best intentions... yeah, yeah, yeah...

I did quite well, for me, yesterday. I've decided that I've really got to shape up and make like a proper writer - instead of being a weak, self indulgent procrastinator all the time! I wasn't perfect yesterday, but I did improve on a lot of recent days. Achievements included:

• checked proofs of Public Domain and sent changes off to lovely editorial assistant
• perused and edited my story for the Sex With Strangers anthology [quite pleased with it too!]
• printed off a few chapters of Suite Seventeen for a paper edit
• set up my excerpts blog Portia's Prose
• prepared a bill for a web client
• read some more of Alison Kent's CIG to Writing Erotic Romance

And that lot is quite impressive if you're me!

Today I plan to get on with that paper edit of Suite... I did the edit of the SWS story on paper, and somehow, I found it easier to do that way. I got a clearer view of it. Not good for the environment to do it that way, I suppose. I'm going to allot myself a few chapters a day, so I don't frighten myself off doing it. My critique partner is away on holiday at the moment, so I can't send it to her until next week anyway.

Anyway, that's my main job for today. I may perhaps post a tasty morsel of the SWS story over at Portia's Prose, if I have time, and I'll certainly be reading more of the CIG, because even though I've been writing for years and years, it's still giving me insights into how I should be editing Suite... mostly things which I should be mindful of, but have lost sight of somehow... basics like goal and motivation and that old buggaboo of mine - conflict! God, do I hate having to 'do' conflict in books!!! I'd walk a million miles over broken glass and nails dipped in pus to avoid conflict in real life, so it just seems totally against nature to have to make up conflicts for my characters in my books... but dramatic storytelling is NOTHING without conflict... so there you are, I've gotta do it.

One thing I mustn't do today is continually keep checking MySpace to see how many friends I have. I've really got to get a grip there, and just go once a day to do my socialising and friend adding... It's a super place to network, but it's also a timewaster too. Big time! I've also got to refrain from continually visiting my Google Reader page to see which of my bloggy people has blogged... The posts will still all be there if I ration myself to one or two visits a day, and it'll be more of a treat if I have lots to read at once.

Anyway, time to start on my new, improved productive day! What are the bets on how long this latest of a million resolutions to do better will last?