Oh, look at that! Another week has passed! My, how the time flies. Did you know that Easter is only a week and a half away? I need to make some more of my edible birdy nests!
Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.
Are you all getting sick of hearing me talk about this particular goal yet? I’m kinda getting sick of talking about it, because the truth is that it’s been the absolute last thing on my mind. Okay, I shouldn’t say that…it’s been on my mind, but that’s about it.
It’s a combination of things, really, but if I’m truly being honest, I’m waiting to hear back from my doctor. I still haven’t gotten the info on the procedure I’ve been mentioning for a few weeks now, and in addition to that my usual doctor sent me for blood work last week as well. He wanted to check out my thyroid and a few levels (B12, iron, etc), and he’s also looking in several places for signs of arthritic problems, which are apparently common with the issue that we all believe I might have.
It’s sounds really weird, but I’m actually rooting for a couple of these possible issues to be confirmed. No one wants to be sick, and I can’t say that it won’t suck to possibly have to take pills every day for the rest of my life, but at this point I have so many complaints about so many different things that I am just dying for a doctor to say, “Yes, there IS something wrong with you, and if you take this medicine it will be better.” Does that make sense? I hope so.
Long story short, so much of my brainpower has been focused on waiting for my various reports to come back so that my doctor and I can discuss the results, I’ve been completely unwilling to care about anything else. Terrible excuse, I know, and you would think that having health problems would encourage me to eat better and exercise, but I guess you’d be wrong. 
Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my “author platform”.
I’ve got to say, I’ve been really up on this one this past week. I’ve spent a ton of time on a ton of blogs, plus engaging in tons of conversations with fellow bloggers, plus having great success with my Facebook Author page. It’s been pretty top-notch. My week point is definitely Twitter, but I’ve even been gaining some followers over there, and having a couple of pleasant interactions, so it’s still all good!
Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.
I should be totally ashamed of the fact that I still haven’t actually opened my Scrivener file and gotten to work on the last round of edits, but I’m not. You know why? Because I spent that time this week instead making this:
And I’m so happy with it, I can’t even tell you. I know it’s not the most super-professional-looking cover you’ve likely seen, but it’s mine. It was created using a photo taken by my father, and I made all the adjustments and additions myself. I even modified it using Create Space’s Cover Creator, so I know that when it comes time to set everything up it will fit perfectly. And to top it all off, I made a rear cover as well, which only needs to have the novel summary added to it.
In other words, while I’ve failed to spend any time on the actual manuscript, I am, at least, this one step closer to publication. Yay!
Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.
I’ve got to say, it’s been a bit of a weird week. Wednesday through Saturday I wrote absolutely nothing. Unless you count blog comments, which I don’t. So nothing then. I was having so much fun bouncing around from blog to blog, taking part in the A to Z Challenge, that I wrote nothing.
When I realized this on Sunday, I thought that I’d better do some kind of writing. I didn’t want to blog (I spent so much time setting up the A to Z posts in advance that I’m enjoying the little break, thank you), and I didn’t want to edit (should have, but didn’t want to). And so I found myself opening up the file for my Final Fantasy novelization, and seriously? It was just what I needed. I’ve been typing away like a maniac for the past three days, and with just that one project I managed to squeak 7681 words out of those three days. It’s not exactly the most important thing I have to work on, but writing a little bit of goofy nonsense that I don’t have to think too hard about has been absolutely great. I think I might just have to do it for a little while longer. What do you think?
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Good luck with losing weight. I’ve lost and gained 20 pounds a number of times over the years, though sometimes it’s harder than others. I might finally be losing some weight again, though I haven’t weighed myself in a long time. I love going spinning, and also take PowerBall and Zumba. If my eczema dies down, and stays gone, I might try using the pool again this summer.
I must’ve passed the 500,000-word mark in my writing journey over ten years ago. If I had to total up everything I’ve ever written, including guesstimates of everything I’ve handwritten, it would probably be close to ten million.
Thanks for the luck! I’ve been on a bit of a downward spiral of late because of health issues (I suspect a thyroid problem because I am ALWAYS FREAKIN’ TIRED) but hopefully I’ll be finding out about those soon! I lost about forty pounds in the year leading up to my wedding, but I gained it all back when I was pregnant with my daughter and have been totally unable to get any of it off since then. @_@
To clarify, the 500,000 word goal is just for this year. 🙂 I wrote something like 480,000 last year. In previous years I have no idea because I hadn’t been keeping track, but I suspect that my grand total over the life of my writing is somewhere in the 2-3 million range.
I’m just loving these updates of yours, maybe because it helps me feel less alone when I think that my progress isn’t always straight ahead, but takes a detour here and there.
For example, that cover of yours! I love it–and isn’t it a great feeling to imagine what the book might look like when it’s finished, even if that doesn’t end up being the cover? I did something similar, and even though I made myself a promise not to spend more than twenty minutes on it (which I didn’t break) having an image to carry around with the WIP makes it so much more real!
And who says comment words don’t count? Thinking on one’s feet is a good skill for a writer to have, so I’m counting these. 😉
I’m so glad that you enjoy the posts! I write them mostly to make myself feel bad when I mess up (lol), but I agree posts like this make me feel closer to other writers and bloggers who are working on their own goals, you know?
Hmmm…I’ll have to think about using my comment words now…lol It would take ages to go back and count what I’ve written, but I’m sure in this month alone they would really add up! 😀
Hey, great to see you again Trace, and good luck with the Doctor stuff. I’m still counting my calories and walking outside for exercises–most days. 😉
I should know SOMETHING on Monday, anyway, because the blood work is in. 🙂 My doc suspects that (amongst other things) I have arthritic problems, which makes sense since I’m sore pretty much all the time no matter what I do. >.>
I’m hoping that once we nail something down and possibly get me on meds that I’ll start to feel good enough to start running again. My “Zombies! Run!” app has been calling to me for ages! lol
I wish you the best of luck with your current health problems. As an aside, I would like to briefly bring your attention to just how far modern medicine has come in recent years.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140413181627/http://www.tomslatin.com/bizarre-medical-machine-edit/
Here is a radiation machine I found while exploring an abandoned alternative medicine clinic. The machine was designed to eminate radiation in a specific region of the body to promote healing. I have no idea how it works, exactly, but the dosage is measured in watt-seconds per square centimeter.
Again, I wish you the best of luck. These things, such as answers to our health, from a medical standpoint, can take time.
That thing is CREEPY. lol But then, a lot of old-timey medicine was pretty creepy. I especially love those weird beaky-masks that doctor’s wore way back when…made them look like scary crow-people. o.O