MA 035 - Making it Happen

Hello!
We're in the second full week of 2021 already and it's time to assess how your goals are going and what tweaks you need to make.

I talk about my own lessons learned and shifts I'm making in my working process, including trying out live streaming to keep my head in the game.

Links:

Keystroke Medium: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Keystrokemedium

Word Millionaires: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WordMillionaires

All the Words: https://www.facebook.com/groups/487038162154895

Vivid Cover Design: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vividcovers

Write Track: https://writetrack.davidsgale.com

4theWords: https://4thewords.com (get 20 free crystals with this code: WESBB70639)

MA 34 - 2020 Lessons Learned turn into 2021 Goals

The retrospective episode you've been waiting for.

When I ask myself what I learned in 2020, my first impulse is to start laughing.

Sometimes you have to strike out into the hills, only to find out you ended where you started... but I learned a lot along the way, and I'm going into 21 with a good game plan and the experience to make it work.

My big goal for 2021: 1 million words of fiction. If I make that happen, I'll be well on my way to bringing my income up where it needs to be to make this a sustainable career.

That's 2740 words a day or 19,178 a week. Seems crazy in aggregate, but I can easily write a 1000 words an hour as long as I know the story I want to write. I bet you can too.

I hope you're looking forward to 2021 as well.

Thanks for listening,

James

MA 033 - Do You Really Want to Write Full Time?

In this episode I talk about a few lessons I've learned this past year when it comes to making a living off your writing, the stresses involved, and how that can change your work.

How do you create some breathing room so you don't feel trapped in a certain kind of work?

What's the reality of writers who are working full-time? Do they have a spouse adding income to the budget as well, and how are they paying for health insurance?

There are some misconceptions about the finances of the average full-time writer, and it's important to understand them if you're going to make a viable career out of writing.

Mentioned in the podcast:

SFF Con Panel on Podcasting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US3CzgAQpAQ

MA 032 - Rabbit Holes and Resilience

It's all about starting over.

We had a rough couple weeks here at the house, which made writing tougher than usual.

This episode is about not beating yourself up about it, and finding how your personal workflow, er, works. It's only taken me a year to get close to understanding my own workflow.

I've also been looking into some other income streams, and thinking about how getting out of the house might benefit my writing. Maybe I'm not an introvert after all.

Check out Write Track as a really useful tool for planning your book projects: https://writetrack.davidsgale.com/

Thanks for listening!

MA 031 - I’m Working with a Coach

After last week's discussion about motivation and finding my personal path forward, I decided to talk with an author coach. It was a great conversation and I'm going to give it a shot for six months.

This show is about how I made that decision.

Thanks for listening!

MA 030 - Motivational Inception

I've been struggling a bit with feeling motivated.

Sprints have been helping a lot. Zoom meetings with a group of authors to keep each other motivated on the hour has been a huge help.

But as I think through this, I'm wondering why I'm feeling this way, and if I'm actually internally or externally motivated. (Well, I know the answer.)

Once you figure out where you look for your motivation, what methods can you use to keep yourself on track?

MA 029 - SFFCon Lessons Learned

This episode is slightly all over the place as I get back into the swing of podcasting. Feeling scattered is something I talk about a bit, and how I'm working to use process to get my mind back in order and produce consistent work.

I also took part in a new virtual Science Fiction and Fantasy Conference this weekend called SFFCon.

Seth Godin interview with Tim Ferriss and his new book, The Practice.

J. Thorn's new project: Revolution FI

SFFCon: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention

SW 028 - The Last and First Episode

Speculative Work is transitioning to Marathon Author!

Why? Because "speculative" is hard to say when you're tired and tongue-tied.

Topics in this episode include consistency and using Healthcare.gov.

Check out the Healthcare enrollment episode of the Afford Anything Podcast for a really great breakdown of health insurance options on the ACA marketplace: https://affordanything.com/psa-thursday-the-affordable-care-act-with-tanja-hester/

SW 027 - Goodbye Google

Admitting to major screw ups makes them less major, right?

Digital hoarding is still hoarding.

I think I actually do want to delete most of my email from 2004. 

Thanks for listening!

James

jamesaaron.net/books

SW 026 - Digital Storage Plan

My Google Drive plan expired this week, and OneDrive is cheaper... so I've been doing a lot of thinking about how I'm backing up my data, how I organize my files, and if I really need to hang onto email from 2006.

Other things mentioned this episode:

Goliath by Matt Stollar

How Long 'Til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin

Thanks for listening!

James