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Monthly Status Report
April, of course, was another strange month in terms of what’s going on in the world. For me, pretty much status quo. I am missing meeting with my writing friend, and the retreat I’ve gone to for the past two years was canceled, but otherwise, things are pretty much the same for me. The huge influx of work the middle of March at my day job settled down, and is also sort of back to normal. In positive news on that front, they love me and gave me a raise! I know that makes me extremely lucky in these times where many are losing their jobs, being laid off, or having to close their businesses.
April is also Camp NaNoWriMo — being an online free event, it still proceeded with gusto. If you read my report from last month, you know that I have been working on covers for my reader magnet. I finished twelve more of them during Camp as my Camp project. I also was part of a wonderful cabin and had a lot of fun. I even did some writing and finished another short story and started a new novel idea… but I don’t know when I will get back to that. I really don’t need any new novel ideas right now.
For May, I plan to finish the still remaining 4 covers and add the little series branding logo I created for one of the middle covers to all the covers that came before it. Then I am going to work more on my website. You may have noticed that I removed my email newsletter sign up form. I looked in my Spam folder and found thousands of bad email spam from this website with my name on it, so I don’t want to open it back up until I figure out how to stop it. I haven’t even started investigating yet, but it is definitely something I need to get to. Then get a new newsletter set up once the spam problem is dealt with.
Optional Monthly Question
May 6 question – Do you have any rituals that you use when you need help getting into the ZONE? Care to share?
I love ritual. But strangely, my ritual to get in the zone is very minimal, and more a routine than a ritual. I know many people use the terms interchangeably, but for me, a ritual involves a kind of spiritual attention and purpose, while routine is just the actions. I don’t usually have a ritualistic mindset when I write, which, again, I actually find rather odd. Anyway, the main thing is getting set up with something to drink (coffee in the morning, water or black tea in the afternoon, and water or green/herbal tea at night — I used to have wine, but wine puts me to sleep and gives me a headache, so not really good for writing). Then I put on my hour-long playlist, which is a bunch of classical pieces that are 1) the right length for the playlist and 2) associated with Halloween for me or at least seem somewhat sinister. The actual list is:
J. S. Bach – Toccata and Fugue
L. Beethoven – 5th Symphony
A. Vivaldi – Winter, first movement
J. S. Bach – Cello Suite #2, 6. gigue
C. Saint-Saëns – Danse macabre
C. Gounod – Funeral March of a Marionette (Alfred Hitchcock theme)
P. Dukas – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
M. Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain
P. Tchaikovsky – Marche Slave
K. Jenkins – Palladio: I. Allegretto (the Zales diamond song)
So, I have my (usually warm) drink, my document open, and music playing, and my fingers just fly! Not as fast as some, but I average around 2,000 words an hour, which is pretty good, I think.
One last thing: I do all my drafting (not revision or planning) in the free program FocusWriter. I have my own theme set up with amber Courier on a dark blue background with a raven. Here is a screenshot with some lorem ipsum:
That also puts me in the right mood for all the magic and mystery of my first drafts!
What sort of routines and rituals do you have?
INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP
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Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh
Twitter is @TheIWSG Hashtag: #IWSG
And here are the awesome co-hosts for the April 1 posting of the IWSG!
Feather Stone
Beverly Stowe McClure
Mary Aalgaard
Kim Lajevardi
Chemist Ken
Love your playlist! You included some of my favorites. I also like the background on FocusWrite. I will have to try that sometime.
Thank you! FocusWriter is one of my favorite programs!
It sounds like you’ve have some very productive months. Your writing rituals sound easy to maintain and take wherever you and your writing need to go. That’s important in my book. Great IWSG post!
Thank you! Yes, they are pretty easy and useful. I’m glad you liked the post!