The fabulous Jenna Glatzer (Author of The Street-Smart Writer) offered her time and transcription abilities to give us a written account of my interview with AC Crispin! Thanks so much Jenna!

• The cold is over. I am 14K into NaNoWriMo (very behind), 138 pages into novel edits (pretty happy with it.)
• NaNoMonkeys podcast trailer
• I discuss professionalism beyond the adage of “don’t be an ass”.
• Never Was trailer
• I remind you of my books at Podiobooks.com - Heaven and Hell.
• We deal with a lot of emails and voice mails, some things discussed: OWW, Critters, We Are Not Cool, Shadowmagic by John Lenehan.

 

 ISBW #54 - Professionalism [33:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (455)

I upgraded the blog to Blogger beta. I guess it was all the peer pressure from blogger.

And they republished my blog.

Which made the RSS think that I had posted a bunch of new podcasts.

Sigh.

So if you just downloaded a ton of old podcasts, I am very sorry.

Well, I’m glad I worked hard the first several days. I missed three days due to a cold and and I’m behind. Now I’ve lost my lead and I’m going to have to go at a pace of 1766 words per day just to finish on time.

On the other hand, I have 100 pages of final draft novel done. I’ve renamed it and everything. Which, honestly, is my priority this month. All I want for Christmas is a shiny package to send to agents.

Well. And an agent. And a publisher.

And a pony.

First the kiddo had an accident at preschool and I was dealing with that all weekend (she’s fine now) and then I came down with a cold that’s taken my voice away. So no talking in the mic until I get it back. Sorry.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, but I think it is more important during NaNoWriMo season.

The Internet Age has made multitasking easier than ever. Actually, it’s almost a necessity. And for people like stay-at-home parents, it’s hard to live without doing it.

But sometimes you need to stop. Distractions will eat away at your concentration, your writing time, and you won’t even notice it. How many of you leave IM on while writing? Or email? You’re in the middle of a scene and someone pings you, and you take *just one second* to answer them, and your cooncentration is lost.

Right now, I’m trying to get up at 630am and turn on the computer - but not the wifi - and write my daily wordcount. Then the only thing that interrupts me is my daughter, who has heard me moving around getting tea and has decided that I couldn’t POSSIBLY be getting up early for any reason other than to make her breakfast… but I digress. The point is, multitasking usually means that you’re splitting your attention, and do you want to do that while writing?

Just take a moment and do a test for me. The next thing you do, whether it’s answer the phone or write an email or work on your next chapter, try to give it 100% of your attention. At first it will be difficult to focus on just one thing, but eventually you’ll be able to do it. See what it does for your writing.

This morning was a little more difficult than yesterday, although I luckily woke up at 630 again, no alarm needed. My 2K words came a little harder today, although I haven’t run out of plot yet, which is good. I just need lots of time and fast fingers.

How’s everyone doing? Did you start writing last night at midnight? Get up early to do it? Or are you planning on starting tonight?

Chris Baty suggests getting ahead start on your novel in week one when you have the energy, so shoot for 2000 words a say instead of the average 1677. For Americans, this will help during the THanksgiving holidays!

Don’t forget about the NaNomonkeys daily podcast!

And good luck.