weepy wow what when how Wednesday

Today I felt the whole roller coaster ride of emotions. I sent daughter dear on the train to a birthday party and she forgot something vital so I had to run home and rush to the post office and priority pay it thus adding to the expense of an already expensive day. I was feeling a bit pushed to the wall financially already but put the essentials in the fridge for the boyos while I head off to Philip Island for a writing workshop. I had written my woes to a friend who offered to help but by the time I received her reply I had already ranted raged and ranted my distress to my ever patient tallest boy who just let me get it all off my chest. When I calmed down I had formulated a plan.
I checked with the taxation department that my ABN was still valid - Australian Business Number- which I had organised way back in 2001 when I was intending to become a world famous overnight sensation as a novelist. The ABN has gathered dust ever since but is still active and I updated my name and address details with a view to making my PLAN come to fruition.

I already have teaching qualifications and I already have writing credits to my name and I studied professional writing and editing so over the next few weeks I am going to do everything possible to start up a creative writing short course. I will advertise for expressions of interest, find a venue, write my lessons plans and set a price. I need to be earning an income to support my dearly beloved offspring and their computer addictions and I need to know that my writing and teaching skills are worth all the hard work to obtain.

Fingers crossed. I feel so much better now that I have made a plan and set a goal. I need to also learn how to use business management software so I can keep my books in order. woooo another learning curve coming my way.

I organised a folder of my rejection letters today.

I was told recently I should consider 40 rejections as the average before success. So far I have seven. How exciting I am sixth of the way to success.
I have folders for everything so it really puzzles me where my WIP support material has disappeared to. Oh well I shall have to try and remember all that stuff.

 I have folders for my submitted work, my Video boot camp, my art work roughs for other writers.
I have folders for each week of the 52 week art challenge, a folder for my chapter book challenge, one for my picture book ideas and one for my sketch a day challenge pieces, one for the holiday sketching and another for the writing of other people. I have folders for my magazines and a whole crate of folders filled with my writing course information, class work and required reading.

I have a huge plastic tub filled with more art and my folio cover. 

 I have a large number of folders with art and short stories in them.
Some of the folders have reviews and some have lesson plans.

Some of my folders have study notes from decades ago in many many different areas of study.

 I have one folder bursting at the seams filled with certificates and statement of attainment documents.
When I decided to become a writer at last for real and with purpose that was when I knew I had to become really organised.  My desk is covered in post it notes and graphic organisers.
My 'belonging' details for the organisations I joined are all at my fingertips and my resource books are on the shelves within easy reach of my desk chair.

So Wednesday started with weeping and wailing and ended up with wonder and wow. What a wonderful day it has been. Now if only I could find those support notes? Hmmmmmm I'm off. tootles.

late last night

I did two planks last night, each lasting to the count of twenty. it might not seem like much but that is a huge improvement in a short space of time. It will be interesting to see what happens in twelve months. I am expecting and astronomical twelve months.

This morning I cleaned the bathroom and put a new set of shelves in, well an old set revamped and into that shelving went all the makeup and hair accessories, nail polish, the usual paraphernalia that clutters a bathroom with a teenage girl and now it isn't. The bathroom is a delight to walk into, all fresh and organised and tidy.

Organisation seems to be the theme of the week. I am reading about getting organised on my fellow 12 x 12 and STYoff Write peers and the truth is that if we don't get organised early we wont last the distance.

So I have signed up for the 12 x 12 and paid my membership fee for a silver level. I have started my first manuscript for that and said hello to as many people as I could in the FB group and eagerly look forward to the forum on the blog.

I had a story accepted yesterday for an anthology and have decided that will be my last anthology submission for non children books. They have exclusive use of the story for one year and any monies from the anthology are supposedly going to a good cause but I would like to see that in writing. I am pleased that over the past six months I have had stories and art work in eleven different anthologies and some marvellous feedback from people about their response to my writing. Some of the anthologies fund the following year's anthology, some have been touted as 'advertising and exposure for writers' with no funds going anywhere other than the coffers of the small press(if any even sold), some have funded good charities and one was given electronically to people serving in the military. I will never know if my own writing had any impact anywhere from these anthologies except through friends who purchased some but it is good to have a portfolio of published works to put on my profiles. The best anthology to date was the first one in which I have a piece of art and a short story and which funded something very worthwhile. That one makes me smile the most.

So I am also doing a 52 week art challenge through FB with a weekly theme, last week being eggs and this week kids. I started drawing daily in November with SkaDaMo and then Hohodooda in December with holiday themed drawings and in January I was a bit adrift but still drawing daily then found the 52 week challenge and added it to my list of things to do.

On Sunday I WILL REVISE some of my PiBoIdMo drafts in ReviMo and spend an intense week revising with some amazing people in the kidlit world.
On Monday I begin the Picture Book Dummy Challenge which runs for six months and I expect to learn all about putting a picture book together in that time.

All these things blend together and overlap and all of them enhance my skills so that I will be a successful picture book author and published.

I also started learning Spanish, dusted off my clarinet and am now back to playing three notes and I am blog hopping and writing my own blog daily.

Not one of these will last if I don't stick to my organisational charts. I have them everywhere in the house. I planned NaNoWriMo in Novemeber and stuck to the plan and managed to write 104000 words which was one complete novel and 3/4 of a second novel.
Organisation is the key. Get organised, stay organised. On that note...