Meilo’s World – Page 6 – Meilo Zaborowski: Author

Goal Update 3/28

Well, I got laid off Wednesday due to COVID-19 causing loss of business. Bossman said he’d appreciate my return when he reopens the branch, so it’s only temporary, but. For how long, we don’t know. I’ve applied for unemployment in the meantime, hoping for some kind of income, even if it’s… meager. Gotta pay my phone and insurance bills and feed the cats, yanno.

School is restarting face-to-face classes next week via Google Meet. So we’ll see how that goes.

GOAL 1) PUBLISH SKOS

My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
Where I planned to be: Spent at least 30 mins
Where I am: Contemplating
On Target or Behind: On Target?

How’s It Going:
I got some really great feedback this week on the forums. Not that the covers I posted were all that great, but some of the advice. I’m still not hitting the mark for genre, and it probably has something to do with the photos I’m using/my criteria for photos I’m using. Someone had the brilliant suggestion to just make random covers that have nothing to do with my novel for practice, to take my writer hat off, so to speak.

In other news, I finally got the okay to email my manuscript to Matt! He said he’d get back to me no later than next Friday. I can’t wait!

GOAL 2) REVISE SYCU

My Goal: 2 Lessons per month/ 1 Lesson every 2 weeks; 13 scenes per day
Where I planned to be: Lesson 5, through scene 38
Where I am: Lesson 5, through scene 40
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Slogging through. Nothing amazing. Lots to fix.

More free time, new work?

So I have this story idea that started off about 10 years ago as an alternate universe fanfiction. I got the opportunity to talk about it with Holly at the beginning of 2018 and she pointed out that if I wanted to use the idea for a novel, I had to fix my world, because it was tragically broken. Which it was, absolutely.

Literally the night before I got laid off, I couldn’t get this old idea out of my head as I tried to go to sleep, and how I could rework it to fix the world. I tried to ignore it – I’ve got enough going on right now, right? And Holly always says the best ideas will come back to you when you need them – but a little after I got the phone call, it all came rushing back.

I’ve run the idea through the beginning stages of How to Write a Novel to develop the concept a bit more. I won’t be setting any goals just yet, other than I’ll probably start in on the writing by the end of next week.

And, of course, any goals I do make for this will need to be modified as the situation changes.

Braces… for Christmas?

Could it be? Yes, yes it could.

I’m excited, but I know what I’m in for. I’m already starting to hurt, and it’s impossible to chew anyway. I just gotta ride it out, and let the docs take care of me.

Goal Update 11/23

I don’t think I’ve mentioned anything about this at all on here, but back in March, I started wearing an orthotic to help realign my jaw. My teeth don’t line up properly, and never have, so I’ve just adapted, which caused TMJ pain, jaw popping and clicking, jaw clenching, enamel wear, and noticable wear on the jaw joint via CT scan. After wearing this hunk of acrylic in my mouth 24/7 for six months, with weekly adjustments, my dentist proclaimed me stable in September, and last week I finally got to see my orthodontist. After a small little hiccup due to not wearing the thing during the day (which I was told I didn’t have to do!), I’m cleared to get braces. The week before Christmas.

I am both excited (I don’t have to wear this orthotic anymore! One step closer to fixing my goddamn teeth/jaw issues!) and… well, I’ve had braces before. I know what’s coming. But I survived it the first time, I can do it again.

And I’ve had people ask, but no, I can’t get Invisalign. I’ve seen the models of my teeth, and I can feel the fact that none of my teeth touch. Metal braces with rubber bands are gonna be my only option, and in reality, the quickest and cheapest option anyway.

Back to the important stuff.

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 44440 total words
Where I am: 42772 total words
On Target or Behind: Behind

How’s It Going:
Great, actually. I’m still technically behind on my goal, but I’m pretty much ignoring it at this point. I wrote 1245 words this week; that’s better than each of the last three weeks. I’m not gonna complain. The ending is… very near.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: 1 Lesson per month, 3 scenes per day for Lesson 20
Where I planned to be: 27 scenes in
Where I am: Finished with Lesson 20!
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
IT’S MUH-FUCKIN TYPE-IN TIME.

~~-Jimmy voice- Ooo-wee, ooo-wee!~~

Why I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year (or any year in the forseeable future)

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. That’s National Novel Writing Month, for the ~~uncultured swine~~ uninitiated. For most of my writerly friends, today is a time of fierce planning and preparation (because procrastination is an almost universal writer trait), excitement, and a little bit of fear.

For me, though, today is just another Thursday. Yes, it also happens to be Halloween, but I’ve got homework to do, and work in the morning. I need sleep.

I’ll be honest– my experience with NaNo has never been pretty. Even the one year I won… Holly Lisle has a nice succinct phrase for what it’s like for me trying to do NaNo, and that is “writing to failure”. That’s essentially writing so much to the point it isn’t fun anymore, it’s just work; grueling, awful, headache-inducing work. I’m not comfortable writing upwards of 1500 words a day, every day, for a freaking month. And that goes doubly for trying to do 2500 words a day just to get weekends off.

This is why I was having long periods of “nope, fuck that” whenever I thought about writing.

But I know there are a lot of people who write more/faster than me, who enjoy the rush, who actually get something possibly useable out of it. People who actually have fun with it. To those people, I say good luck. If you’re thinking about participating, do it. I’m not the kind of guy to shit on someone else’s parade just because I don’t like it.

But NaNo is just not for me. I have accepted this, and I will move on.

Goal Update 10/19

Well. Happy late birthday to me. I’m 28 as of yesterday, and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this here yet, but my ultimate goal is to have SKoS published before I turn 30.

That’s only 2 years from now. And based on my history so far, it’s also not a lot of time.

I’m really hoping I can stick to my goals and have the revision done by the end of the year, so I can do… all the other stuff I need to do with it before publishing, hopefully sometime next year, if I can swing it. Picking a title, making the cover, writing copy, getting the manuscript edited, formatting, figuring out where and how to sell it, and what is marketing? we just don’t know…

My biggest problem will be the money, though. I need to get this blog a real domain name, and hosting. Even if I went through WordPress itself, I’d have to pay a year at a time. Not cheap. I’d also really like to send SKoS off to a professional editor, but that is… really expensive. So, if anyone reading my blog would like to help out, Support Me on Ko-fi, if you can (please don’t put yourself out if you can’t afford it… trust me, I know what it’s like.) I would really appreciate it and be forever grateful, even if it’s only the minimum donation.

Goal 1) HTWAN story

My Goal: 505 wpd, 1515 wpw
Where I planned to be: 36865 total words
Where I am: 37306 total words
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I feel like I’m dragging. Thursday went a little better than the beginning of the week, but I’m not really digging what I’m getting here. It seems clunky and awkward. Might have something to do with still not knowing how to end this thing. I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a ravine, and I can see the other side, but there is a daunting, yawning chasm between here and there, and the only way across is a tightrope.

And for anyone who doesn’t know me, my balance is shit.

Goal 2) Some Kind of Savior

My Goal: 1 lesson per month; 5 scenes per day for Lesson 18; Lesson 19 by 11/2, 5 scenes per day
Where I planned to be: Finished with Lesson 18
Where I am: Finished with Lesson 18; 5 scenes into Lesson 19
On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I’m slowly getting there. We’re in the home stretch. 3 more lessons.

Lesson 19 is gonna be brutal. Not nearly as bad as 17 (do not get me started about Lesson 17…), but not the relative cakewalk of 18. I may have to work extra days if I wanna get this one done by Nov 2. Worst case, if I only do 3 scenes per day, I’ll have to work 5 days a week. If I can swing it, I’ll try for 5 in a day to keep my working days down. I still have school and the day job to contend with, after all.

But I am so, so, so tired of looking through all these freaking papers. But I know I’m close. That’s what keeps me going.