Category: Blog

Would You Give Up Your Life for Your Writing?

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

This is the view out our kitchen window. The colors took my breath away.

I’m settling back in after my traveling, not feeling quite so discombobulated anymore. Yesterday, because I got the federal holiday, I was able to get 5,000 words in. I mentioned doing this before, over a weekend, with 5K each day. I do it by writing four 90-minute sessions throughout the day, with breaks in between for walks or household tasks. That means I shoot for about 1,250 words per session, which is a little less than writing at 1K/1Hr. This works really well for me. I find that, in the earlier 90-minute sessions, I might not reach the full 1,250. But by the last couple of sessions, I’m writing much faster and easily make it up.

For those doing the math at home, this also would make for a six-hour working day. If I could do that as a full-time writer, five days a week, that would be very workable for me.

A lot of people are doing NaNoWriMo right now. (National Novel-Writing Month, where you write 50K in the month of November.) It’s a big stretch, even if you’re accustomed to writing regularly. Most people break it out into 1,667 words each day and I’m a big fan of the daily, incremental effort. However, I’ve started keeping track of my monthly wordcounts and discovered I wrote 55,552 words in October – and that 10K weekend made a huge difference in getting there.

The thing is, no matter how you slice it, you have to make sacrifices to get those wordcounts in. The time we spend writing is time we’re not doing something else. When you have a lot of something else’s to get done, that can really pinch.

David, my guy, has long been interested in the teachings of Bob Proctor. (From the same line as Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie.) The other day, he said to me that Proctor’s philosophy is that you always give up your life for something. Whatever you spend your time doing, that’s what you’ve ultimately given your life for. 

It made me think. Put that way – what would you give up your life for? Having it be for writing books and stories sounds pretty damn good.

Go NaNo writers!

World Fantasy Con 2012 – Day 0

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

I’m just popping in for a quick Thursday post to update on World Fantasy Con 2012.

I’m calling yesterday Day Zero because I mainly traveled, got here late and ate dinner. BUT, I did hit the early registration at 9:30 pm and got the Enormous Tote Bag of books. Yowsa!

And the Carina Press spec fic authors’ page in the program looks fab indeed. That’s the inside front cover – very nice placement.

Events start at 2pm today, so hopefully there will be more missives!

One Tool for NaNoWriMo

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

A big shout out today to long-time writer buddy Allison Pang for the release today of the third book in her Abby Sinclair series, A Trace of Moonlight. Makes me all nostalgic because it seems like just a short time ago that I was reading the first chapters of what became the first book, A Brush of Darkness, and giving her feedback.

Also, Carolyn Crane’s Mr. Real is out today! You read all about her cover trials before here.

I know a lot of you are heading into NaNoWriMo, the national novel-writing month, where people attempt to write 50,000 words in November. I don’t really like to do NaNoWriMo, because I find I’m happier if I can create and sustain a more regular writing schedule than a big one-month push. But a lot of people love it – especially the camaraderie and feeling like part of a team.

Me? I love my spreadsheets. And, because I’m sometimes asked, I decided to share a whittled-down version of my Progress Count spreadsheet. (I hope the sharing works – I *think* I uploaded it correctly.) Here it is:

Jeffe Kennedy Progress Count template

I say this is whittled down because my actual workbook has 15 tabs, with various works in progress. So, for template’s sake, I included just Rogue’s Possession, which I just finished drafting, and Ruby, which is underway.

On the first tab, the Overall page, is where I track all the words I do for each week. I recently decided to start tracking by month and year, too, just for grins. However, I just added that last week, so the October count is likely a little short. But it’s a close estimate. The Overall tab also adds in my blog post writing for each day, which I think totally counts. My minimum effort for any week is 7,000 words.

Ruby is the next tab because that’s the one actively underway. I pretty much only work on one thing at a time – unless a deadline interferes. For example, if my editor sends me edits and says “can I have these back  by Tuesday?” or if Agent Pam says “they’d like to see a sample chapter.” And yes, in those cases, I absolutely move that book’s tab into the space of honor.

That’s just how I roll.

Ruby’s tab is still set for yesterday, because I haven’t dug in for today’s wordcount.Rogue’s Possession is empty because it’s done for now.

But feel free to play with this. I have lots of formulas and conditional formatting, because I love to see things turn green. Ask me questions here, if you like, and I’ll try to explain my reasoning.

Happy Word Counts!

How to Keep Zombies Fresh

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

I’m over at Word Whores today talking about how to write in new ways about old things – like rotting reanimated corpses.

And if you need a palate-cleanser after all that talk of death and would like to taste the opposite side of the coin, I’m participating in a fun little sale of erotic books. Sister Word Whore Carolyn Crane is also playing. You can check it out here.

Directing Creativity – Managing an Infinite Resource in Finite Ways

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

So, the big news is, I officially finished the draft of RP2, now officially dubbed “Rogue’s Possession.”

Exciting, yes – but the above pic truly encapsulates how we celebrate around here. Ahhh….

It’s so interesting to me how creativity works. We often talk about it like it’s a well, where the water flows at a certain rate, can be drawn down, needs time to replenish, and – horror of horrors – could maybe run dry. But I wonder if this is really an accurate metaphor? After all, creativity is a kind of energy, but it’s not subject to the physical laws of the universe. It almost belongs to the spiritual realm. My physical body might tire – the brain that translates the story, the hands that type it – but it seems to me the creativity itself should be endless.

Yet, it never feels that way.

Here it is, October 26, and I haven’t put up my Halloween decorations. I *love* Halloween. I have two great big bins of decorations sitting in the garage. I’d thought maybe I’d put them up last weekend, but I spent my time writing 10,000 words on Rogue’s Possession.

I know that’s not my usual thing, but I was experimenting. David was out of town for the weekend and I really wanted to finish Possession so I can get started on Ruby (book 3 in Facets of Passion) which is due to fabulous editor Deb at the end of November. So, I tried writing five 60-minute blocks each day. In between, I walked the dog, cooked meals, did dishes, that sort of thing.

Did not put up decorations.

It just felt like too much. Though it would have taken very little time, really.

And I did it! I wrote a little over 5K each day, did not feel exhausted and it let me finish the book early. The ending can be like that for me – I just have to keep going with it, because if I stop, I can lose the threads. Somehow, though, that extra bit of tangential creativity, putting up some decorations, seemed absolutely impossible.

I’ve done this at other times in my life, when things going on just absorbed so much of my personal energy that other stuff just had to be dropped, totally and completely. Shut the door and sever the cord. I used to quilt and loved it, but finally faced that I had to stop and divert that energy into writing. That choice made a huge difference in my writing productivity.

Now that the book is finished, I feel that energy bubbling within. Which is great news for Ruby!

Maybe I’ll get those decorations up this weekend…

Also, if you’re online this weekend, I’ll be participating in Coyote Con – an online free writing conference. I’ll be on a panel for Fantasy Romance, 6-7pm Eastern Time tonight. Tomorrow, 2:30-3:30pm ET, I’ll be on a panel with some fab friends “THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE GIRLY & THE MANLY” and another panel tomorrow night (Saturday 10/27), 9:30-10:30pm ET, on erotica and erotic romance.

Next weekend, I’ll be in Toronto for World Fantasy Con – provided Frankenstorm doesn’t raze the city. And, while I’m in Toronto, I’ll be signing cover flats at the Ellora’s Cave booth at the Everything to Do with Sex Show on Saturday evening, November 3, 7-9 pm.