The holidays have a tendency to throw everything off. Couple that with major life stress, recovering from major life stress, family obligations, and having far too much time off from actually writing, and getting back on the horse yet again isn’t as easy as it seems. Yes, I’ve been in this situation before. Yes, I’ve gotten back on the horse before. It’s just something that needs to be done if I’m ever going to get back to this writing business…again.

As I said in my last post, last year took a bite out of me and I only managed 172,000 words of my 365,000 word goal. Almost half-way, which isn’t too shabby. I can’t be sad and given my average word count per day, I’m also quite pleased with the overall result. I have pretty much the same goal for this year. 365,000 words. Hopefully this year will be a little more stable and far less in the surprise department.

The past week (since New Year’s Eve) I’ve been having crushing sinus pain. Just intensely painful at times, dizzying at other times, and overall wearing me down. For that reason it’s been difficult enough to just sit at the computer for work. I haven’t wanted to write one word. Even reading has been difficult. I’ve been taking NyQuil at night with a couple Sudafed and nasal spray. Regardless I still wake up in the morning unable to breathe through my nose. I’m so done with medicine head. It makes everything far more difficult than it needs to be.

Even so, last night I decided it was time to sit down and write. I read through the last three chapters I’d written in the Giant Robot Planetary Competition. I did lots of editing as I went (wow I type badly when I type quickly) and remembered where I was going with a scene that I’d stopped writing in mid-sentence.  I typed 99 words and stopped. I focused on the screen and started typing again. Got another 115 words down and stopped once more. It was akin to kicking off the rust and getting an old machine moving. One the third try I got 500 words in before ending that chapter and trying to figure out what to do with the next chapter.

I got up, walked away from the computer for a few minutes. Tried not to cry from the damn pain in my skull. Sat back down and started typing. When all was said and done, I’d gotten to a total of 2500 words and just couldn’t do it any more. The pain in my skull was just far too much. I took my NyQuil, my Sudafed, my nasal spray, and went to bed.

I’ll be trying to do the same again today. I’ll write, I’m just not sure how much will actually get done. I’d like to keep this pace up for a few days. It’d be nice to knock out GRPC before the end of the month and at a pace of 2500 words a day, that’s very doable. I plan on doing far more writing than anything else this year. If you read Dean Wesley Smith’s blog, you know what he says. Spend 85% of your writing time creating new fiction. The other 15% is for editing, publishing, and book covers. I plan on following that.

Another thing I need to do is get caught up on all my correspondences from the end of last year. I’m slacking off badly and with everything that happened at the end of last year, I hope all those waiting on a reply for me understand.

That’s all I’ve got for today.

Oh, wait! I’m wrong. I’ve posted on twitter, if you buy any one of my titles (from any ebook seller) and email me your receipt, I will email you all my other titles FREE! What are you waiting for? Go grab one!

Okay, that’s really it. I need to go take some sinus medicine.

Until Next Time!

WOO WOO!

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com