Hugh J. O'Donnell

Welcome to October, Ladies and Gents!

It has been a busy but wonderful week for me.  My dear friends Sarah and Jenn got LEGALLY married, and those happy events took up the beginning of this productivity week.

But we’re here to talk about productivity, so let’s have at it!

Writing:

My writing goal for this week was to write 2,000 words, and not only did I meet it, I blew it out of the water with a total of 4,137 words written over four one hour writing sessions.  Because of the wedding, all of this writing was done in October.  Looking back, I only wrote 6,500 words for September and didn’t really finish anything.  Looking at the pattern of the first month, the reasons for this seem pretty clear.  I’m not making enough time for writing, and even when I am, I let myself get distracted by the internet or other things.  This week’s progress is thanks to the fact that I committed to working for an hour every time I sat down to write.  Sometimes I wrote less than others, but I stayed in the chair, and I stayed off the internet.  I’m starting to get close to finishing the draft of the novella I’m working on, and if I keep working at this pace, I should be able to get a few short stories done before National Novel Writing Month in November.

Podcasting:

I still haven’t release episode 22, but I’ve finished recording the story, and I’ve done my first pass of the audio for the interview.  I’m going to be working on that some more when I finish sending this off.  I also recorded my third interview for November last night, and I can’t wait for people to hear it.  I still need one more, though.

In Summary:

I didn’t make my goal of releasing the next episode of The Way of the Buffalo Podcast, but I doubled my writing goal.  This week I’m going to finish 22, work on 23, and write another 2,500 words on top of it.  Can I do it?  Find out next Wednesday night!

For the first time since week one, I’m doing this on time.  I feel slightly accomplished.

It’s been a pretty good week for productivity.  Let’s take a look:

Writing:

Since the last post, I’ve only gotten three writing sessions in, but I managed to meet my goal of writing 2,000 words, for a total of 2,331. I’d like to get some more writing done tonight, but there is a lot going on, so we’ll see if that happens.  I feel like I’m closing in on the end of the novella I’m working on, but the story keeps spooling out in unexpected directions.  After edits, I’m not sure how long it’s going to be yet.

The other writing goal I met for this week was putting a short story through the Smashwords Meat grinder!  I tested the system using “Moving Mountains,” the story I had published this spring on the “Every Photo Tells” Podcast.  You can still listen to the story for free on their site, or at the archive on podiobooks.com.  The story is available as a pay-what-you-want download HERE.  I know I need to fix some things, but I’d love to get some feedback on my mistakes so far.

Podcasting:

This week I recorded the story reading for the next episode, and an interview to be aired in November, during the great NaNoWriMo crunch.  I have a lot left to do to get the episode up, though, and it might show up on Saturday instead of Friday.  I’m very proud of the interview in this one, so I’m going to get back to work on it.

Next Week:

I’m helping out with a wedding this weekend, so that’ll be taking up a lot of my time, plus finishing the episode.  But I’ll get that episode out, and churn out another 2,000 words of rough draft.

Or will I?  Come back next week!

The fact that this week’s post is half a week late sets the tone for this one.  I’ve been scrambling around, but I don’t feel like I’ve gotten much of anything done.

Writing:

I fell far short on my writing goals last week.  I wrote 1,172 words across three writing sessions in two projects.  Personal deadlines are looming.  As Summer gives way to fall, it is time for me to get into gear for Nanowrimo.  This is less than what I’ll be writing per DAY in November, and I’ve got to work my way up to it.

Podcasting:

I did manage to upload episode 21 of The Way of the Buffalo Podcast, and I’m very happy with the results.  Go have a listen to 20 and 21 and let me know what you think.  If we can get enough interest, Sarah and I will be doing a Kickstarter in the near future to fund making a free audiobook of the whole thing!

Other:

I spent the whole day on Saturday helping out at the annual cookout for Transplant Miracles Foundation, a transplant awareness and fundraising charity started by my cousin.  It was a lot of fun, but I really wore myself out.  It’s a lesson to remember going forward.

Next Week:

This week I set an optimistic writing goal and got writer’s block.  This week, I’m going to be a bit more slow and steady.  I’d like to write 2,000 words, but more importantly, I want to sit down and write at least four separate times between now and the end of the day on Wednesday.  Also, I need to get episode 22 up before the end of the month.  A friend is getting married on Friday, so I’d like to be comfortably finished ahead of time for once.

Will I make my goals?  Find out next week! (ish)

Howdy folks!  I’m knee deep in mixing down the next episode for The Way of the Buffalo, so here’s a quick summary of my progress in the past week.

Writing:

My writing goal was to reach 2,000 words this week, and I made it.  I had five short writing sessions, each an hour or less, and I managed to add 2,049 words to “The Shadow Over Ironwood,” the novella I am currently working on.  I also started a new short story that has been rattling around in my head.  It doesn’t have a title yet, but I got roughly the first 400 words done, for a grand total of 2,453 words for the week.

Podcasting:

I didn’t have an interview this week, but I’ve been working on episode 21.  It should be up on the site by the end of Friday.  I had a very interesting Google + hangout with a member of the Buffalo WordPress Meetup Group, and got some tips for improving my websites.  (Thanks, Danielle!)  So I did some light recording and editing, and will be doing more tonight after this post goes live.

Misc:

I have two new projects on the horizon, and I figure I’ll make the announcement here.

The first is that I am actively soliciting clients for my audio trailer business, and have created a fiverr.com account for the service.  Click HERE to check it out.

The second is that I have signed up for smashwords, and will be putting my first ebook up by the month’s end.  I’ll be promoting the heck out of it once it goes up.

Goals:

I got a lot done in short bursts this week, and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can get done with more concentrated effort.  I’m upping my word count goal to 2,500 for next week.  My goal for the podcast is to record the two stories I have ready to go, and send out contracts for new ones.  Will I make my goals?  Find out next week!

I’ve decided to try a new experiment, since I’m not in the habit of posting on the blog yet.

Last week, on the Dead Robots Society Podcast, there was an interview with author Rachel Aaron, who has a method for writing that lets her write upwards of 10,000 words a day!  Since National Novel Writing Month is looming on the horizon, and I have not been writing as much as I want to, I’m giving it a try.

The first part of her method is keeping track of your writing.  The second half is to outline before you sit down to write.  Both of these seem like great, simple, and obvious ideas, so I’ve started keeping track, and to keep myself honest, I’m going to be putting my results here.  Look for a new post every Wednesday!

Week One:

Writing:

This week got off to a rocky start.  I only got any serious writing time in on Saturday morning, putting in about 600 words.

Podcasting:

I’ve been a bit more productive with the Way of the Buffalo.  I edited and released episode 20 on Friday, and recorded an interview last night that will be in the feed later this fall.  I’m almost up to date on the slush pile as well, having done my first pass.  I do have to send out some emails tonight, however.

Next week:

This week was a rocky first start, but I’m not going to let that stop me.  My goal is to write 2000 words in the novella I’m working on, and do first pass edits on some short story drafts I have laying around.  Will I make my goals?  Come back next week and find out!