Much like September, October flew by. However, I am feeling much better mentally than I did the previous month.

I can’t claim to have had a productive month, but I enjoyed and was invigorated by a lot of what I did.

Last Month’s Goals

1. Write 10,000 words among my authorly projects.
2. Enjoy L.A. with my friends.
3. Enjoy speaking to a class of eager future writers and crush their dreams.
4. Go. To. The. Gym. At. 5am.

Write 10,000 Words?

Nope, but I feel like the writing I did was well-placed and a step in the right direction.

I didn’t actually count how many words I wrote in October, because I wrote almost exclusively in my journal, which is not a thing I normally do. But between traveling to and from L.A. for leisure and then traveling to and from New York for work, I had a lot of time to sit in confined spaces and focus.

I got back to writing The Warden of Everfeld: Legacy after feeling sort of stuck there for a bit.

As usual, I returned to my favorite character, Arden, to bring this story back into focus for me. She is somehow the easiest character for me to write. While I’m traveling, I think I relate to her curious eyes, even when she tells herself she prefers solitude.

Anyway, I know I didn’t write 10,000 words, but I like that I made some headway this month. And now I want to try NaNoWriMo again.

Enjoy L.A. with My Friends?

Definitely. I missed being away from my family, but I had a great time with two of my closest friends (and also my friend’s girlfriend, who is awesome).

We ate great food, we hiked (see image above), we drove around, listened to music, played some arcade games, had a good time at L.A. Comic Con… It was a great weekend.

I enjoyed the L.A. area, too, and I’m looking forward to going back.

Enjoy Speaking to a Class of Eager Future Writers?

Absolutely. I did not know what to expect going into my English-teacher-friend’s high school creative writing class, but it was a great experience.

So much so that I want to do more speaking gigs!

Now I just need to figure out how to get those without knowing the teacher/group leader/whoever.

Go to the Gym at 5am?

HA!

No.

(Cries inside)

It seems like sleep is getting harder and harder to come by, which means I have little appetite for getting up even earlier to exercise. But I know I have to figure this out. I can’t just not exercise for the rest of my life.

One semi-good thing is that it’s been a full two months (or more) since I’ve been to the gym. I’m so far out of a routine that I now feel like I can (and have to) start fresh.

In recent years, my workout routine was still largely based on what I was doing during and just after college: a lot of strength training with some swimming or boxing mixed in for cardio and variety.

I don’t feel like my body can handle that kind of routine now — at least not out of the gate.

So I’m leaning towards starting pretty light when I finally get to the gym. (The first step, obviously, is actually going.)

I want to use boxing — mostly heavy bag and double-end bag work — to re-condition my body, build some endurance, and get my agility back. With a full stretching routine to warm up and cool down, I can then transition into some basic strength training: the big muscle groups, like leg press, lat pull-down, chest press.

I’ll probably mix in more strength training after a time, but I really want the conditioning, endurance, and flexibility to be the core of my routine. And we’ll see where it goes.

I just need to get out of bed.

This Month’s Goals

1. Write 20,000 words for National Novel Writing Month! Surprise! What can I say? Those high school kids were really motivating. I’m definitely not aiming for NaNo’s lofty 50,000-word goal, but I want to give it an honest shot. More to come this month.
2. Go to the gym. At this point, I’d be happy with a couple times per week.

That’s it, I guess… My goals are pretty focused this month, which is probably a good thing.

Find me on NaNo is you want to join in the writing craziness: https://nanowrimo.org/participants/dia820

Steve D