My Weight. An Update.

As I have mentioned a few times before, my weight is an issue for me. The bonus goal I made at the start of the year was to lose 20 pounds. I recorded my weight as 277lbs. My weight today is 255lbs. That means I have lost 20 lbs. I succeeded in my goal—hurrah for me.

The goal was reached by controlling my diet and using intermediate fasting. It allowed me to lose weight with little effort.

I will be correcting and adding to my goal. No sense waiting around for me to get fatter. I have also flatlined. Plateaued. I am not losing any more weight. This means I will have to change my habits. Taking up some more exercise will be beneficial. With the COVID lockdown and shortages throughout, I have ordered a pair of sneakers online. They are stuck in Montreal for some reason. Once I get that, some jogging is in my future.

I am not a fan of gyms. I have had a few gym memberships in the past and have always ended with spending more money than it was worth. The deals tie you into a set membership. Or if there is no contract, then the price is expensive. Plus, they are always far away from where I live, and I hate having to fight through traffic to get to the gym.

Running seems like it is a decent solution. I used to run in high school. It is something I want to start again. Maybe do a marathon once I get to that level, and they allow marathons. If they enable marathons.

I recognize that I need to change my lifestyle. It consists of me sitting at my desk, working for twelve to fourteen hours a day. I need to move more and be more active. It is a habit I need to pick up, I need to figure out how to do this while still getting my work done.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free in Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

Being Creative and Dealing with Distractions: Children

Some creatives must have uninterrupted time to be productive. They need the time, or else they can’t get anything done. Their process has been described as pushing a boulder up an icy hill. Near the top of the mountain, the slope shallows. It is at this point where they are the most productive. The longer the creative stays here, the farther along with the project they get. But the time it took for them to get there takes time, which is subjective to the creative.

On a typical day, the creative spends hours in the productive zone, where they only stop when exhaustion takes hold. At that point, they slid back down to the start, where the next day, they start again.

However, on a non-ideal day, one of the pitfalls that a creative need to navigate is distractions, usually by little non-furry creatures. Every time those little beings bug them, they lose focus and end up sliding back down the hill. This restarts the process and can stall the entire day.

This is a problem with me. I have two kids who tend to be distracting and want my attention. They are kids, after all. They get hungry, tired, cranky, and want to spend time with me. I understand there need.

But how do I get things done? I wrote over 527k words last year, and I plan to write over 600k words this year. So far, I’m on track to make my goals.

Five Methods to Keep Distractions at Bay.

1. Significant other.
2. Easy distractions.
3. Wake up early/ stay up late.
4. Write around their schedule.
5. Train self to work with distractions.

Significant Other

One way to keep on task is to have a blocker. Setting up a set amount of time to get the work done and having the significant other to handle the walking distractions. This works if you have someone willing to help you with that task. Not everyone has someone ready to help or available to help.

Easy Distractions

This gets easier as the kids get older. Books, TV, computers. They are all critical ways to distract the kids with something to get some words done. Plug in a two-hour movie with some popcorn and then get to work. Getting the distractions understanding that they need to leave you alone is the cornerstone of the method. Having an easy access bin of snacks for them to munch on is also helpful, though be prepared for mess and overeating of the snacks.

Wake up Early/ Stay up Late

This one takes some sacrifice of the well-deserved sleep. This means to get up an hour earlier while the distractions are sleeping to get a few hours of work done. Or, for those night owls, it means to stay up late and get the work done in the twilight hours. This still means a sacrifice of sleep, but every hour helps. Sacrificing time watching Netflix or the lunch break at work is another time to use.

Write around their Schedule

School, dance lessons, swimming lessons. The longer, the better. This means spending money in terms of dance lessons, etc. If they’re in school, this is 6 hours of free time. Keep this time safe, and don’t let anything steal this time. If there is money in the budget for some type of lessons, use this time to get some words done. Dance lessons are an hour in length, which is a large block of undistracted time.

Train Self to Work with Distractions

The stereotype of having the perfectly clean creative space and the hours of no distractions isn’t available for everyone. My writing space is in the living room. I can’t just shut the door and block out everyone. My significant other does have her own tasks to do. This means that I have had no choice to learn how to get productive once more distraction one and distraction two are whining. This is hard and doesn’t always work, but it’s the best long term solution.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free in Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

20 Goals for 2020.

2020 GOALS

1. Write 600,000 words in publishable story related projects.
2. Write every day of at least 500 words making words in a row at 731 days in the road.
3. Catch up on editing allowing no more than 2 manuscripts waiting to be edited.
4. Edit every day of 1 chapter at a minimum.
5. Secure cover art for any book in the editing stage.
6. Publish a minimum of 1 book.
7. Publish a minimum of 3 books.
8. Publish a minimum of 5 books.
9. Publish a minimum of 7 books.
10. Write one blog post a week.
11. Write update blogs at the start of every month.
12. Clean up Tokyo Tempest #1 with a proofread.
13. Write and submit 5 short stories to markets.
14. Publish 7 short stories or novellas to amazon.
15. Set up a Patreon account.
16. Set up proper social media author accounts and a proper newsletter.
17. Have 1 paying client of editing services.
18. Make 100 dollars one month through publishing.
19. Make 500 dollars one month through publishing.
20. Make 1000 dollars one month through publishing.
21. (Bonus) Get back in shape physically by losing 20 lbs.

Breakdown of Goals.

1. Write 600,000 words in publishable story related projects.

As I managed to write 526997 words in 2019, I need to increase that number for this year. This means that I need to increase my daily word goals from 1370 to 1639. This doesn’t seem like it will be a big stretch. This increase will is only slight and will help keep my writing practices from becoming stale. The increase will mean I’ll have a higher risk of burn-out, but I have hope that I can manage to keep it under control through my daily minimum.

2. Write every day of at least 500 words making words in a row at 730 days in the road.

A daily minimum is one of the main reasons I write every day. I have managed to write 365 days in a row, and I plan on keeping that number going. I’m not going to stop now. Increasing the minimum to 500 words is in response to me increasing my yearly number from 500k to 600k.

3. Catch up on editing allowing no more than 2 manuscripts waiting to be edited.

At the moment I have 6 novels either waiting to be edited or in the process. This needs to be corrected. This is due to last year, I edited very little in the first half of the year. I need to catch things up. In my editing process, I do three passes. One as a second draft to clean up the story, and two to clean up the prose. I count second passes and my edits by chapters edited. I don’t count words as I may have to cut words, and I need permission to do so.

To keep up with the number of words being written, I need to edit an approximate 375 chapters by the end of the year. This doesn’t include the additional amount of passes. I will need to edit at least 3 chapters a day to make the number, and I have a process to do just that.

This is probably one of the most time-intense goals to make and will allow for the success of multiple other goals.

4. Edit every day of 1 chapter at a minimum.

Due to the insane number of books to catch up on, I need to make sure I don’t have any off days. I find it is very easy to not edit anything that day in preference to write new words. This is something I need to work on.

5. Secure cover art for any book in the editing stage.

This was another reason I hadn’t managed to get many books published in 2019. Finding cost-effective cover art is hard. I could spend $500 on a cover, but I’d rather hunt and find something cheaper. It’s a business concept. Keep the costs of the product low, then it’s easier to make a profit.

6. Publish a minimum of 1 book.

This is a generic one, as I’ll probably end up changing my plan and write different projects. But at the bare minimum, I want to get 1 book out. Honestly, if this is all I get out, it will be a bit of a letdown.

7. Publish a minimum of 3 books.

A Stretch goal of the previous one. If this is all I get done, it’ll still be a letdown.

8. Publish a minimum of 5 books.

This is where I want to be. With the number of books in the editing pile, this seems reasonable that I can accomplish it.

9. Publish a minimum of 7 books.

The real stretch goal. Getting 7 books published for 2020 would be awesome and more than most authors.

10. Write one blog post a week.

This is a continuation of what I have been doing. I see no reason why I should increase or decrease this.

11. Write update blogs at the start of every month.

I enjoy writing the update posts, and once a month seems to be in the right place. This will continue.

12. Clean up Tokyo Tempest #1 with a proofread.

It needs to happen. It will happen this year if I manage to get things caught up.

13. Write and submit 5 short stories to markets.

With getting two short stories published in 2019, I have an interest in getting more. With the stories so short, it should be easier to get them done. Finding a market to accept them will be a challenge. But I shall try my best.

14. Publish 7 short stories or novellas to Amazon.

Writing short stories is a good pallet cleanser to other projects, and writing them helps keep my name in the new releases on Amazon.

15. Set up a Patreon account.

One defensive of my writing is building a fan base of readers who love my stories. This should help develop that.

16. Set up proper social media author accounts and a proper newsletter.

I have a facebook page and this blog. But to be successful, I will need more. This will help with that.

17. Have 1 paying client of editing services.

Working with other authors on their projects is something I enjoy. Getting paid for it would be better. Editing is what I want to do for a living.

18. Make 100 dollars one month through publishing.

Currently, with no new releases, I’m not making any money through my writing. This is something I want to change. This would be the first step. Make 100 dollars in a month. Amazon has a minimum payout of 100 dollars, and doing is crucial to being able to do this for a living.

19. Make 500 dollars one month through publishing.

Stretch goal. This would be a sizable chunk of my monthly budget and a good step forward.

20. Make 1000 dollars one month through publishing.

This is the goal I had in 2019. I doubt I will get here, but there is a chance. I will try and see.

21. (Bonus) Get back in shape physically by losing 20 lbs.

One issue I have been fighting with is my weight. I’m out of shape and to be blunt. I’m fat. I need to fix that. So my goal for 2020 is to lose 20 lbs and to keep it off. My current weight is 277lbs. This time last year it was 287lbs. That means I lost 10 lbs last year. It’s okay, but I need to do better.

If you like what you are reading and wish to support me in my endeavors, please sign up for my newsletter, visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. Or buy me a coffee. You can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.