The last two weeks have been VERY up and down for me. I've not only struggled to get motivated to write, I've just felt really blah. There is a lot going on in my life right now, and I suspect this feeling is because of all of this…

Without giving you TMI, here's what's going on:

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  • We've started our Canadian Visa application process and spent over $2,000 already!
  • The Challenge, including publishing and launching the books as they are done
  • Started a new healthy eating regime, called The Body Ecology Diet

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I actually feel that perhaps the change in diet is contributing massively to the low feelings. As anyone that knows me, knows that I am 99% of the time an upbeat, optimistic kinda gal.

The main premise of the Body Ecology Diet is to eliminate sugar and carbs for the first 3 months while you focus on getting rid of all the yeast build up in your system. Sugar is the main ‘food' source for yeast and can cause some nasty tummy issues, of which I've been prone to for the past 4-5 years. I suspect I'm going through some major sugar withdrawals … off to the pharmacy today to get something to ‘fix' it.

It takes a lot of energy to stay focused on writing and publishing a book a week and then mix in a launch a week as well, I'm sure you get the picture!

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I'm well aware that I have no-one to blame but myself for all of this, but that doesn't stop how I feel, right?

So over the next 3-4 days, my plan is to write the last two books in the challenge so I can get them done and dusted to regroup and take stock of where I'm at before I start my next big project … more on that later!

Then I can work out a game plan for my publishing business, which is something I've been wanting to do since about the third week into the challenge.

Challenge Update—Week 4 & 5

Rather than do the normal daily recount, I'm just going to give you a general run-down of how the last two weeks have gone with the challenge.

Clearly, I'm still on track, as I haven't missed a publishing deadline yet and I don't plan to change that for these last two books either.

What I have noticed, however, is that it is exceedingly difficult to launch a book while you're writing or editing or formatting another book. I'm all for multi-tasking, but trying to do these things at the same time can lead to some major brain farts.

So for the last 3 books, I'm not doing a concerted launch until I've finished the challenge, where I'll then launch the entire series.

That being said, during week 4 I pulled together the first bundle in the series, which includes books 1-3, and that is now live and about to hit a Buck Books promotion next week. That took a bit of time to put together.

If you've ever tried to cram three books into one document on Scrivener, you'll understand how that went…

This week (week 5) has actually run pretty smoothly. Book 5 was written within a day and was one that I was really excited to write about. I've noticed that if I'm excited to write a book, it comes out of my head a hell-of-a-lot easier than when I'm just sitting down to write about something that I'm not so jazzed about.

So this week was pretty easy. My editor is awesome and getting a lot faster with the edits. She is editing all my books now in Scrivener, which is making my life 10 x easier. Before, I had to export the file into a Word document, give it to my editor, she would ‘track changes' and then hand it back for me to then turn around and accept all her changes and then manually cut and paste each chapter back into Scrivener.

That whole process can take over 2-3 hours to do, and that's just for a small book. If I was writing a novel like my friend Steve, then the process can take over a week to do this way.

Needless to say, I'm excited that she is using Scrivener and it will be the only way I edit going forward. I'm super lucky to have found Lisa, that's for sure!

I now have 5 books in the OFS Guide Series published and live on Amazon! You can check them all out below.

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How to start your freelancing business now

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How to set freelancing rates and get paid what you're worth

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How to protect your freelancing business with client contracts

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How to setup and structure your freelancing business

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And that's the update! I'll be chatting to you next week with possibly the last two books done and dusted, making the challenge actually 7 books in 6 weeks…


Lise Cartwright
Lise Cartwright

Founder of Hustle & Groove and your creative business strategist. If you want to get notified of new posts just like the ones you see here, then make sure you join the awesome H & G community — Join Now!

    2 replies to "The Challenge Update—”7 Books in 7 Weeks”—Week 4 & 5"

    • Lisa Z

      Hey, I finally got over to your blog and I’m super excited to see I even got a mention in this post! Wow! Thanks so much. I’m so glad you found me too, since working with you has been so fun. I love this challenge you’re doing and it’s super inspiring to me. Keep going, and good luck with it all! Changing the diet is a hard thing to do at the same time, and you’re probably right about that being the reason for mood changes. Hang in there!

      • Lise Cartwright

        Thanks Lisa! I’ve mentioned you in a couple of the earlier posts too 🙂 I’ll be in touch this week with the next book, currently working on the last two as we speak!

        Talk soon
        Lise

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