ROW80: Back on the Happy Trail
It is round-up time again, and for the second week in a row I have nothing but positive news to report.
I have managed to far exceed my target every day this week.
Monday: I wrote a blog post of approximately 1700 words and also an additional 1200 words on my novel
Tuesday: I managed a full 1100 words on my novel, and that was with no lunch break at work to write in, otherwise I would have broken the 1500 mark.
Wednesday (Today): I woke at 5am as usual and was writing by 05.15 and managed a whole 500 words before the kids woke up and I had to leave for work. If things go as well tonight I should hit the 1000 word mark again today.
My plan would be to carry on at this pace, and with good luck and a fair wind I cannot see any reason why I shouldn't be able to keep it up. There will of course always be things that come along and derail us for a time, but they are dealt with on an ' Cross that bridge when I get to it' basis.
My new novel, the sequel to Highway to Hell is now at 31,000 words and I am just getting started. I tend to write way above my ideal word count, as I would rather be forced to destroy words than forced to add them. Although that being said I am not afraid of a high word count as long as it is justifiable and not meaningless waffle (like this portion of my post I hear some of you cry). All I have is the ball park figure of 100,000. If I come home too far under than I have done something wrong. Anything over is fine by me and will be addressed during the editing.
Sales for Highway to Hell have been slow, although not disappointing. I am delighted with every day I make and will never be disappointed with my work because I know it is the best I can do – or could do at that time, for we continually grow and improve as writers. I have not yet had any reviews come back, although I know that at least 4 reviews are on the way, from genuine review sites and book blogs, plus at least two promised reviews based on real purchases. Friends and family have yet to fully jump on the band wagon but are in rather short supply so too much cannot be expected.
I am thinking that once I get some reviews in and have an extra level of promotion that I can step up and use, sales will increase. Assuming the reviews are positive. Only time will tell and I have plenty of that. In the mean time I will just plod along, get the sequel finished and then I can rethink my strategies and adjust accordingly.
On a side note in relation to my popular post from Monday, I may have found a new weekly post that I can do, for the short-term at least. The Rugby World Cup is starting in a few days, and I love sport in all it's forms. I am playing in a (fun) pool competition guessing the scores and the spread, so maybe I can create a post comparing my (rather uneducated) predictions against the actual results. Something non-writer is that I hope could gather me some extra hits, some extra name recognition and even (ye-gads) some new friends. This could easily be then brought across to cover pretty much any sporting competition in the world.
I also had an interesting thought about setting up a writers group / session much to the same format as the wonderfully motivating ROW80 that sees writers sign up and chronicle their quest to find new non-writing related hobbies and past times. Not sure if it is even feasible, and I know I don't have the tech skills to manage it if it was, but my mind threw it out there on the drive to work this morning and I thought, why not jot it down. See what others think.
What's the worst that could happen………
