Friday Done List November 28

Thanksgiving Week Edition: Well, I made cranberry sauce from scratch this week, which was fantastic. Also, the gluten free salted chocolate chip cookie sandwiches I made for the first time were so good, they may become my holiday dessert.

But for work:

Goal 1. Write and Publish Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor

Started a totally new humor piece that was not in my bullet journal for this week.

Checked out a lit journal and added it to my spreadsheet. May submit to it next week.

Goal 4. Play with the 19th Century Novel Idea, Which Does Have a Title, But is Mainly a Fun Think Piece

Okay, this is a strange one. I was with an eight-year-old family member who was working on his movie script. I asked him if he knew about making story boards. I got a confusing answer. But while he was working on his project, I drew a few little sketches of scenes for the 19th century novel for mine. Maybe I should be thinking about doing something with this.

Friday Done List November 19

 Goal 1. Write and Publish Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor

• The essay version of Where Are the ADHD Characters in Adult Fiction was published at Books Are Our Superpower. 
• Registered for an Off Campus Writers' Workshop workshop.
• Spent a little time on a short story revision. I was pleased with the work and frustrated because I couldn't do more.
• Got another rejection a few hours ago. All these rejections suggests I'm working a lot harder than I think I am. At least on making submissions.

Goal 2. Build Community/Market Work/Brand Myself and My Work

• Promoted the above essay on Facebook and BlueSky
• Registered to take part in an Off Campus Writers' Workshop on-line sale for members. Of which I am one. This involves Saving the Planet & Stuff and is the first thing I've done for that book in quite some time. I don't expect to make any sales, but I'd enjoy having a little more of an identity with OCWW.
• One new Original Content post that is not a Friday Done List.

Goal 4. Play with the 19th Century Novel Idea, Which Does Have a Title, But is Mainly a Fun Think Piece

• I came up with a reason for the crime involved and a murderer! A new character. This happened while I was on the treadmill.
• Joined a Facebook group that deals with history related to this book.

A Story Behind the Story with My Search for Adult ADHD Characters

Heber Galindo @ Unsplash

 As writers often do, I repurposed some material. My two blog posts on the lack of ADHD characters in adult fiction became one essay on the subject, which was published today at Books Are Our Superpower. 

What I find fascinating about the three pieces I've published on adult ADHD characters in fiction...and promoted here and there...is that no one has responded with "Why, Gail, you are so very wrong about this. There are so many adult books with adult ADHD characters. Read this and this and this."

I would actually enjoy being told I was wrong and be referred to the kinds of books I've been looking for. But so far, nope. Nothing.

Friday Done List November 14

Here is the big, big news from this week: I have an eight-year-old family member who attends a movie club after school one day a week. After his day of third grade. As a result, he now knows what Freytag's Pyramid is. You know, the pyramid that describes plot structure? Movie club covered that.

This is a writing thing

He had a chart he'd drawn himself, which was better than this one I made, because it had more labels. I can't recall if he used the terms "rising action" and "resolution," but he sure knew what they were.

Just to be sure you're clear on what I'm talking about, he is eight-years-old and in third grade. I didn't learn about Freytag's Pyramid in college, even though I took at least four writing classes. Don't try to tell me it didn't exist when I was in college. Gustav Freytag was a nineteenth century writer. Of course, it existed when I was in college.

I didn't learn about Freytag's Pyramid until after I'd had at least a couple of books published by a traditional publisher. 

Now, there is a positive way to look at this and a negative way to look at this. 

• The positive way is that children are getting a really good education these days, aren't they? At least in movie club. 
• The negative way is that I had a really lame-ass writing education, and it is a freaking miracle that I got as far as I did.

And now on to the rest of my writing week.

Goal 1. Write and Publish Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor

• Finished reworking the ADHD reading posts into an essay.
• Submitted the ADHD essay.
• I've been working on revising a humor piece into a short story. I kicked that up a notch this week, hoping to have it done for a themed submission.
• Received a rejection on a humor piece. That piece is somewhat essay-like, which means it can't be submitted to just any humor site. Some of them won't accept anything they perceive as an essay. Decided to send that to the lit journal that's made a call for humor pieces, instead of the one I mentioned before. Yes, I am making thinking and decision-making part of my done list.
• Submitted that rejected humor piece just this morning.
• Oh, yeah. I received another rejection. Gotta file that somewhere. 

Goal 2. Build Community/Market Work/Brand Myself and My Work

• Attended an Author's Guild zoom talk on copyright. Not sure that that is an objective toward this particular goal, but I want credit, so I've got to put it somewhere.
• Came up with a new blog post idea. I haven't written it. Hope I don't forget it.

Friday Done List November 7

Yes, I am a day late with this. But it was a week of family visits, appointments, and I had to buy a snow blower, okay? And I still don't have the thing! Oh, also, I had to renew my library card.

It was not a highly productive week, but the point is to produce something toward your work goals. Done Lists reflect that.

Goal 1. Write and Publish Adult Short Stories, Essays, and Humor

• Got the short story market research spreadsheet functioning. 
• Read for short story market research.
• Did a lot of work on the revision of my two ADHD posts into an essay, which I will then submit to a Medium publication.

Goal 2. Build Community/Market Work/Brand Myself and My Work

• Finished reading a book for a Native American Heritage Month post I'm planning to write for this blog.
• Got my library card renewed so I could get another book for Native American Heritage Month. So, yeah, getting that library card renewed was professional work. Damn straight.