tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195552772012-02-21T13:05:39.882-07:00The Personal Weblog of Katharine Swan, Freelance WriterKatharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.comBlogger1069125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-44559538980974834672012-02-13T23:01:00.000-07:002012-02-13T23:01:10.109-07:00

I have struggled with keeping up on my blogs lately (as you probably have noticed).  The last day or two, I've actually started to wonder if I am a little burned out on blogging. Part of it is probably that when I decided last year to shift my focus and start working on my fiction a little more, the client work I hung onto was primarily blogging projects.  As a result, I write a number of blog

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-2388794953805403632012-01-06T13:21:00.000-07:002012-01-06T13:21:18.528-07:00

I debated for a long while as to whether to set any New Years resolutions.  They don't usually turn out so well for me, and last year I don't believe I really set any, at least not any that were work-related.  But this year I think I'm going to try setting a few that are designed to be accomplished in the the next couple weeks or months, so that it's more likely that they'll be successful. 1)

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-64162951527009452082011-12-28T13:30:00.000-07:002011-12-28T13:30:17.601-07:00

It's been nearly a month since I last posted, thanks to an extraordinarily busy holiday season.  I can maintain my new schedule under normal conditions, but I totally underestimated my ability to deal with it when I have extra things like holiday shopping to do.  Adding to the chaos was the fact that I worked different (and increased) hours last week, since the kids I nanny for were out of school

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-22343576539359445912011-12-05T10:58:00.000-07:002011-12-05T10:58:14.480-07:00

I had a revelation over the weekend that may have changed my mind about how soon to start on the next book in my series.  I finished a book I've been reading for about 2 weeks — a ridiculously long time for me — and started reading a back issue of The Writer that I'd never gotten around to reading.  And I realized, Wow, I have time to read again! What a concept. So I might take the research

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-45480208778623980242011-12-03T13:15:00.002-07:002011-12-03T13:15:01.322-07:00

Barnes & Noble's self e-publishing service, PubIt!, linked to a very interesting blog post the other day: The No. 1 Overlooked Skill for Every Author.  The blogger makes the argument — and a very strong one, I think — that authors need to also be good at promoting themselves in order to be successful. The most common place where a background in copywriting is helpful is with writing queries, of

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-41926623191139885612011-12-02T12:54:00.000-07:002011-12-02T12:54:33.697-07:00

I finished my novel last night — I'd put an ending on it a few nights ago, but last night I finally finished a scene that I had skipped over (not being sure exactly what to write) a few weeks ago.  The first draft is, unfortunately, only 79,145 words — 855 words shy of my original goal — which is a little disappointing. I'll now be putting the novel aside for a little while — I'm planning on

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-30009347193856260762011-12-01T11:27:00.000-07:002011-12-01T11:27:59.070-07:00

NaNoWriMo ended last night at midnight.  I'd reached 50k a few days before, after which I added 1,283 words Tuesday night, finishing my novel.  I had intended to add a little more before NaNo ended, as there was a skipped scene I needed to fill in, but I didn't get it done before midnight, so my NaNo word count ended at 53,557.  I did add 582 words after midnight, though, and wrote at least half

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-453798677799976852011-11-28T13:53:00.001-07:002011-11-28T13:54:01.725-07:00

Last night I finally hit 50,000 words for the month of November!  I say "finally" even though it's a little early, because I probably could have made 50k a week ago, if it weren't for all the yellow, orange, and red days you see in my calendar widget in the sidebar.  I had a period of about a week when my word count really started flagging — I had a good lead, so I never actually fell behind, but

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-51357747298753551762011-11-25T16:47:00.000-07:002011-11-25T16:47:37.903-07:00

I've been dragging somewhat with my word count for the past week — a busy weekend and a really busy holiday week has kept me from having as much time as I wanted for client work and novel writing.  I've skipped several days altogether lately, and on the days when I have worked on my novel, I've failed to reach the NaNoWriMo minimum daily word count of 1,667 (let alone my personal goal of 2,000).

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-13535973941668472752011-11-22T10:51:00.000-07:002011-11-22T10:51:46.292-07:00

I had an extremely busy weekend, so my novel suffered as a result.  Instead of my usual of a busy Saturday followed by a day off on Sunday, I babysat all day on Sunday.  The end result was a fat check and an exhausted me, so I failed to write anything both days. The good news is, though, that despite a busy day yesterday (my riding lesson was yesterday because of the holiday — my usual day is

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-89160380407815053322011-11-18T13:32:00.000-07:002011-11-18T13:32:23.072-07:00

In my last post, I anticipated not having as much time to work on my novel over the next couple of days, and boy was I right!  I did write a bit more on Tuesday than anticipated, getting 2,377 words down, despite a slow start.  Most of those words were added after midnight, so if the calendar widget and my stats graph on the NaNo site were actually working, you'd see them on Wednesday instead of

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-21390059684533648572011-11-15T22:59:00.000-07:002011-11-15T22:59:26.345-07:00

I am so incredibly pleased to be doing so well at NaNoWriMo.  I can't say it enough, and it's all because I've failed the last four years (and only barely scraped by the very first year). Last night I ended at 34,079, which meant that I put 2,980 words on paper (or on file?) yesterday.  I squeaked through a tough scene, and for a while there I thought I was going to quit with just a thousand or

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-42041551453091284532011-11-14T11:07:00.000-07:002011-11-14T11:07:45.131-07:00

I've been moving along at a screaming pace (for me) on my novel — with 2,353 words on Friday, 1,695 words on Saturday, and a whopping 3,169 words last night (867 of those being after midnight), I had a 7k weekend and am now nearly 5 days ahead of schedule on my word count. This is a dramatic difference from previous years.  The last 4 years I've crashed and burned, and even though I reached 50k

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-82015048834683931512011-11-11T10:48:00.000-07:002011-11-11T10:48:06.179-07:00

I've been hopeless at keeping track of my daily word count, I'm afraid.  I discovered that the graph of my word count on my stats page does show my current word count each day if you hover over the top of the bar, which would theoretically help me keep track — if I weren't writing after midnight every night.  Oh well.  I'm moving along at a steady pace, which is really all that matters, right? I

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-1202496911546876292011-11-09T14:19:00.000-07:002011-11-09T14:19:51.626-07:00

Yesterday I found the URL for the calender widget from a previous year, so I don't have to wait on NaNoWriMo to roll them out any longer.  It also turns out that my box for Monday, when I didn't quite make 1,667 words, is yellow, not red — I guess to demonstrate that I was almost there. Yesterday was a productive day — in addition to getting some client work done, I also pounded out more than

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-41593474374070193512011-11-08T12:35:00.000-07:002011-11-08T12:35:56.714-07:00

Yesterday was a good day for working on my novel.  I felt somewhat reluctant to get started — not working on it at all on Saturday affected my motivation a lot more than I expected, and I struggled a bit with writing both Sunday and Monday evenings.  I'll need to make an effort next Saturday to still write a little, even if it's only a few hundred words, and see if that helps.  (Saturday is my

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-17818452684785416692011-11-07T18:40:00.000-07:002011-11-07T18:40:22.792-07:00

A few of you may know that I've made almost a complete switch to ebooks, and that I regularly keep an eye out for freebies — often limited-time promotions from the publishers.  There are currently 7 ebooks on writing that are free from a small publisher, and several of them look like they are worth checking out.  The timing — offering these during NaNoWriMo — seems rather coincidental, so I

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-71661433655516737242011-11-07T14:10:00.000-07:002011-11-07T14:10:53.255-07:00

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday weren't the stellar word count days that many wrimos aim for the first weekend, but I stayed afloat. Friday evening there was a write-in near me at the 24-hour used bookstore and coffee shop that I love.  We spent a couple of hours there, and although I got hung up on some research at the beginning of the write-in, it ended up being a very productive evening for me.

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-16408325914015326442011-11-04T00:14:00.000-06:002011-11-04T00:14:34.340-06:00

I'm happy to say that I am still kicking butt at NaNoWriMo.  Three days, and so far my total word count for November is 9,251, with 2,419 of those having been added today.  I decided the night of the kickoff party that my personal goal was 2,000 words a day, and so far I've gotten there every day.  Let's hope I can keep it up! Another good thing has happened: More of the plot has fallen into

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-41782369397826400002011-11-02T11:35:00.000-06:002011-11-02T11:35:57.106-06:00

Yesterday was a crazy day.  My morning and early afternoon were pretty much claimed by a doctor's visit for a medical study I'm almost done with, and a vet appointment for our dog, Grace, who had to have x-rays — she has some pretty significant hip dysplasia, and in the past 6 or 8 months it's gotten steadily worse, to the point that we can no longer keep her comfortable with aspirin and daily

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-30081316775314861702011-11-01T02:00:00.000-06:002011-11-01T02:00:14.118-06:00

I attended the NaNoWriMo kickoff party tonight, which I blogged about on my novel's website.  It was busy, like last year, but it was a blast!  I made a few new NaNo buddies, and got off to a strong start with 1,678 words — my goal for November 1st already accomplished.  (Not that I plan on stopping there — if I have some time in the morning, I'll write some more.) I'd been hoping to get to 30k

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-1751741647535757442011-10-31T20:18:00.000-06:002011-10-31T20:18:42.417-06:00

I start my new afternoon nanny job tomorrow, so today I took advantage of my last weekday of freedom and visited my in-laws (and my soon-to-be-mine horse).  I'm catching up on blogging and some work this evening, and I'll be attending the NaNoWriMo kickoff party in my area tonight.  I won't be able to stay very late, because of early-morning obligations (tomorrow will be a very busy day for me),

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-28711040858230685032011-10-28T14:10:00.000-06:002011-10-28T14:10:24.210-06:00

NaNoWriMo begins in just a few more days.  Of course, I've been working on my novel since summertime or before, so I'm not waiting to begin a new novel like most folks are — my goal is simply to put 50,000 more words on it during November.  I'm shooting for 80,000 words total, so I was trying to get to 30k before NaNoWriMo started. I was starting to lose hope of that happening, but then

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-27274246085643285342011-10-27T15:53:00.000-06:002011-10-27T15:53:00.222-06:00

Recently Barnes & Noble's PubIt page on Facebook posted a link to a Writer Unboxed post, about better writing through cheap technology.  Most of the technology listed was uninteresting to me, except for the bit about the NEO — a word processing keyboard that literally just writes.  It sounds like a great little device — takes AA batteries (and they last forever), doesn't have to boot up, and

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19555277.post-53243984844358589472011-10-26T12:49:00.000-06:002011-10-26T12:49:27.880-06:00

I had to make a tough decision lately.  I've been wanting to take on a second horse, but work has been a little slow (for a multitude of reasons: clients cutting back, I haven't been marketing enough, but also partly my own decision to focus a little more on fiction), and honestly I've been feeling a little burned out on some of what I do.  So instead of looking for more writing work, I mentioned

Katharine Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16805523619692744514noreply@blogger.com0