The Sno-Isle libraries is running a series through the month of November (National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo) and I got a sneak peek at one of the classes that was held at the Freeland library today on Finding an Agent. Now, I’m nowhere near done with any of my books or stories, but this is good information to have. And it was somewhat motivating to schedule a lot of time this coming month to writing.
My ambition is to have all the ideas I want to discuss in “Zookeeper’s Guide to Fitness” written by the end of November. I don’t care if they are in “proper” order. I don’t care if I have sentence fragments and grammatical errors. I don’t care if I read it later that night and say “well, that’s crap”. I want it all out.
The next couple of months after I use NaNoWriMo to get my book out of my head and into concrete writing, I will be focusing on editing it, revising it, and having it critiqued by writer friends, animal training friends, and fitness friends. By the end of January, I am hoping for the opportunity to go to a weekend-long conference where some of the top professionals in animal training will be attending, and I hope to give them an advance copy of the book for them to critique and give feedback. After I make revisions at that point, I’m going to start looking for an agent.
This class was very helpful in a couple capacities. One, it gave me a better picture of what an agent does and how it can help me to not stress over finding a publisher. The other benefit to the class was information on online resources for finding an agent, other than the Writer’s Market in print, which can become outdated pretty quickly. Plus, the librarian gave me next month’s schedule and there are several classes being offered throughout the month of November that I am very interested in.
I’m hoping I don’t break the bank signing up for a bunch of writing classes and workshops just for this one book. It means a lot to me to finish it, and if nothing else, these classes give me extra motivation to write more. I’ve also considered spending some extra money to hire a writing coach, but I think what I really need to focus on is just getting to the writing- just do it, as Nike says. After I’m done, if I continuously get feedback saying my writing needs improvement, then I’ll look into coaching. But first, let’s get some ideas flowing and see what I have to work with!
I didn’t do much writing beyond my notes from the class and this blog, but I still feel like it was a super productive day. Maybe it’s because I didn’t nap when I wanted to veg out before EarthFit….
Workouts:
7 am New You Ladies
Thunderstruck Warm-up- I blasted AC/DC and we rocked out to my favorite warm-up song. At least I was nice and only prescribed 3 jumping jacks instead of the normal burpee for every “thunder”.
28 min EMOM:
Push Jerk at 55 lbs
Box Jumps
Up-down Plank
Jump Rope
4 pm EarthFit
Last one scheduled for the session, and I wanted to end on a high note of playing EarthFit Memory, but the wind was not cooperating, so I fell back onto my planned workout for Monday that we didn’t get a chance to do.
20 minute AMRAP
10 Dragonflys
20 Plyo Push-ups
30 Lunges
40 Woodchoppers
50 Russian Twists
40 Plank Ball Passes
30 Deadlifts
20 Med Ball Power Cleans
10 Thrusters
Lunch- finished a spinach salad I had in the fridge
Snack- Paleo Trail mix, Kind bar, avocado
Dinner- Stew
ZooFit Tip- Really let whatever motivation you have help you cope with motivation you don’t have. If you have goals to eat healthy AND workout, but for some reason, you only have motivation to workout, and you are enjoying it- REVEL in that motivation! That’s AWESOME! A lot of people have trouble just getting off the couch. That motivation will eventually bleed over into other areas, as long as you continue to feed off that inspiration. Right now you don’t have will power or self control to not eat ALL the snacks. I promise, by keeping with your program, and progressing small steps, that if you ride the exercise motivation wave long enough, it won’t falter, but will pick up other healthy habits to continue it’s progress. Your eating habits will eventually catch up.
That’s one example, and one I’m experiencing right now- I am all gung ho about working out but as soon as I get home, my self control goes out the window and I eat more than I should. But the working out is balancing some of my habits right now. And I’m paying attention to it. So, as long as I keep up with my working out and keep up with logging my food and paying attention to what I’m eating, even without self-control, I KNOW I’ll get there soon enough.