Writing a Novel | Woody Hayday | Blog https://blog.woodylabs.com An exploration of life, technology and writing Tue, 13 Jan 2015 15:18:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://blog.woodylabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/cropped-woody-hayday-yosemite-glacier-point-32x32.jpg Writing a Novel | Woody Hayday | Blog https://blog.woodylabs.com 32 32 2014 Plan: Futures. https://blog.woodylabs.com/2014/01/2014-plan-futures/ https://blog.woodylabs.com/2014/01/2014-plan-futures/#comments Mon, 06 Jan 2014 15:49:34 +0000 http://blog.woodylabs.com/?p=1035 [ Read this on Medium ]   On Saturday I posted up my 2013 review, sharing part of my ongoing attempt to bring order to my life and self. Below you can read the forward looking equivalent, my plan for 2014. I’m publishing these here for you to read and to help me to concrete their facts in my self image. […]

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]]> [ Read this on Medium ]
 
On Saturday I posted up my 2013 review, sharing part of my ongoing attempt to bring order to my life and self. Below you can read the forward looking equivalent, my plan for 2014. I’m publishing these here for you to read and to help me to concrete their facts in my self image.
 
2014 will build on the compound results of last year and years before, positive and negative. Through these reviews, plans and other life functions I am trying to bolt down as much of what is within my control as I can, I’m confident that through conscious awareness of self we can be content in ourselves and a positive addition to the people we encounter. We choose our futures, whether consciously or not.
 
This is just my outlook, and here is my plan for 2014:
 
Goals for 2014
  1. Launch Book (My sci-fi novel) and recruit my first 100 true fans
  2. Build a regular monthly income of £8k+ through a SaaS or other low-maintenance business (WordPress plugins?)
  3. Get a mentor
  4. Guide student (read padawan) to setting and achieving 1 big goal
  5. [Bonus points for] Great North Swim
  6. [Bonus points for] 12% body fat
  7. [Bonus points for] Win UK Catan Championship
 
To Learn/Hone in 2014
  1. Launch Marketing & Email List Building
  2. Writing
  3. Consciousness, Rationality & Philosophy Generally
  4. Networking
 
Planned Actions/Rituals/Habits to build:
  1. Organise Wilderness holiday (boating, camping, hiking)
  2. Organise America trip (WDS 2014!)
  3. Organise 1 x other secret trip
  4. Organise Bold Book Launch
  5. Read Daily
  6. Meditate Daily
  7. Play Loop Daily
  8. “Friday Tidays”
    1. Clear back all tabs – read/save or close
    2. Cull all new projects/domain names started this week that aren’t coherent to vision or provable
    3. Delete, Act on or file the weeks fragmented notes in Evernote
  9. “Soul Saturdays”
    1. JRE podcasts
    2. Akala, Lowkey
    3. Find more epic enlightened music, books & film
    4. Do good
    5. Amplify Others Good Signals
  10. Regular, positive influence in family & friends lives
  11. Float monthly
  12. Record metrics & log achievements, books read, happenings monthly
  13. Visit my Dad once a quarter, minimum.
  14. Quarterly refresh of actions/rituals/goals (avoid short term re-addressing in micro)
  15. [Bonus points for] Chess Night Mondays
  16. [Bonus points for] Tai Chi Thursdays
 
Health Specific Commandments 2014:
  1. Eat slower, be aware of all consumption. Chopstick eating
  2. Minimal Alcohol & Crap food intake (95% clean diet)
  3. MED exercise to feel fit
  4. Ice baths fortnightly
  5. Kill sugar & sugary things
 
Personal Commandments 2014:
  1. Always be the better Woody
  2. Absolutely No Debt
  3. Absolutely No Punishing Self
  4. Always Win-Win
  5. Always include a margin of safety [20%+]
  6. MED life (Minimum Effective Dose)
  7. Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
  8. Eustress not Distress
  9. Life Experience > Money/Objects
  10. Don’t rush. Act at calculated pace, with confidence
  11. Spend less than you make, ensure 10%+ is always safe
  12. Focus on a singular metric for each pursuit
  13. Go hard. Be Bolder. I am at home in the stretched extreme of attempts
  14. Use stakes to ensure goal completion
  15. Avoid moving or other stressful/energy consuming subplots – focus, make smaller circles
  16. Channel excess energy to avoid bad habits
 
2014: Diligent growth in business, book and network. Investment in philosophy and amplifying good signals. [Try titling your year – its fun!]
 
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It’s scary to put this all “out there”, which is a silly false fear, so I had to post it. In the future I intend to write a blog sharing thoughts on my journey and a software to help us find structure in this perceived chaos, I’m not there yet and I’m conscious of potential pitfalls ahead but if your into conscious self analysis and exploring this stuff join me here, you won’t here from me unless I get it out and its super legit.
 
Watch this space, 2014 will see this blog archived, my sci-fi novel launched and future posts split between a new “Author” site and perhaps a Conscious Thought blog. I intend to keep writing novels until I succeed and I’m happy however long that takes. Either way this blog will stay up only as an archive, so catch me @woodyhayday or WoodyHayday.com for new stuff. Lets see what happens!
 
Thanks for reading this, Stay Awesome.
 
 * * *
 
P.S. A word on the format of my 2014 plan: This is as it left my head, do you have a better format or some interesting input? Care to share your 2014 plan or 2013 review? Drop me a comment below or get in touch via this page. I’m here to optimise self & share!
 
P.S.S. I use “commandments” without intended religious connotations. I’m into self governance and basically I mean serious rules.
 

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]]> https://blog.woodylabs.com/2014/01/2014-plan-futures/feed/ 1 4 Life Lessons Learnt from Writing a Novel (before it’s even published) – My Guest Post at MYO https://blog.woodylabs.com/2012/10/4-life-lessons-learnt-from-writing-a-novel-before-its-even-published-my-guest-post-at-myo/ Mon, 22 Oct 2012 06:48:55 +0000 http://blog.woodylabs.com/?p=930 This is the opening paragraphs from my guest post “4 Life Lessons Learnt from Writing a Novel (before it’s even published)” over at Make Your Offer (they an innovative new approach to selling self-published works.) Click here to skip over to MYO and read the full post. What do you picture in your mind when […]

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]]> This is the opening paragraphs from my guest post “4 Life Lessons Learnt from Writing a Novel (before it’s even published)” over at Make Your Offer (they an innovative new approach to selling self-published works.) Click here to skip over to MYO and read the full post.

What do you picture in your mind when I say “author”? Perhaps you see a frustrated lonely soul sitting behind a laptop or a smiling “guru” sitting in a Starbucks? Truth is “authors” these days can be anyone. With the invention of the ebook, the internet and the laptop & pc before that, the world of publishing is one in flux, a transforming industry which has moved from the printing press and its limited distribution into a worldwide partly-democratised market.


Write anywhere: I wrote some of my novel up a mountain in nepal!

Platforms such as Make Your Offer are popping up to evolve the way we look at publishing and as a result the barrier for entry has been lowered. New authors spawn every day, and in that way the publishing market has been partly democratised. There’s a question here about the quality of writing this produces, but rather than get lost down that rabbit hole I think I will leave that to time and demand to solve. Back to the point; there are a lot of life lessons to be learnt by writing, even if you never publish what you write.

Read the full “4 Life Lessons Learnt from Writing a Novel (before it’s even published)”

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