Alright so the blog on becoming a food critic is going well in my opinion. I don't expect to get a lot of attention from it until it's more developed, and honestly won't be too upset if it doesn't get attention at all. I'm mostly just forcing myself to study and work on becoming a food critic on the side so that I can practice writing skills, build some writing samples, and work on a direction for a career. I think that the blog is successfully pushing me in the direction I want to be in, which is fantastic because I never knew I could motivate myself by not wanting to sound like an idiot directing other people (as it is a website anyone can access).
As for my book, I learned that I need the word count to be from 80,000-100,000 words. I'm checking the word count right now...
THIS IS GREAT. I'm not sure why because the book is around 200 pages so it shouldn't have been as bad as I was expecting, but I seriously thought my book was only around like - 20,000 words. I really would have been disappointed because I've been working on this thing for YEARS--and there's no way I can expect myself to push this thing into becoming published being so far behind from so much time...
But ANYWAYS, my book has approximately 58,563 words according to Word's word count. This is definitely great news because that means I only need about 21,500-41,400 words to complete this effectively. That is definitely manageable because I have a second document with a bunch of random pieces of the story that need to go back into the book (which is a lot more words to add) - and now I'm going to check THAT word count...
2,110 words... So 60,673 (ish) words is what I've got. That means I've got an even 20-40 thousand words to add. Not bad seeing as how I've got to go back in and add a little more setting, dialogue, and basically more thorough explanations to the why's and how's of the plot. My only current concern is pushing myself to dedicate the time to it. My plan is to finish the book once and for all - submit about 150-200 query letters to agents, and if I'm not accepted, self-publish my novel on Amazon. Oh, and if I can really push myself, I'd love to somehow find a way to convert the dialogue from what it is now (very modern) to something medieval - matching the setting more. Hopefully I can achieve my goals!
As for daily exercise and eating healthier, I'm loving it. I feel a little bit more energy each day I force myself to push, and I also feel a little more empowered each day as well. I like seeing results when I work hard, which is what I think I've needed for quite a while now.
I've done a lot of worrying about my attitude because I went through a lot of downs within the past few years. From crappy relationships to struggling to believe in myself throughout college, I thought everything would change when I graduated. I figured I'd get more respect, I knew I'd have half a word load, and I also thought I'd have a good job and make good money and be capable of doing whatever the hell I wanted...
Little did I know. I'm ashamed to say it's taken me six months to pull myself back together and accept that half the battle of finding a good solid career in your life is followed by college, not all of college itself. I've got the education on my resume, but now I have to build experience. This is why my whole focus is on becoming a food critic and finishing my book. I'm not even going to allow myself to try and consider other things to focus on because I know I'll throw my hands up and give up on everything if it becomes too much. This is why I am now writing a journal. I must record my efforts so that I can track my progress and consider my life much more often. I actually like reflecting like this, it kind of comforts me that I'm on some sort of path. I should do this more often. :)
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