Once upon a time, I was feeling down. But I tried to turn a negative into something positive by making a goal-oriented checklist that day.

Now, I’m feeling much better. So let’s see how I did:

X – Challenge 1: Argue with that little voice inside my head that keeps telling me I’ve no business writing a novel.

I haven’t been feeling insecure about my writing at all. In fact, I keep surprising myself with what’s pouring from my fingertips.

X – Challenge 2: Find time for my book. My free time just isn’t cutting it. Not even close. Whenever I get geared up for writing, something always seems to come up that demands my immediate attention. So I suppose I have to make time by sacrificing something, somehow.

While I still don’t have much time for my book, it’s true that I tend to squander my time if I have a lot of it, whereas I make the most of my time when I don’t have much. Chris Baty’s No Plot? No Problem! probably says it best.
 
X – Challenge 3: Finish organizing my data. Thankfully, this is something I know I can complete within the next few days, since I’m down to just a few more files.

This was the challenge I knew I’d have done first. I am still soooo glad I’m past that point.

Challenge 4: The middle of Five Rings is bloated and boring. I need to figure out how to make it more interesting.

I over-exaggerated this challenge a little. Things aren’t that bloated or boring. And honestly, I’m not worried about it at this point. I’ll worry about re-evaluating this after I’m done with the beginning.

Challenge 5: The last scenes of Five Rings are a jumbled mess. I need to sit down and seriously figure this out, or figure it out while I’m writing. The latter option is looking better at this point.

I don’t have to worry about this until after I’m done with the middle. Again, I’m not worried about it. They are still jumbled, but as long as I know what the final outcome of the book should be, I’ll be fine.

X – Challenge 6: My plot is apparently contrived and cliché. I need to figure out some seriously good angles if I ever hope to get this book off the ground.

After reading plot synopses for many famous high fantasy novels, I’m pretty convinced my story can be described by neither of these words. I guess I was just doomsaying.

X – Challenge 7: I need to complete my prologue as soon as possible.

Cheers to this being done as well. It feels good!

X – Challenge 8: I want to prove all those naysayers wrong who think I’ve spent too much time worldbuilding and talking about writing a novel. But this can only come with time.

I’d say since I’m actually reporting my progress at this point, people can’t quite so easily say, “Hey! You’re just talking about writing a novel and not actually writing!” So I guess I’ve succeeded here, too.

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You know what drives me nuts? When I’m reading a blog about writing and it’s really good—like one day they’ll talk about what their inspirations are or their writing habits, other times they’ll talk about creating characters or stories, and so on. Blissful reading.

But then, one day, they decide to post about politics (!) (or, to a lesser extent, sports). And then it’s hard for me to keep wanting to read them—even if I agree with what they are saying. I suppose I have a passionate dislike for loud-mouthed political pundits. 

Recently, one of my favorite blogs in the world made a political post because he felt it was ‘his duty to say something’. Truth be told, I got angry reading what he had to say and seriously struggled to not remove him from my links. I had to take a breather and calm down, lay out on the living room couch and drink a nice, cool drink for several minutes before I was over it.

I’m wondering: Is that just a pet-peeve specific to me?

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 And finally…

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