October Madness is still going strong!  I haven’t missed a day.  Some are harder than others, of course, but every time, I end up with new words and new ideas.  And the amazing thing is that if someone who wasn’t there looked at all the words, I don’t think they’d be able to tell which ones were difficult and which were easy.

That’s a bit of a revelation.  Your readers can’t see into your brain.  They don’t care if you sweated blood or were awash in creative seas.  They just want good stories.  And you can provide them.

Here’s another thing I’ve realized.  I need to treat writing as a job, with goals and deadlines.  I’ve always been very good at accomplishing what is necessary at work while letting things sort of drift in other aspects of my life.  If I want to make writing a part of my career–if I want to earn money–I can’t just let it lie and hope that things happen.  I have to put forth the effort.

As of today, I have written 6,430 words of new material in the month of October.  That’s more than I wrote in the last three month combined, I think.  I did create on story in that time that I felt very confident about, and there was a good deal of editing, but I’m still floored when I look at the number for the first ten days of October.

I’ll check back in again in a few days.  Hoping for smooth sailing!