End of a Challenge, Start of a Month

A new month, a new template ... it's all good, right?

My total for November was 20,005, which ended the book and also saw me through an edit. The book is currently standing at 51,623, although that number is highly subject to change after I funnel it through my critique group and make corrections. It's mighty respectable, if I do say so myself. I'm sorry to say, though, that I lost track of what I accomplished with the cookbook during November. It was just a crazy month, what can I say?

Keep those totals rolling in, folks ... let's see how we did.

And in the meantime, put your feet up and relax. No more challenges until January. :)

Back in the Saddle Again

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I did ... now it's time to get back to work!

My goals for Friday - make a shopping list for items that aren't chicken. :) I did my chicken recipes first because that's my meat of choice. Now I need to branch out. I also want to do some editing on what I already have.

Are you keeping in mind this week's incentive? What is your goal? How far away are you from reaching your goal for the month? We're drawing ever so nigh ...

I'll check in with you tonight. I just wanted to give you a nudge to keep going. You've had a day off ... back to work now!

A Couple Clarifications

First off, I'm trying to figure out why I had 1,300 words posted next to my cookbook tally. I think I got a daily total on my fiction book confused with the word count on the cookbook. At any rate, I just hit 1,210 on the cookbook, which is kind of odd considering that it's 86 pages. Those recipes take up a lot of room but not a lot of words. The introductory pages have also gone through one edit from a critique group member, so that's another step closer to done. Now to get, oh, four more edits and about forty more recipes ...

Second, Donna asked if we had to hit a weekly goal or our monthly goal to get the recipe I offered yesterday, since the challenge is over at the end of the week anyway. I'm making it a weekly goal, so that if things haven't gone well the remainder of the month for you, you can still crank it up this week and come out rewarded.

Paulette, hang in there! I know you can do this.

I'll check back again later tonight with today's progress report. I just wanted to make those clarifications.

See ya ...

Later: And Brooke takes the trophy on Dancing with the Stars! All is right with the world.

I added a recipe to the book tonight, and I now have twelve chicken recipes. I think I'm going to call that good and concentrate now on beef and fish, neither of which have gotten much attention from me, as I'm more of a chicken girl. But we must be balanced!

I hope you all stay safe in your holiday traveling. Donna, here's wishing you lots of writing time! I sure wish I could write in a moving car. I get carsick.

Monday Night -- Feeling All Right

First off, Brooke and Derek need to win Dancing with the Stars. The girl tanked majorly last week, but when they reshowed their best numbers tonight, I got chills all over again. Their paso doble was just beyond cool.

Okay, now that's out of my system.

I tried three recipes over the weekend. One was not very good, although my husband liked it. He has an iron stomach. The other two made it. So I added two recipes and worked on formatting a bit. This is kind of a restful period for me, although I do get frustrated when a recipe doesn't work. I don't know why I'm frustrated -- it's not like I knew until I tried that it wouldn't work, and I've made most of them turn out pretty well, but it still feels like a failure in some way. Yeah, I'm a perfectionist.

You know, I'm sensing a little bit of a lag in the cosmic forces. Do we need another writing incentive? I think we can do that. Each one of you who reach your goals by week's end will receive a yummy recipe from me in your choice of breakfast food, main dish, side dish, or dessert. A preview of the cookbook, if you will.

Keep those engines humming, and I'll see you tomorrow!

And I'm sorry for not posting Saturday night ... I was out seeing Twilight. If you want to see what I thought about it, I posted a review on my other blog.

Friday Night

And thus closes another day! How'd y'all do?

I spent some time working on the formatting of the recipes already in the book. They keep shifting around and it makes it harder when I haven't decided just exactly how I want it organized. That would be helpful, eh? I've also run out of recipe ingredients, so tomorrow I'll be popping by the store so I can try a few more. I think I now have enough chicken dishes and need to expand to meat and yes, desserts. That'll be fun!

As we head into Saturday, keep those goals in sight. If you haven't quite reached where you wanted to reach this week, you've still got some time -- if you need to make hot dogs for dinner and hide yourself away for a little while, go for it. You can do it -- I know you can!

See you tomorrow night.

Thursday Check-In

How are we all this fine Thursday?

Amanda, great to hear how your editing is going! Rukia/Paulette, I'm way excited about your awesome count! In fact, I'm darn tootin' proud of all of you.

I have a funny. It's embarassing, but it's funny.

So far, my cookbook project has largely been focused on trying out the recipes and tweaking them until I'm happy with them. I haven't done a lot of proofreading, etc. Well, I sent three recipes over to Danyelle to test out for me. I got an e-mail and then later a phone call from her ... apparently it's a good idea if I remember to include all the ingredients in the ingredient list. The e-mail was to ask where the cashews were in the Cashew Chicken ... the phone call was about onions. Yeah, it helps to know how many. Needless to say, there will be a bit more focus on proofreading. But she liked how the recipe turned out, regardless. She's very forgiving.

Which brings me to another question. Would any of you like to test out a recipe for me? (I promise to proofread it first.) Pop me an e-mail at tristi AT tristipinkston.com and tell me what kinds of things you'd like to eat, and I'll send it over.

I'm really excited about helping people see that going low-sodium isn't the end of the world. There's still a lot of food out there to be enjoyed!

Can't wait to hear your word counts for today.

Um, Where'd Tuesday Go?

So, that was weird. I get this comment from Donna, wondering where I am and if I'm okay, and I had to stop and think. Why is Donna worried about me? I'm just fine! Then it occurs to me, I totally bypassed Tuesday. I don't know why I didn't post last night...it's all a blur...but that's just how it's been lately.

My brain is simply refusing to work. I'm forgetting things right and left, I'm spacey, people say things to me and I stare at them with a vacant expression on my face ... and I try to act like I really do know what they're talking about when I really don't. People tell me this is normal for mothers of four children, but I'm thinking, this is just not cool!

So, what happened to Tuesday? I have no idea. And truthfully, if Donna hadn't inquired after me, I'd probably forget to post tonight, too!

Donna says she came here because she needed a kick in the pants. Well, I may be braindead but I can still kick some serious pants.I think this image works well. We're all on a team here, and while we each make plays and we score runs individually, ultimately we're here as a team. We can kick each other into gear as much as need be, and when we're done, we'll all celebrate together, knowing that we accomplished something pretty dang cool.

There are days when we need to scale back and not push ourselves so hard. But there are days where it's crucial that we do forge ahead and do whatever needs to be done. We have been pushing our boulders up the hill for a long time now, and we're getting tired. It would be so nice to just stop pushing. But we're at a point where we need to keep moving. Think of all you've accomplished and the great momentum you've built up. If you stop pushing now, you'll lose that momentum, and it's so hard to start something moving again after it's come to a stop.

Keep writing, even if the stuff you're writing isn't any good. I've been known to stick things like, "And then he said something romantic and she swooned," just to keep moving forward. Of course, I came back and fixed that later, but I didn't let the fact that I had no idea what he should say hold me back. Even if you write page after page of dumb stuff that you know full well will get yanked, keep writing. Give yourself permission to write badly, because it keeps the gears greased. And you never know -- when you come back to edit, it might not be as bad as you think.

But the main reason I want you to keep writing? Because you feel good about yourself when you do it. Don't you? Don't you love knowing you wrote a chapter or a paragraph or even a really awesome sentence today? Don't hold yourself back from those feelings of accomplishment. Do the work and then reward yourself for it.

I shall return tomorrow, hopefully under my own steam and without having to be reminded. :) At that time, let me hear you roar!