I JOINED THE 500 CLUB and it's fabulous!

Good grief, look at that. I haven’t blogged since October 13^th. Shame on me. 

I didn’t even blog when Sacred Seas came out in November. Eek. So, in case anyone missed it, I released the third and final book in my Sea Monster Memoirs trilogy. Yay! *throws belated confetti.*

I sort of took a break from writing for several months after releasing Sacred Seas, but now, I’m back and operating at full-steam ahead!

I decided to post an update about how and why I’m feeling so productive in case it can help other writers out there. While on a writing retreat last month, I read this post on The 500 Club by Randy Ingermanson.

If you are a writer, want to be a writer, used to be a writer, and/or beat yourself up for not finishing your story or not consistently writing every day (like I did) then you MUST read this. Seriously, it was a gamechanger for me.

I joined The 500 Club on June 10^th. (SPOILER ALERT! There’s no actual club to pay for or join. Just go read the article!) I have written a minimum of 500 words every day since committing. Every day. That means I’ve officially been writing EVERY day for over a month. Through good times and bad, while on vacations, when not feeling well, even one night when I was exhausted and REALLY wanted to pass out in bed and excuse myself from writing my 500 daily words, but I didn’t. I stayed up the extra twenty minutes that it took me to write my minimum of 500 words and I slept peacefully because I didn’t let myself down. I kept my streak going.

After a month of doing this (it’s SO doable) I feel a million times better about myself and my productivity. I’m an actual writer again. My word counts keep climbing on my current two projects and my brain consistently churns with ideas for scenes, conversations, details, etc. It’s fabulous. I forgot how great it feels to consistently be in creative mode, but wow, it’s exhilarating to be in that mode again. Each day, my story grows. Little by little, crappy scene that needs editing by crappier scene that needs editing, but it grows. I can edit and revise crap. I can’t edit and revise a blank page.

Two of my writing partners, Meg and Marie, are also in the club. We check in with each other via text each day. We’ve learned that Meg likes to be rewarded with GIFs of Ryan Gosling. (Actually, we all do.) It’s encouraging to see one of them say they finished their words for the day. Also, I like to give them grief if they slack off and vice versa. Whatever works, right?

So, I’m still here, I’m still writing, and I will be contributing more books to the world in the near future. Lately, my focus has been a standalone novel that’s a supernatural romance. The MCs are adults (no YA this time) but I’m hoping my readers will enjoy it since it’s still my usual themes of star-crossed lovers in a magical setting.

Also, I’m dabbling in additional books for The Kindrily series. I’m having such a hard time figuring out which other couple’s story to tell first. So many great options. #authorproblems

And, finally, I hope to finish Sea, Stars, and Beyond. My trio of short stories from my three YA series. For some reason short stories are so much more difficult for me than writing full-length novels. But I promise, I’m working on it.

I’d love to hear how YOU are doing. What’s new and exciting in your world?