Monthly update

 

Well, I think it is official that it is hard to do two full-time jobs, both of which demand brain power. I once read in one of the numerous 'How to Write' books that I have furiously scanned for the secret to it all that it was better to have a job that didn't demand any brain power so that you could devote all of your intellectual energy to your creativity. Which is all well and good but it said nothing about what starvation and constant financial worry did to your creativity. Guess what? It doesn't help.

So there are some definite low scores on the productivity front but this is nothing if not a work in progress. And I wouldn't be human if I turned this all around in a month. In fact, I think it is quite a stretch that I am going to do this all in a year and if the last few weeks are any indication, then it is most definitely not going to happen. But hopefully the last few weeks are merely a blip in the overall statistics and at the end of the year I will look back and not even recognise the girl that physically can't get herself off the couch at night to go to do some work. I don't want to be that girl. That's why I'm doing this.

SO, how did I fare on my first month (and I seriously can't believe that I have been doing this a month. Feels like three days.

Anyway,

The statistics will show that:

• I've crossed five things off my list. Which doesn't sound like many but a lot of these things will have to wait for the end of the year to be crossed off but require me to do them now.
  
• I have been doing all of my daily tasks and weekly tasks which takes care of another 15 things on the list (so technically that takes it up to 20 on the list).
  
• On the writing front I have got one acceptance for a production and have written 2 new short plays and a one-act play. I am also halfway through a draft for a full-length play.
  
• On the other writing front I have half a new short story which hopefully will be finished sooner rather than later.
  
• I have started on a number of other items on my list, including looking for a new day job, keeping a plant alive (the basil plant is going well! Which means that it is not only still alive but growing! VICTORY!) and turning my writing room into a WRITING ROOM.
  

Not terrible, not fantastic. Again, work in progress.

What I want to concentrate on improving next month is the marketing. It is all good and well to write all this stuff but if I'm not getting it out into the world then there is not much point. Unfortunately, not all of us can be J. D. Salinger and write for the sheer pleasure of it. Well, we do but we want to make a buck out of it. And that involves marketing.

In February, I want to get the submission count up and start looking at ways I can get more things published. After all, that's where the money is. Or what little money there is.

I'm also going to finish the full-length play I am working on (and I think after about six drafts, I've finally cracked it) and I'm also going to start making forays into radio plays and youth plays. It's going to be an exciting, busy month.