Crowdfunding at its finest

Many of you are probably already aware of the amazing Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign, which was fully funded on its very first day.  This will enable LeVar Burton to revive the show online (which is where the kids are at now -- during my childhood, they were all watching TV) and make it available for free to disadvantaged classrooms nationwide.

Finding balance: Writing projects of my own

You may have wondered what I meant when I referenced my own writing projects that I need to make time for.  I actually have quite a few of my own projects, most of which have the potential to generate a small but steady income stream, so a healthy balance between freelancing and my own projects is definitely desirable.

Finding balance

Sometimes I feel like all of my writing endeavors are just too big for my life, so that every time I try to catch up on one thing, something else gets neglected.  It's like one of those children's games where every time you push something back in one hole, something else pops out of another.

I'm making progress, though, being more productive.  I just need to get a handle on being productive on everything and finding balance between all of my many different projects.  Also, I think I generally need to expect that I will be completely unproductive on the weekends, when my schedule generally fills up very quickly.

Birds, priorities, and just doing it

This morning on Facebook I saw the article "How to Think Like a Writer" making the rounds.  It was nice timing, because I am sitting down this morning for the first time in a few days to do some writing before I go to pick up the kids.

The advice in the article is really good.  I especially like the advice, "Just take it bird by bird."  The reference is to a paper on birds the author's brother was writing, but the advice holds true to all writers.  One sentence, blog post, article section, or page at a time -- whatever helps you to get your writing done.  Trying to measure progress by an entire article, book, or another finished project can flatten anyone's motivation.

National Small Business Week

I found out via Facebook that this is National Small Business Week.  I didn't even know that such a thing existed, but apparently there are events in a few cities, as well as a number of online broadcasts and workshops tomorrow (today, by the time you early morning people read this).  There were a couple other live broadcasts yesterday and today that I missed -- it might be worth checking into whether the recordings are available after the workshops are over.

From the post on White House Blog:

Today, companies like Twitter can help entrepreneurs start real conversations with consumers to build customer loyalty. Entrepreneurs can do business in their pajamas; all you need is a great idea, a marketable skill, a laptop and the know-how to use it. On our live stream this week, we’ll host workshops that explain how entrepreneurs can promote and grow their business in the mobile and digital space.

Midnight productivity

A day or two after making my announcement last week that I was ready to get back to freelancing, I got busy again and didn't get anything done for days.  I hate the feeling that things are piling up while you don't have time to take care of anything, so as soon as I was able I got to work and started ticking things off of my to-do list.

That "as soon as I was able" just happened to be this evening and on late into the night.

Back to freelancing again: It's time

I've been saying for months now that I miss freelancing.  Even though I had continued freelancing for some of my favorite long-time clients when I took the part-time nanny job two and a half years ago, I had all but stopped entirely in the past year.  Somewhere along the way, I'd lost the ability to manage my time quite so well -- probably while I was freelancing full-time and got into the habit of putting things off because I had "all day to get it done" -- and one by one, all of the things I worked on around my nanny hours (freelancing, blogging, even my novel) fizzled out.

Ideas for Camp NaNoWriMo

After blogging about Camp NaNoWriMo over the weekend, I found myself thinking about how the flexibility of Camp could be used to the benefit of other goals than just writing.  Traditionally, NaNoWriMo is supposed to be a goal to write an entire 50,000-word novel in one month -- and you're not supposed to work on something you've already started, either.  You can research and outline before the month starts, but you're not supposed to start writing at all until the month starts at midnight.

I have to admit, I've only done it that way a few times, even during November (when the system isn't as flexible with your options for word count goals, type of project, etc.).  In 2011, when I wrote my first Ruby Ransome novel, I was already about 25k into the novel -- I just used NaNo to get the rest out of my head and into reality.  I've also used Camp NaNo to revise, long before they offered that as an option in your project description.

Non-NaNoWriMo goals in April

The other day I blogged about Camp NaNoWriMo, and how my novel goals fared in April.  One of the reasons why I'm not too disappointed in how Camp went is because I also managed to keep up on the rest of my goals for 2014 fairly well throughout the month.  There were a few hiccups, to be sure, especially as I had some personal things going on in April, but all in all I didn't do too badly.

If you remember, my goals for 2014 were to:

1. Finish my NaNo '13 novel,
2. finish revising my first Ruby Ransome novel,
3. work on my website and blogs,
4. blog every day, and 
5. read a classic every month.

Camp NaNoWriMo in review

This year's first Camp NaNoWriMo (there's another session in July) was a bit rough, but I probably should have expected that, considering I hadn't touched my novel since November 30th -- after writing the last 10,000 words on the last day of NaNo '13.

Productivity and being mobile

One of the things I've always liked about being a freelance writer is the ability to work wherever.  Of course a lot of experts recommend creating routines and sticking to them for the best productivity -- including where you get your work done -- but of course life doesn't always cooperate.  And I actually find that sometimes I work better if I change my scenery, especially if I am feeling stuck for some reason, or if I've lost momentum on a project.