C.A. Watson's Blog, page 2
September 24, 2015
Spending This Weekend Girl Tripping To Vegas
So at the ripe old age of forty-six, I’m taking my first girls only road trip. We’re hitting Vegas! I’m excited, but I’m also worried. I’m traveling with my friend Rene and her mother. Going on vacation together can make or break relationships, and I just hope the road doesn’t hit us back. It’s eleven hours in a car. We’ll see. Eleven hours and all I know is, I miss mixed tapes. Really, the whole issue of music could make or break the whole deal. Still, you know what they say, nothing ventured. The infamous “they” also say you should go into a vacation with an intention in mind to help you stay focused and enjoy your time more. While that sounds like a good idea, isn’t Vegas an intension in itself? Isn’t it in the dictionary next to the word dibortery? Still, I’m not a kid. I’ll need to pick my poison.
What are my choices? We have gambling and booze, the combo upon which Vegas was founded. But then they added food and, more recently, shopping. The sad truth is that none of that sound appealing. You know what does? Lounging by the pool at the house were renting. God, am I boring or what, but that’s what I want to do. And ride the High Roller ferris wheel and take a gondola ride at the Venetian. God, I’m not only boring, but dorky. Well, I guess it’s true what they say. Not matter where you go, there you are. Even if you’re going to Vegas
What are my choices? We have gambling and booze, the combo upon which Vegas was founded. But then they added food and, more recently, shopping. The sad truth is that none of that sound appealing. You know what does? Lounging by the pool at the house were renting. God, am I boring or what, but that’s what I want to do. And ride the High Roller ferris wheel and take a gondola ride at the Venetian. God, I’m not only boring, but dorky. Well, I guess it’s true what they say. Not matter where you go, there you are. Even if you’re going to Vegas
September 19, 2015
The Curse of Losing Sleep Over Nothing
So I had one of those weird nights last night were my mind got to whirling over a situation, one that kept a very exhausted me awake. Then, this morning, I woke up and, well, everything was fine?! I was both relieved and angry. Relieved that things were going along as they should and angry because what a waste of time. I could have been getting a good nights sleep, but NO, I was worrying. I even got up to try to find a solution but I was too tired to deal with the computer, so I decided to wait for morning.
I’ve been trying lately not to get so wrapped up in the notion of time. I know it is finite, but as far as I know, I have decades of it left. I have spent much of my life fretting about time, how I’ve wasted it, now little I have of it, how it is slipping through my fingers. I wonder how many hours I spent cursing myself for the time I wasted. Worse, I don’t see to learn, hence my oh so fun night last night. Still, I’m trying, so I thought that today I would try to not look at a clock. I’ve already looked so oh well, but I want to keep at it. I want to see what happens when I stop monitoring it so closely and start just doing stuff until the day ends. We’ll see.
I’ve been trying lately not to get so wrapped up in the notion of time. I know it is finite, but as far as I know, I have decades of it left. I have spent much of my life fretting about time, how I’ve wasted it, now little I have of it, how it is slipping through my fingers. I wonder how many hours I spent cursing myself for the time I wasted. Worse, I don’t see to learn, hence my oh so fun night last night. Still, I’m trying, so I thought that today I would try to not look at a clock. I’ve already looked so oh well, but I want to keep at it. I want to see what happens when I stop monitoring it so closely and start just doing stuff until the day ends. We’ll see.
September 16, 2015
CBGB The Movie. Not Nearly As Good As CBGB the Club
CBGB’s is a place of myth in the history of rock n’ roll. A place where talent converged, people became legends and the toilets were an epic level of disgusting. It was, in short, a scene, and I’ve always been fascinated by scenes. Art scenes, rock scenes, salons, all of them seem to me to be one of the more fascinating ways of making a community. I’ve even got an idea for a book about one. It is a small seed and I’m going to do a lot of research to get it right, so when I saw the movie CBGB in the library, I went ahead and rented it. News flash, it’s a horrible movie, and, given the cast involved, it shouldn’t be that bad. It even has some interesting storytelling framing. Rising with the music was a magazine, Punk, and we meet its creators. It used drawings as well as photography and we get a lot comic frames and animation mixed into things. I don’t mind that at all, but, I don’t know, maybe some things are just too big for film.
At the center of any scene, there is a sun, the person everyone else orbits around. CBGB’s sun was Hilly Kristal. He opened the place to feature country, blue grass and blues. It didn’t work out that way. Instead he made the bar, his third, the center of the punk movement. It is staggering the number of people he let onto his stage who went on to become crucial to the music world: Blondie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, The Ramones, Patti Smith, The Police, The Taking Heads and so many more. He insisted on original music, in part to get out of paying the ASCAP for the rights to other people’s stuff and in part because, well, he had an ear. And that, I think, is the ultimate problem with the film. It’s about something that cannot be shown. Sure, it’s easy to see the greatness in the music now, but showing the first time anyone ever heard it, and saw something in it, is a difficult thing to pin down. Alan Rickman does a great job as Hilly, but then, he’s Alan Fucking Rickman! but to be honest, I think for something as big as a Hilly Kristal, and his club, this is the sort of story that TV can and should tell. HBO is putting on a show next year called Vinyl about the rock scene in New York in the 70s. Terence Winter, Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese are producing. It has a fictional protagonist, a record label president. Really, guys, Hilly is right there and he, and Mr. Rickman, deserve better!
As for what I learned and what I will use in my book is this, that the center is the center not because he’s the best at the practical stuff. Hilly was a terrible businessman. He went bankrupt twice before opening CBGB’s and he almost lost the bar until, according to the movie, his daughter took over the books. What he did know was people. He knew how to believe in them and how to support them. He employed many junkies to try and help them get their lives back together. He liked the bad and the dangerous, but he was neither. I don’t know if all suns work this way. Probably not, but I liked the way he did. I am always late to the scene, but then, as a writer I’m going to create one and Hilly will be a major part of my sun.
At the center of any scene, there is a sun, the person everyone else orbits around. CBGB’s sun was Hilly Kristal. He opened the place to feature country, blue grass and blues. It didn’t work out that way. Instead he made the bar, his third, the center of the punk movement. It is staggering the number of people he let onto his stage who went on to become crucial to the music world: Blondie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, The Ramones, Patti Smith, The Police, The Taking Heads and so many more. He insisted on original music, in part to get out of paying the ASCAP for the rights to other people’s stuff and in part because, well, he had an ear. And that, I think, is the ultimate problem with the film. It’s about something that cannot be shown. Sure, it’s easy to see the greatness in the music now, but showing the first time anyone ever heard it, and saw something in it, is a difficult thing to pin down. Alan Rickman does a great job as Hilly, but then, he’s Alan Fucking Rickman! but to be honest, I think for something as big as a Hilly Kristal, and his club, this is the sort of story that TV can and should tell. HBO is putting on a show next year called Vinyl about the rock scene in New York in the 70s. Terence Winter, Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese are producing. It has a fictional protagonist, a record label president. Really, guys, Hilly is right there and he, and Mr. Rickman, deserve better!
As for what I learned and what I will use in my book is this, that the center is the center not because he’s the best at the practical stuff. Hilly was a terrible businessman. He went bankrupt twice before opening CBGB’s and he almost lost the bar until, according to the movie, his daughter took over the books. What he did know was people. He knew how to believe in them and how to support them. He employed many junkies to try and help them get their lives back together. He liked the bad and the dangerous, but he was neither. I don’t know if all suns work this way. Probably not, but I liked the way he did. I am always late to the scene, but then, as a writer I’m going to create one and Hilly will be a major part of my sun.
September 14, 2015
Do You Want To Know A Secret? Well Then, You're In Luck
I am about to admit a secret about myself. Something that is, well, not embarrassing, not really, so sorry if you got excited about my revealing personal dirt. The sad truth is my dirt isn’t all that dirty. No, this is more a personal quirk, one that makes me very angry and frustrated with myself because it affects my writing. Here goes, I’m not good at managing my time. See what I mean about my lack of juicy secret. Still, this is one of those things that I need to master. I’m only working part-time, and that means that someone else organizes my time for me, on average, a measly fourteen hours out of any give week. The rest of the time, I’m on my own. It’s not like I don’t have goals and daily tasks. I do, but having them doesn’t mean I’m any good at getting them done.
So, what is this rant all about? Well, it’s about this, my blog. I have tons of stuff going on, stuff I want to share, but I find it very difficult fitting in the time to write about them onto the list of stuff I need to get done. What drives me even crazier is that I like blogging and, well, I want to do it more often and so I need to get better at this making my own schedule stuff. To that end, I’m going to make a public declaration. I read that making your intensions public increases your odds of following through and completing them. I am going to post four times a week for six weeks. I have decided that six weeks is a reasonable time frame. They say that is the amount of time it takes to develop a new habit. I’ve read stuff that says that’s bullshit, but it is a manageable time period. Six weeks is stable. You can wrap your head around it far better than you can, say, six months. So for six weeks you’ll get regular posts from me. That means twenty-four posts, another number that you can wrap your head around. I’ll put which one at the top so you can see that I’m keeping my word.
Here we go. This is 1 of 24.
So, what is this rant all about? Well, it’s about this, my blog. I have tons of stuff going on, stuff I want to share, but I find it very difficult fitting in the time to write about them onto the list of stuff I need to get done. What drives me even crazier is that I like blogging and, well, I want to do it more often and so I need to get better at this making my own schedule stuff. To that end, I’m going to make a public declaration. I read that making your intensions public increases your odds of following through and completing them. I am going to post four times a week for six weeks. I have decided that six weeks is a reasonable time frame. They say that is the amount of time it takes to develop a new habit. I’ve read stuff that says that’s bullshit, but it is a manageable time period. Six weeks is stable. You can wrap your head around it far better than you can, say, six months. So for six weeks you’ll get regular posts from me. That means twenty-four posts, another number that you can wrap your head around. I’ll put which one at the top so you can see that I’m keeping my word.
Here we go. This is 1 of 24.
August 27, 2015
Why I’m Giving It Away-How A Bunch of Acronyms Screwed Up Publishing
Why am I changing my book’s price from $4.99 to free? Well, I’m not selling books Amazon’s way, that for sure. Sue me, but I put a lot of time and creative energy into writing it, and I think it’s pretty good. I want it to be read and enjoyed. I don’t have airs. I’m not Jane Austen, but then, who besides Janet Austen is? I am a total unknown and I think free removes some of the barriers that prevent people from giving new writers a chance. But that isn’t the only reason.
Ever heard of something called a digital lock? Neither did I until a few weeks ago and if I had I might have done many things differently. Get ready because you’re about to be stuffed full of acronyms. Copyright law is both local and international. The organization that creates the latter is a specialized agency of the United Nations called the World Intellectual Property Organization or WIPO. In 1996 they approved the WIPO Copyright Treaty, the WCT, and the WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty, the WPPT. The were created to deal with the internet and a key concept in both of them is anti-circumvention.
Computers are copying machines. The Internet depends on redundancies, so it is at the core of what they do. Copyright exist to prevent unauthorized copying. In order to prevent this in the digital arena, digital locks were created to keep data safe. Anti-circumvention makes it illegal to get around a digital lock. Sounds good, but here’s the problem, so far the law benefits only one entity: the maker of the digital lock. Think of it this way: You rent a storage locker. When you do, you get a key and the owner gets one. Now you both have access to the locker, but not the same responsibilities. You have a key so you can access your stuff as well as remove, add to, or shift your stuff at any time. You can also end your relationship with the owner, take your stuff and go with miniual muss and fuss. The owner has a key for basic maintenance and for any emergencies. With a digital lock, only the owner gets a key. It’s still your stuff inside that’s being “protecting,” but you can’t ever go in to change anything and if he moves or updates his facility or changes the terms of the contract, you’re screwed. Hachette discovered that the hard way, and now so are self-published authors with Amazon’s new policy. It seems to me that the only way to avoid being held hostage is the take back my book and offer it for free. It will be in PDF and ePub formats. If you like it, then there will be a button on my site to leave me a tip. This is all new to me and my technical skills, not to mention my legal knowledge, are sketchy at best, and that means I’m going to have to find help. Wish me luck. I’m going to need all sorts of good vibes to come my way.
Ever heard of something called a digital lock? Neither did I until a few weeks ago and if I had I might have done many things differently. Get ready because you’re about to be stuffed full of acronyms. Copyright law is both local and international. The organization that creates the latter is a specialized agency of the United Nations called the World Intellectual Property Organization or WIPO. In 1996 they approved the WIPO Copyright Treaty, the WCT, and the WIPO Performers and Phonograms Treaty, the WPPT. The were created to deal with the internet and a key concept in both of them is anti-circumvention.
Computers are copying machines. The Internet depends on redundancies, so it is at the core of what they do. Copyright exist to prevent unauthorized copying. In order to prevent this in the digital arena, digital locks were created to keep data safe. Anti-circumvention makes it illegal to get around a digital lock. Sounds good, but here’s the problem, so far the law benefits only one entity: the maker of the digital lock. Think of it this way: You rent a storage locker. When you do, you get a key and the owner gets one. Now you both have access to the locker, but not the same responsibilities. You have a key so you can access your stuff as well as remove, add to, or shift your stuff at any time. You can also end your relationship with the owner, take your stuff and go with miniual muss and fuss. The owner has a key for basic maintenance and for any emergencies. With a digital lock, only the owner gets a key. It’s still your stuff inside that’s being “protecting,” but you can’t ever go in to change anything and if he moves or updates his facility or changes the terms of the contract, you’re screwed. Hachette discovered that the hard way, and now so are self-published authors with Amazon’s new policy. It seems to me that the only way to avoid being held hostage is the take back my book and offer it for free. It will be in PDF and ePub formats. If you like it, then there will be a button on my site to leave me a tip. This is all new to me and my technical skills, not to mention my legal knowledge, are sketchy at best, and that means I’m going to have to find help. Wish me luck. I’m going to need all sorts of good vibes to come my way.
August 25, 2015
When the Deck Is Stacked Against You, Stop Playing Their Game
The stock market crashed today. China has been trying to have an American style stock market without our open government. It is not going well and we are all feeling the punch. It is a reminder of how lucky we are to have our system of government. We are lucky, but in a small world with global businesses, oceans don’t keep the trouble from reaching our shores, hence the sell off today. For better or worse, it is one big world and the butterfly flapping its wings in China can cause a tsunami here, at least for our stocks. It also goes the other way. What happens here affects other nations, even all nations, sometimes.
Well, something is happening here. I am just starting to get a handle of it, but what I know is this, as an artist I need to understand everything that affects what I create. I’ll be honest here, I want a successful career as an artist, a strange goal and one that can seem impossible, and does some days. For me, what that means is that I can pay my bills, make the art I want to make and even have a bit of fun money. I’m not shooting for Steven King or John Grisham sorts of planets. In traditional publishing, there used to be something called a midlist author, one who made enough money to justify the publisher’s investment, but never had a top selling hit. This is what I am shooting for. I also want to be part of a community of creators who feel the same way I do and want to support each other. That’s it. Well, that not all I want, but it’s a start.
I know what I want, and in order to get it, I need to get savvy about many things that I don’t understand and one of them is copyright law. I tend to believe you find what you need when you’re ready for it. I discovered a book by Cory Doctorow called The Internet Doesn’t Want To Be Free. He is a smart man who has been paying attention to what has been going down in the ongoing fight between entertainment companies, internet companies and copyright law. What I discovered is that nothing less than our right to privacy and against censorship is at stake, and if the entertainment industry has its way, we won’t have the first and they will invoke the second. What can you do? It seems so big, that the answer is nothing. Or you can take a risk. I’ve decided to take a risk. What can you do? You can give it away.
Well, something is happening here. I am just starting to get a handle of it, but what I know is this, as an artist I need to understand everything that affects what I create. I’ll be honest here, I want a successful career as an artist, a strange goal and one that can seem impossible, and does some days. For me, what that means is that I can pay my bills, make the art I want to make and even have a bit of fun money. I’m not shooting for Steven King or John Grisham sorts of planets. In traditional publishing, there used to be something called a midlist author, one who made enough money to justify the publisher’s investment, but never had a top selling hit. This is what I am shooting for. I also want to be part of a community of creators who feel the same way I do and want to support each other. That’s it. Well, that not all I want, but it’s a start.
I know what I want, and in order to get it, I need to get savvy about many things that I don’t understand and one of them is copyright law. I tend to believe you find what you need when you’re ready for it. I discovered a book by Cory Doctorow called The Internet Doesn’t Want To Be Free. He is a smart man who has been paying attention to what has been going down in the ongoing fight between entertainment companies, internet companies and copyright law. What I discovered is that nothing less than our right to privacy and against censorship is at stake, and if the entertainment industry has its way, we won’t have the first and they will invoke the second. What can you do? It seems so big, that the answer is nothing. Or you can take a risk. I’ve decided to take a risk. What can you do? You can give it away.
August 21, 2015
I Know What I Want To Write About But the Internet Is Scary
Here is the thing, I write a lot about my writing life, and not all that much about my life. Part of that is, well, this is a site ABOUT my books and stuff. It feels sort of weird and self-indulgent to talk about me outside of my books, but my life and my work are such close neighbors that it doesn't make sense to not talk about the other one anymore. The question is, what do you do when you're a shy person in your real life? Felicia Day has a book out call You're Never Weird on the Internet. The thing is, you might never come across as weird, you can still feel like a total werido while using the net. I also think it is telling that the subtitle is the world (Almost). It is in brackets like that as well, a thrown in aside. Well, to me it isn't an aside. It's pretty much my entire state of being. I feel weird doing this for two reasons. First, I'm boring. I mean it. My life isn't that exciting. I'm broke, so I don't go out all that much. I watch entirely too much television and I mostly hang out with my parents when I'm not working. I'm really sad. Who wants to read about that? Second, and I'm being honest, this is a writers blog and part of the goal here is to sell books. It's not the only goal, not by a long shot, but it is one of the goals, one that I'm not comfortable with. In my head, I know that this is a part of the deal, but I admit that it takes some of the fun out of this whole thing. My friend Rene has a blog, http://afunnythinghappenedwheniwaslea... and it is doing well. She spend a lot of time building relationship with other bloggers. She is more outgoing than I am because I cringe at the thought of putting myself out there like that.
Part of it is that I worry about sounding weird, true, but another big part is that I'm afraid of putting myself out there on social media. Expressing yourself online can lead to big trouble. A joke that hits wrong could get you fired, the stupid thing you said three years ago while you were a little drunk or tired could cause a virtual lynch mob to come after you. There are cases and cases of things like this where people say something, and have to face consequences that far outweigh their supposed crime. Now, sometimes the person says something that merits an apology because he or she was being a douche, but I think judging is easy and that we now have a new addiction, being right. It's all about the fear, but here's the thing, I'm sick of being afraid.
Been awhile since I did a rant. Thanks for listening faceless void!
Part of it is that I worry about sounding weird, true, but another big part is that I'm afraid of putting myself out there on social media. Expressing yourself online can lead to big trouble. A joke that hits wrong could get you fired, the stupid thing you said three years ago while you were a little drunk or tired could cause a virtual lynch mob to come after you. There are cases and cases of things like this where people say something, and have to face consequences that far outweigh their supposed crime. Now, sometimes the person says something that merits an apology because he or she was being a douche, but I think judging is easy and that we now have a new addiction, being right. It's all about the fear, but here's the thing, I'm sick of being afraid.
Been awhile since I did a rant. Thanks for listening faceless void!
August 20, 2015
Trying to Change the Publishing Game
I have begun to think that I’m in a rigged game with this self-publishing thing. Now, you may say, welcome to adulthood where we all eventually realize that it always was. My answer to you is, you’re right, I should have and intellectually, I did. Here’s the thing. I think we know that our head and our gut tend to process things at different speeds and in different ways. My head knew that publishing my stuff myself on Amazon was an uphill battle and it would take lots of time and work. My gut, however, did not understand what a hit a to your ego a flat sale page can be, not to mention to your pocketbook. Part of the way that I’ve been fighting through this is to look at my options. One of them is to expand beyond Amazon, and I am taking that route by using Smashwords to add content to Nook, Kobo, iBooks and other digital bookstores. I somehow managed to do everything I needed to my manuscript, as explained in the 168 page style guide and put into Smashwords’ meat grinder aka their way of peeping the book for everything besides Amazon. I still have work to do in cleaning up that process, but I feel good about it.
Then I had to starting listening to a book called Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free by Cory Doctorow and my gut started churning. Then my mind started working and I’m in the process of trying something new, something very different. It could fail, but, hell, what do I have to lose? Today is the start of putting it all together. I’ll keep writing about it as I go.
Then I had to starting listening to a book called Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free by Cory Doctorow and my gut started churning. Then my mind started working and I’m in the process of trying something new, something very different. It could fail, but, hell, what do I have to lose? Today is the start of putting it all together. I’ll keep writing about it as I go.
August 4, 2015
Honoring What Came Before and Facing the Music
One of the things every artist knows is that there are no original stories. There are just the same old ones, and you need to find the inspiration to tell that story your way with your voice. That doesn’t mean you don’t need inspiration. Creating anything is work. You hear that, it’s WORK! It’s the sort of long grind that needs to be fed not just with food but with inspiration. One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2015 was to expand my musical horizons. For the record (pun intended!), I have been pretty shallow about my musical options. I’ve stuck to the pop music on the radio, you remember radio, and my geeky love of all things Broadway. Never listened to country, or to punk or folk. Well, that’s changed. Never listened to the deeper cuts of my favorite bands, like the Beatles, and I’m working on that, too. I haven’t paid attention to current music scene, but I’m learning about some of the best people making music today. I’ve listened to everyone from Patsy Kline to Ariana Grande. I’ve like far more of it that I ever suspect that I could. I decided early on in this quest that I wouldn’t do any other research about anything I put in my CD player. I would take it all in as it came. And, right now, it is a larger source of fuel for my writing than reading is. Well, you could say that songwriting is a kind of poetry, which counts. I just like the cross currents of it all.
Here’s what I’ve discovered on this odyssey. I’ve always liked singer/songwriters and that hasn’t changed, but I’ve expanded my list to more women, more country and more classic albums. I was always like, I don’t like punk or soul but then I got ahold of London Calling by The Clash and Songs In the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder and discovered that I could roll with them as much as anyone. Guess what? I’m attracted to the badasses. Joan Jett, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Green Day, and Zac Brown Band have been added to the list of people I love. In writing we talk about the voice of a work, well the best songwriters have one, and I like the ones that don’t let the process of making their art take that away from them. I plan to do an end of the year round-up here where I’ll list all of the music I got through this year. I’m proud to say it will be long one.
I’m not alone. Tons of writers put playlists on their websites’ that they listened to while they wrote certain books or even parts of books. I think I’m going to do that from now on. I know there are people who can’t write with music, but I miss it. I would also like to publicly express my gratitude to my local public library. As a poor writer, being able to order just about anything for free has been one of the big blessings of my life. It’s time to merge my creator and consumer selves. My playlist page is coming soon.
Here’s what I’ve discovered on this odyssey. I’ve always liked singer/songwriters and that hasn’t changed, but I’ve expanded my list to more women, more country and more classic albums. I was always like, I don’t like punk or soul but then I got ahold of London Calling by The Clash and Songs In the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder and discovered that I could roll with them as much as anyone. Guess what? I’m attracted to the badasses. Joan Jett, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Green Day, and Zac Brown Band have been added to the list of people I love. In writing we talk about the voice of a work, well the best songwriters have one, and I like the ones that don’t let the process of making their art take that away from them. I plan to do an end of the year round-up here where I’ll list all of the music I got through this year. I’m proud to say it will be long one.
I’m not alone. Tons of writers put playlists on their websites’ that they listened to while they wrote certain books or even parts of books. I think I’m going to do that from now on. I know there are people who can’t write with music, but I miss it. I would also like to publicly express my gratitude to my local public library. As a poor writer, being able to order just about anything for free has been one of the big blessings of my life. It’s time to merge my creator and consumer selves. My playlist page is coming soon.
July 30, 2015
What I Learned From My Retreat: Lessons From A Creative Convent Stay
Well, I’ve been out for four days now. I’m still not really processed things yet. I am going through what I accomplished, the lessons learned. Let’s start with a list of the big stuff.
-Words written: 19,017
-Blog posts: 20
-Card ideas sent: 40
-I published my first novel, How To Survive A Minor Alien Invasion, on Createspace, making it now available in paperback on Amazon
-Completed Goodreads giveaway. Twelve lucky people walked away with a free copy
-Television watched: none
-Facebook accessed: none
-Books read: 4
-Books started: 3
-Developmental editing has begun
-Reviewed three months of journaling and made goals for the next three months
Those are the numbers, and I’m pretty proud of them. Was it perfect, no, it wasn’t. I wasn’t, but I’m learning that that’s alright. When I do this again, though, I going to make a few changes. Notice I said when, not if, I do this again. We all need self-time. Anyone who tells you different does not have your best interests at heart. Anyway, I really like the idea of setting an intention before you start of what you want to accomplish while retreating. I also will need to have figure out both an opening and closing ritual for my next one. Hey, you can only burn your childhood journals once. I might even try for a group retreat. I will have a menu figured out for the entire thing well in advance and I won’t put so many goals on it. Most of all, I’ll let myself dream more. I was so focused on productivity this time around, and that’s fine. Next time, I’m going to concentrate on getting rid of the distraction of feeling like I need to be accomplishing something big during this time as well as turning off the television and social media. Am I a super freak or what?
-Words written: 19,017
-Blog posts: 20
-Card ideas sent: 40
-I published my first novel, How To Survive A Minor Alien Invasion, on Createspace, making it now available in paperback on Amazon
-Completed Goodreads giveaway. Twelve lucky people walked away with a free copy
-Television watched: none
-Facebook accessed: none
-Books read: 4
-Books started: 3
-Developmental editing has begun
-Reviewed three months of journaling and made goals for the next three months
Those are the numbers, and I’m pretty proud of them. Was it perfect, no, it wasn’t. I wasn’t, but I’m learning that that’s alright. When I do this again, though, I going to make a few changes. Notice I said when, not if, I do this again. We all need self-time. Anyone who tells you different does not have your best interests at heart. Anyway, I really like the idea of setting an intention before you start of what you want to accomplish while retreating. I also will need to have figure out both an opening and closing ritual for my next one. Hey, you can only burn your childhood journals once. I might even try for a group retreat. I will have a menu figured out for the entire thing well in advance and I won’t put so many goals on it. Most of all, I’ll let myself dream more. I was so focused on productivity this time around, and that’s fine. Next time, I’m going to concentrate on getting rid of the distraction of feeling like I need to be accomplishing something big during this time as well as turning off the television and social media. Am I a super freak or what?
