for a new biz project and run it by my coach.
• Find a partner to host our September workshop in NYC.
• Listen to live and recorded calls for my biz coaching program and do my homework.

I hope your week is fun and productive. Blessings!