October | I've Become Motivated

Never before have I done a monthly summary but one of my writer friends (who you may know as Stori Tori) encouraged me to start doing them. So here I am, tapping away at my keyboard about the busiest, most productive, most game changing month I've had in my writing life in a long time. I owe a lot of it to Tori so a huge thanks to her!  *lots of cheering*

Onwards to the summary! 

My Victories 

1) I made a commitment to my writing unlike any commitment I've made before: 10k words a week, people!
So far those words have been dedicated to my novel but in the future, they'll be counting towards other things.

2) I rebooted my blog and vowed to keep a schedule. My wonderful friend who the minions are cheering for is keeping me accountable. I hope that once I get into the swing of things I'll be able to write posts without a weekly remind from my phone XD
Also, in the realm of blogs, I've remodelled mine in case you haven't noticed :) What do you think?

3) I've booked flights and reserved a spot at the Florida Christian Writer's Conference! I'm so excited to go this year for a few reasons. One: I get to see all my writer friends from last year and two: I'm pitching my book to publishers and editors :D :D :D
While I'm nervous, I think the excited butterflies are stronger ;) This is a dream I've had since before kindergarten and I've finally built up the courage and confidence to put myself out there. (and the extra writing practice certainly didn't hurt anyone) Florida, here I come!

The amazing people I got to write with last year

4) Through countless conversations with my wonderful friend —who apparently I can't stop talking about!—and my mom, I've started a very basic pre-marketing strategy for this coming February when I head to the conference. One of those things has been starting a Facebook page. :D
If you're a follower here, I'd love to see you over there too! It means that I get to interact with you and get to know you better. Plus I'll be posting lots of geeky and writerly material :)
There's already over 100 likes so you'll be among friends!

5) I've named the books in the Tholus Trilogy! Book 1 is "The Living City", book 2 will be "The Sunken Sky" and book 3 will be "The Buried Core".  However I am considering dropping the "The". From a reader's point of view, what do you think? Does the "The" catch your attention or turn you away from the title?

6) I attended my first ever Webinar hosted by Michael Hyatt. It was called "Your Platform Roadmap" and it was incredibly informative. Since I'm working on my platform right now, the information I got really helped. My notebook was well used today :)

Nerd Stuff

1) I final saw "The Scorch Trials"! While it was pretty different from the book, they did quite a few smart things. As a stand alone movie, it was fantastic. If you're only following the movies and haven't seen this one, I encourage you to go.

2) I re-watched my current favourite anime: Psycho-Pass. A lot of my writing was done to the soundtrack too :)

3) I reread "Scorpia Rising" by Anthony Horowitz. He was my favourite author in junior high. Since I work in a bookstore, I thought it would be good to review some of my favourite kid's books. It makes recommendations easier.

Upcoming Battles

1) Nano begins on Sunday so I've got a lot of writing to do—a lot. 50K total for the month of November to be exact. If I thought 10K a week was ambitious, this is even more so. I'll be writing 2K every day so I can stay ahead. You know—cause a university GPA is a thing I need to care about too. No big deal.

2) Speaking of school, I'll be wrapping up my first university semester. *starts to throw grad hat in the air, record scratches* No? Not yet? Okay, fine...seven semesters to go still. 

3) I'll be working on a very special project that I have no idea if I'm allowed to make public yet. I'll have to ask so I can find out if it's mentionable for next month's summary. 

4) If all goes well, the hope is that I can plan "The Sunken Sky" or start reworking "Crec: Book 1". But you know, finals, and NaNo, and the special project might turn this into a battle I'll have to face in December. 

Regardless, it's on my mind and I'm looking forward to taking it on :) 

5) Maybe the biggest battle of all will be surviving the start of Christmas Season at Chapters (the bookstore I work in)

I'm totally kidding. I love Christmas and Christmas music. But something tells me a loop track will get on my nerves. I think I might be one of the only ones in my store who's looking forward to the Christmas season at work. Likely cause I'm a greenie ;) (three cheers to anyone who got that reference) 

Future Nerd Stuff

1) I'll be starting to read "The Fate of Ten" by Pittacus Lore. I bought it right when it came out but haven't read it yet. It's staring at me from my bookshelf. Every time someone comes through the till at Chapters with it, I always comment about how it's a great series. Usually my praise is accompanied by weird looks...mostly cause the readers are teenaged boys. Come on! A female adult can read about aliens too!

2) I'll be finishing the anime "Red Data Girl". It's pretty good so far but also pretty typical XD The art is nice though. 

3) I think I'm gonna continue with "Pretty Little Liars". Yeah I know...it's stereotyped as a 'white girl show'. I actually enjoy it though. It's got some good mystery elements in it that I take note of for writing. The kissing scenes—and for that matter, everything romantic in the show—have me rolling my eyes though and I just skip the next thirty seconds. 

My favourite character, Spencer, being all epic

So that's my month! I'm pretty happy with the productivity if I do say so myself. Thank you to all my readers and a special thanks to the commenters who make my day :) 

I hope you all had a great month and that you're next month is great too! 

What were some of the highlights from your month? Have any goals for next month?

Keep up the awesomeness, Wordlings!