Happy December, writer!
For the first time since COVID I'm flying back to the Midwest for Christmas. On Christmas Day itself, which is saving me hundreds of dollars. I was thisclose to buying a return flight for that same day, six hours after landing, but my mom
would've made sure Santa skipped me entirely.
(An aside... yes, already: Holidays haven't been the same since my dad died. Recently I was clearing old email addresses from this list, and on it I found my dad's. There's something comforting about the fact he's still subscribed. Plus, I love the idea of my emails piling up in
some dusty corner of AOL.)
(Is there a non-dusty corner of AOL?)
Anyway, where was I? "Nowhere, David," you're thinking. "You got sidetracked
after one paragraph."
I'm trying a new thing where I categorize and examine what my spending. I wouldn't call it a budget. A budget involves forethought. What I'm doing is total afterthought. At the end of November it went something like this: "Holy shit, did I really spend $41.38 this month on dog treats and toys?
Maybe I should get a dog."
(Sorry, Daisy. That's just a joke, I don't mean to be ruff on you.)
I've learned I spend roughly (ruffly?) $0 per month on
my writing. I haven't met with Tom (my excellent writing coach, who can do only so much) since May. I don't belong to any writing organizations, attend conferences, buy books on craft.
Longtime readers will remember Drew Smith, my writing pal. Drew had a
similar realization earlier this year, and admitted to himself that he has trouble taking his writing (or anything else) seriously unless/until he dedicates some money to it. So Drew now pays a friend to act as something of a writing... listener.
Drew calls this guy every week and reads his new pages aloud. His friend will
interrupt to make questions or comments, and Drew stops to make edits when he doesn't like the way something sounds coming out of his mouth.
For as long as WriteByNight has offered book coaching (2009; isn't that crazy?), we've had one hour of "prep" -- i.e., the outside time your
coach spends reading your pages -- built into our per-session rate.
But starting in January, we're offering a new (and lower-cost) approach for writers who don't necessarily need or want that level of feedback... or just like to save some money, like I did on my flights. (See, I brought it back around.)
Our new "basic" session includes only the 60-minute discussion with your coach, without the requirement to send pages in advance and pay for "prep."
If you have pages
but don't want to spend the extra on prep, read your pages aloud to your coach in-session! Or share your screen and read along together. You'll still receive actionable feedback, but in a more immediate, first-impression manner.
Or simply talk with your coach about your book and your writing approach; work through your
obstacles and brainstorm ideas together; talk about moving your writing toward publication. Consider it something of a writing-therapy session.
Technically it doesn't start until 2024, but if you receive this email and want to get started right away, click the button below and I'll let you begin early.
