Hey Crew,

The only way to get words down on the page is to sit and write. There’s no other way around that. I know that! I’ve known that for a long time.

So, today, I sat, I wrote, and I got over 2000 words today. Again, little things keep happening that I hadn’t planned. I love those moments. I still think the story will come in around the 90,000-word mark. We shall see. This book has 2 POV (Point Of View) characters and a whole cast of supporting characters. So many little threads to keep track of and I’m having a great time doing that.

Going to be fun getting to the end of this book! Hopefully within the next two weeks. 🙂

According to WordPress, this will be my 28th post in a row. I hadn’t been keeping track, but WordPress started sending me notifications “Hey, great streak! Keep it going.” It’s like my own bot cheerleader. WOO WOO! I intend to keep this streak going for as long as I can and I also intend to write every day for as long as I can.

My daily writing progress is now up to 21 days. Again, let’s see how long I can keep that streak going.

Last time I had built up a streak, I broke it for a planned vacation. I never came back to my writing after that vacation. I’d fallen out of the habit. I had devices I could have written on. Even a little. I always have my phone with me. No excuses. Right?

That’s what I’m going to tell myself this time. No excuses. Even on vacation, I can find 15-20 minutes to sneak away and write for a short spell. I can type up a quick blog post and maybe even post a picture of my vacation. Anything to keep the streak going.

Speaking of streaks. Let’s talk about a couple of people who have streaks going.

Before she started her 5 More Minutes video blog, I had planned on starting 5 A Day with Jay. I was going to do short, 5 minute, daily video blogs. I had no idea what I was going to talk about, but it seemed like a good idea to do something every day. Well, Christina Ellis beat me to it. She talks about a wide range of topics and reviews a number of toys, videos, movies, improv, and the like. She also had a D&D videocast which is hilarious with the group she’s playing with. If you need a laugh, she’s worth checking out. She also has a number of great books (and podcasts) you can check out as well.

https://www.youtube.com/user/christianaellis1

Next, My Favorite Daughter had a graphic design teacher in high school. He and I have kept in touch since she’s left high school and he was happy to see I was doing something every day. He’s also doing something every day and has just broken the 100-day mark. He’s doing graphics and posting them on Instagram (much like Beeple who’s been at it for 11 years! posting something every day https://www.instagram.com/beeple_crap/). Skocko was a great inspiration for My Favorite Daughter, and he’s an inspiration to me for all he does for the school and for the community he’s built.

https://www.instagram.com/skocko/

These are so many people doing things daily. I love the American Ninja warriors doing their #BackFlipEveryday. But this list must contain an author I have come to respect. He’s blown away many myths I’ve had about writing. He’s the main reason I started blogging daily to help get myself into the habit of writing something EVERY DAY! and to get into the habit of sitting in the chair and building a streak. Dean Wesley Smith has been a professional author for decades (before that a golf pro and a poker pro). He started blogging daily just to see how long he could keep the streak going and unless I’m mistaken, he’s crossed the 4 year mark and is well into his 5th year blogging. If you’re a writer, you must check out his blog and his books and posts on writing. He’s got tons of free material on his site, and he also has an incredible library of courses, lessons, and seminars you can sign up for at his site. They’re not horribly expensive and if you want to up your writing game, he’s well worth looking into.

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/

I could post a dozen more, but this will suffice for tonight. 🙂

I’m done writing for the evening. I’m off to watch Big Brother with the Mrs.

Until Next Time!

Stay Awesome!

P.S. I almost forgot! I teased you yesterday about the first line of V&A Shipping 3! Well, here’s what I had to get out of my head. I can’t wait to finish up ASH2 and get to work on V&A3: Rogue.

“Ten Minutes to get on the ship!” Vic shouted. “Grab everything of value. Impact is imminent and if we’re not off this rock in fifteen minutes, we’re done for.”