Perfect!

Are your posts all ready for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Are they perfect?  They don't have to be but you want them to be interesting and easy to read so visitors come back again and again. I finally finished my posts yesterday. Not as soon as I planned but soon enough. On IWSG today, I'm sharing some ideas on what to write about on your posts.

A challenge embedded in the challenge for a writer, is to keep working on the WIP while keeping up with the challenge. Fortunately for me this year, my local writer's group is starting another 50/50 on April 3rd. During the 50/50, we all try to write at least 50 words on our WIP for 50 straight days. Prizes are involved. This will keep my writing during April though I'll do more than 50 words each day. I'm working on book #3 in my Galactic Outlaws series. The second book will be going into edits soon.

I was trapped for most of last week in the editing cave for the final book in The Futhark Chronicles, Heir of Futhark. I don't have a release date for it but editing that book one last time saddened me. Even after reading it so many times, I found I could cry again on the two parts I hope make readers of the series shed a tear or two.

Four out of six children managed to get home for Easter dinner this year. Pretty good number since they're all grown up. One had to work and my daughter couldn't make it home from college. She and her roommates were making Easter brunch for themselves. She's not much of a cook so she was in charge of the mimosas. That's my girl.

I'll be back Friday with the letter A. And then it begins. Relax, have fun and don't worry about being perfect.

"A man all wrapped up in himself makes a small parcel." John Ruskin

How will you motivate yourself to keep up with everything else while doing the A to Z Challenge? Did you get together with family for the holiday weekend? Any last minute advice for Challenge participants.

Not Writing Every Minute

I've very excited for this Saturday when a ton of authors will be participating in the York Book Expo. It's the first year for the expo so we're hoping it does really well and can become an annual event. Oh, and I hope I sell enough books to pay for my table. If you're anywhere near York, PA, stop in and see us.

Though this blog is usually something about writing, I really don't spend every waking moment writing or thinking about writing. Lots of other things are going on around this house.

I've mentioned this before. It's a big house. Finished basement, six bedrooms on the third floor and four big rooms on the first level. One of those rooms is my perfect office. But it's a lot of square footage to keep clean. Then we have an acre and a half of property outside that I do 100% of the work taking care of it. Keeps me busy.

My husband is a painter as in home and commercial painting. He has a pretty good reputation for perfection. Recently, he has had so much work backing up that he has had to call in reinforcements. You guessed it. I'm not as skilled as he is but I'm very patient. This week, I've already spent 17 hours removing wallpaper. Ask a house painter what he hates and he'll say wallpaper. Removing it is my specialty but this job is challenging even my vaulted even keel.

I read every day, even if only for 30 minutes. Not only do I enjoy it, but as a writer, I think it's part of my job.

Unless I'm helping my husband with his work, I walk/job at least 60 minutes every day. Not looking forward to the cold weather.

I only watch a little TV in the evenings. Once Upon a Time on Sundays, Scorpion on Monday, Sleepy Hollow on Thursday and I have to add Fargo to the list. Friday nights in the fall, I go watch my son coaching high school football. Anything else I watch is usually on-demand days after it airs and I do that in the morning when I'm doing social media stuff.

Being a full time writer and working from home, even with my own office space, it is so easy to be distracted by all those other things. Add laundry, shopping and cooking, and it's very easy to put in a full day without ever sitting down at the keyboard. I usually write later at night and weekends, a habit holdover from my teaching days. But for the next 48 days, my local writer's group is having a 50/50 competition. It started Monday and each participant writes at least 50 words per day for 50 days. That's not that many words and most people once they start write many times more than 50. And everyone is so encouraging as we post our daily totals on our forum. Which is exactly the point. And getting that habit of writing every day is highly recommended for people who want to make a career of it. But not every minute.

"True friendship is a plant of slow growth."  George Washington

Don't forget you have until November 1st to get your short story in for the IWSG's very first short story anthology.

Do you think about your writing even when you're not actually sitting at the keyboard? Do household chores take away a lot of your writing time? Every participate in something like our 50/50? I know NaNo is coming up soon.