February is at an end, and for me it’s mostly been a month of reading. I’ve had my head down and focused on beta reading, read-alongs and NetGalley reviews.
It’s been a really enjoyable way to unwind, and it’s brought me across some really really interesting reads. But I’ve also had various plot-bunnies batting at the edges of my brain, like the DIVIDE novella and an Austen-inspired demon story, that I’d love to be working on. I’d love to be, but I won’t be!
This month, I’m reminding myself that not only do writers write, writers finish. I’ve been reading John Lee Dumas’s new Mastery Journal and one of his phrases really stuck with me:
F.O.C.U.S: Follow One Course Until Success.
Now, this is just a fancy way of repeating the old writing adage “finish your shit“. But I love the way FOCUS zeroes in on taking things one at a time one project, one course, one task, one book!
I have a habit of jumping between multiple projects, hopping from revision to shiny new draft to exciting plotbunny. And I love that! Ideas are plentiful, wordcount is high, and it all feels like progress… but it gets me no closer to my goals.
It means I leave things unfinished, and I’m in the process of changing that habit.
So I’m going to try a single goal for this month! And who knows, maybe I’ll finish it early and come back here to let you know what’s up next.
March FOCUS: I am in the process of revising my giant robots project, so that I can send it out to betas. I’m really loving the new witchiness that’s in this draft. I’m so excited to get this done and sent out for my friends to read!
But before I get back to work, I wanted to recognise some of the good things that happened in February…
It snowed again!
Mac has been adorable, as always.
For Valentines Day, Dave and I tried out chain restaurant Frankie & Benny’s for the first time. They’ve just opened near us, and we had a lovely time there.
My health has remained steadily on the up-and-up this month! I’m in the process of losing weight so that I can hit normal BMI, and it’s going great. Paired up with my usual 10k-a-day walking habit, and twice weekly spinning classes, I’m feeling better than ever. It’s exciting, and I’m going to keep it up!
I even took a few cute selfies….
And lastly, I read some good articles, particularly Kameron Hurley’s ‘10 Things I Learned from Failure‘ and ‘How to Keep Writing in Times of Political Upheaval’.
Giving up benefits your enemies.
Your enemies love your failures, sure. But what they love even more is to see you brought so low by those failures that you never get up again.
Who doesn’t love ruining the plans of their enemies?
Now, time to get back to work. Have you had a productive February? Are you planning any changes for the month ahead?