MARCH MADNESS Check-In Day 14!

I'm thrilled to hear of all the great progress going on! Aside from the comments, I've received several emails telling me of more personal victories or areas people really didn't think they could overcome. I'm blown away and terribly thankful that this has been so helpful for so many people!

One participant told me that March Madness was so helpful for her last year that she wanted to give something back this year. Aside from all the wonderful prizes we have up for grabs already, Joan Stradling is offering a custom-made bookmark to one random winner (open internationally!) who participates throughout March Madness. She can make it with almost any color or charm of your choosing, and she sent me a few sample pictures, including her own bookmark she made for LOSING FAITH!






Aren't they gorgeous?! If you didn't already have enough reason to remember to check-in, now you do!

Onto this week's progress....


If you're anything like me, when inspiration starts to warble, you find a new path of inspiration...possibly somewhere else.

I've been plodding along on my WIP, generally doing well and moving ahead, and I don't know if it's the Week Two Blues or what, but lately I've just been feeling a little bored. I don't think it means my book is no good. In fact, I don't think it has anything at all to do with this book. I think it's just part of being a consistent and committed writer.

The part that makes this stage even more difficult--and please tell me if I'm alone here--is that right at the point I'm feeling ho-hum about my current work, two other amazingly brilliant ideas have hit me square in the face.


I don't think this is unusual. In fact I've checked back through emails I've written to friends, and this same thing has happened to me many times before. I'm proud to say that so far the new bright shiny thing has not come in and stolen away all of my writing mojo. I don't let it. And neither should you. You see, every new story will seem bright and shiny and wonderful at its conception, but every story idea will also come with its own set of struggles and pitfalls. If you jump from one work to another just because the new thing looks better at the time, I hate to break it to you, but you may never finish anything that way.



I'm trying a unique approach this time. I really do want to let my excitement for one of my new story idea have wings and carry me for a little bit, so what I'm going to do is reward myself for working on my current work in progress, my goal for March Madness, by allowing myself a quick brainstorming session at the end of my work each day.

I'll let you know how it goes, but so far over the weekend this plan has been working well. I've been choosing names for my New Bright Story Idea, which is always a lot of fun for me.


How about you? Do you get bombarded with something new and enticing when you're trying to push through on a goal? How do you handle it?

Oh yes! I want to give away another book from my shelves to one random winner who has been checking in this week. This week's winner (pick something and email me your choice to d (at) denisejaden (dot) com ) is...

Jennifer Pickrell!!!
And here are your current choices...
(Click on pictures to enlarge.) And I hope to stock it up with a few more books for next week.


Don't forget to tell my about your progress on your goals below, and head on over to Shana Silver's blog for tomorrow's check-in!