Tag Archives: goals

Works, News & Contests

March-a-thon final report & April goals

I use the first Friday of the month as my writing goal accountability here—come join in!

March accountability

marchathon 2013So for March, I set some lofty goals to conquer as part of the March-a-thon I ran for my writers’ support/education group. Here’s my progress report:

  • Project A: incorporate feedback and take this to finished product. Verdict: took longer than it should have, largely due to technical issues, but accomplished!
  • Project B: finish first draft (~28,000 more words). Verdict: Weep. 18,000 words to go.
  • Project C (novella): get ready to send to critique partners Verdict: Finished the paper edit early in the month, but the type-in took forever. Still in progress.
  • Project D: blog posts! Verdict: I’ve gotten ahead in most of my series, so I’d have to say accomplished—but I’d never say no to a guest post!
  • Read my library books before they’re due! Verdict: accomplished!
  • SUPER SECRET PROJECT: Verdict: accomplished! Look for more about this on Monday!

I was also able to keep up with my critique partners, which was actually quite the feat this month. (I forgive you 😉 )

Though on any given day, it felt like these lofty goals were completely unattainable, I actually accomplish quite a bit! The daily pep talks from my group and our live chats & Twitter #marchathon Saturdays were a big help.

Lesson of the month: no matter how long it took in the past, everything can take longer than you expect.

April goals

After pushing myself very hard, I’m giving myself a break. So in April, I’m hoping to:

  • Finalize my presentation for LDStorymakers next month.
  • Get those last 12,000 words done? Maybe?
  • Take care of business (yay. taxes.)
  • Do a final read-through for each of my critique partners
  • Finish inputting the paper edits and incorporate my critique partners’ feedback on my novella
  • Read!

It sounds like a lot, but I’m hoping to limit myself to one or two tasks a day (not including reading; that’s not a task!).

Anticipated lesson of the month: sleep is really important.

How did you do in March? What do you hope to accomplish in April? Come share!

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News & Contests

March-a-thon check in & events!

marchathon 2013How are your writing goals coming for March? I’m chugging along at my many goals. (Oy. Why do I do this to myself?) So far this week, I’ve worked on projects A, B, D & E (library books—1 down, 2 to go!)

Here are some of the great thoughts we’ve shared in pep talks on the private side of the March-a-thon.

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
— Stephen King, On Writing

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
— Louis L’Amour

“If you really want to be a writer, nobody can stop you — and if you don’t, nobody can help you.”
— Alma Alexander

Quotes courtesy of Wendy Swore

If you’re looking for more motivation, come join us for our live events! Every Saturday in March, we’ll be holding a Twitter March-a-thon Marathon! All day Saturday, hop on the Twitter hashtag #marchathon to find us! Jump in any time by announcing your goal, and then we’ll root for one another to achieve them. (How can you say no?)

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Works, News & Contests

Get a jump on your goals with the March-a-thon!

Looking for a pick-me-up for your writing this month? Come join me in a March-a-thon—but first, how I did last month.

February accountability

marchathon 2013I was really hoping to finish this first draft in February, but (sigh) it didn’t happen. But I’ve been keeping careful track of what I did do:

  • Critiques for my CPs
  • Blog posts (yay!)
  • Newsletter
  • Travel for my cousin’s wedding and spend time with my visiting grandparents
  • First read through on the novella I finished last month
  • And, yes, I did write!

So, in the interest of accountability, how much, exactly, did I write in February? 31,275 words: not too shabby!

Saturday night, I made out a list of all that I need to get done in March, and the deadlines for each task. Then I did the math to figure out how much I need to write or revise or whatever to get it done on time. Woot!

But once again, I’m facing a lot of work. Luckily, I’ve got just the thing to push me onward . . .

March-a-thon!

For the second year in a row, I’m running a March-a-thon! It’s primarily for Authors Incognito, an online writers’ support group where I’m serving as Education Director. We’re setting lofty goals for March and encouraging others with pep talks and other fun events.

What does this mean for you? I’d love for you to join me in the “public” side of the March-a-thon. Come share your goals for March!

Here are mine:

  • Project A: incorporate feedback and take this to finished product
  • Project B: finish first draft (~28,000 more words)
  • Project C (novella): get ready to send to critique partners
  • Project D: blog posts!
  • Read my library books before they’re due!

Did I mention we’ve got more family stuff this month, so I’m looking to finish this all by the 23rd?

I’m crazy.

You can come be crazy with me! We’ll have regular check-ins here each week and I’ll keep you posted about public sprints on Twitter. Come join in!

How did you do last month? What are your goals for March? Ready for a March-a-thon? Come share!

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Writing Life

When it’s hard to write: writing versus having written

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Hey, there, Friday. I almost forgot: it’s time to check in on our goals.

Still sucking it up over here.

When I made out a production calendar in December, I tried to set my goals at an achievable level. For me, that was a fairly high goal, but it’s a number that’s far less than my peak. The number would have had me sitting on an 18,000 word novella draft at the end of December and 38,000 words of another novel at the end of January.

Reality: 3257 words in December. 26,544 in January.

That does mean that I finished at just over 19,000 words on that novella this month! Hooray!

But it also means that I started February with less than 11,000 words on my next project. That novel is the sequel to a book I began almost one year ago. From that distance, writing that first book looks so easy. I’m sure I could dig out my progress spreadsheet and see how many words I knocked out a day—probably typically 4000+.

Now I’m struggling and usually failing to make half that.

Granted, there are a few other stresses in my personal life these days, but still—it’s doubly discouraging to revisit a character and a voice that seems like it was so. much. easier the first time.

Maybe it was. Maybe that book is magic that will never be recaptured (my persistent fear!). Maybe I’m a failure and I’ll never write a good word again.

I kind of doubt that. Even if I’m not totally feeling this book like I was the first one (or like I think I was!), it’s not the end of the world to struggle with a book. I might end up setting it aside for a while, devoting time to more research and reading, or editing that novella, or other projects. I might even end up setting it aside forever.

But the fact remains that it’s always easier to have written than to write. I have written the first book, no matter how hard or easy that process actually was at the time. I am writing a sequel—and that’s a heck of a lot harder than admiring the polished first manuscript on my hard drive.

And here’s the reality of writing that first novel, as recounted in accountability emails (emphasis added):

[WEEK 1, DAY 2] I’m having a hard time hitting my word count goals because I keep getting bogged down in research, but at least I’m trying to ignore the TV more. Hooray!

[WEEK 2, DAY 1] I was a little short over the weekend, with traveling to visit family (and I already cut my goal back by 75% :\ ), but I’m hoping to make up for it this week.

[WEEK 2, DAY 4] Oy. Anybody else getting tired? I know I am. And I seriously can’t win when it comes to getting sleep: either I stay up late pushing through to hit my goals, or I hit my stride and push back bedtime even later. Oy again.

[WEEK 3, DAY 2, 5PM] It’s been a while since we’ve had a good check in, and I’m struggling a little personally. I have a lot of other stuff coming up, today especially, and right now I’m down 2500 words from where I’d like to be by the end of the day (some from yesterday, some from today).

[WEEK 3, DAY 4] It’s been a tough week for me. I’ve had a bunch of other writing-related commitments crop up: critique group, business stuff. Plus, I’ve come to a very sticky part of my story: I know what happens after this, but I’m having a really hard time getting from here to there. I finally started making a little progress last night, but by midnight, I was too tired to keep my eyes open (thank you, head cold). Then, when I went to make the final file save of the night, my computer did something weird and Word just sat there thinking about saving the file until I finally had to give up and go to bed. I didn’t know if I would have any of my hard-won new words left. I have missed my goal every day this week, for a combined shortfall of an entire day.

There are actually lots of positive emails, too, since I did do a pretty dang good job of staying on my word counts before that (sigh), and I wrote those last 13,000 words in the last 3 days of the month. Obviously I can’t bank on another marathon like that right now (sigh) (sigh), but I’m really glad I have the record of struggling through that “magic” book (not to mention the fresh memory of how tough my last book was to write!).

What do you think? Do you ever forget how tough writing can be? How are your goals coming this year? Come share!

Photo credits: resolutions & goals—Ed Donahue; frustrated at computer—Andrew Catellier

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News & Contests

Achieving your goals on autopilot

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I set goals all the time—and I’ve found the easiest way to achieve my goals is on autopilot.

I’ve posted this a couple times before, but I would be remiss if I let the season of New Year’s Resolutions pass without highlighting my favorite goal-achieving techniques!

“Autopilot” doesn’t mean coasting through the month, or setting absurdly low goals so I can achieve them, though. It means scheduling for me. I kind of beasted Nano 2011, and—especially the first week—I managed to do this without the world falling down around the ears. I’m the mom, of course, and I set the pace of the household. I do most of the housework. So how did I write 5000-6000 words a day (hours and hours of work) without running out of meals and clean underwear for the family?

Planning.

I was already used to one very useful phone alarm: a 15 minute warning to the time we need leave for school. So I decided to expand on that and use the phone alarm to remind me to do laundry (and switch it, fold it, and hand it off to the kids to put away), work with the kids to empty the dishwasher, read with the kids, start dinner and go to bed on time.

Dinners were also planned: I took the calendar for the month and planned out our meals (actually, when I did this for 2012, I planned for the rest of the year because I found so many great recipes—you can see the online ones on my Pinterest). Last year, I focused on quick meals, slow cooker meals, meals I’ve squirreled away in the freezer, and family favorites. Themed nights were also big helps: Meatless Monday, Favorites Fridays, etc. It took a couple hours to write it out, but then for the rest of the month, meal planning was handled and I could just look at the calendar to make out my shopping list.

Even blog posts (on four blogs!) were planned the month in advance. Topics and dates went on the calendar. I made up post drafts for each of those days with the topics all ready to go. I stockpiled topics and full posts. On weekends, I filled in the remaining posts and scheduled them to go.

It actually went really well—until I finished my novel. And then I let a lot of it fall apart. But all that advanced planning helped me to maintain a good routine, be productive and run the house better than I usually did.

So how can that apply to other goals?

Schedule them now.

If you want to write 1000, 2000 or 5000 words a day, pick a time and put it in your schedule. (Doing it at the same time each day can help, too.) Unplug from the Internet. Schedule a time with the fewest kids distractions around. I’ve used a handy browser plugin that would block certain time-wasting websites during certain times of the day—another helper.

5000 words a day was my goal during Nano 2011. I broke it into chunks and assigned each chunk a time: 1500 in the morning, 1500 in the afternoon and 2000 in the evening. This year, my words-a-day goal is a more manageable 2000 when drafting (3000 for playing catch-up right now), but I’m still chunking that down.

This works for other goals, too. If you want to read a certain number of books next year, start collecting recommendations. Figure out whether you prefer reading on an eReader/mobile device (if you have one) or paper book. I like library books since they come with built-in deadlines—and, oh yeah, they’re free. Then figure out how long you can take per book (on average).

If you’re trying to research a project, make a list of resources, get them and give yourself a timeline to read them.

If you want to lose weight, schedule your exercise sessions with yourself. Make up healthy meal plans in advance. Buy and prepare healthy snacks.

We all know that goals should to be broken down into steps to be achievable. But what it really comes down to is to just do it, to quote Nike. Little reminders and baby steps help me.

What does it take to help you just do it?

Photo by Kent Wein

Originally posted in January 2012

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News & Contests

Predicting the future: plans for 2013!

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Happy New Year! I hope your holiday was fantastic, and didn’t involve, I don’t know, your first trip to the ER in 25 years or something like that (yay! Pleurisy!). I love a fresh beginning (and a clear bill of health 🙂 ), but I don’t particularly feel inclined to make New Year’s Resolutions (basically ever). However, I do have big plans for this year.

Over the last year and a half, I’ve really become devoted to scheduling to help achieve my goals easily, and this year is no different.

2013 fireworks

Blog schedule in 2013!

Last year, I created a blog schedule with themed days, which I sometimes even stuck to. Each month, I’d write out post ideas for each of those days. This made blogging pretty easy! So I’ll try to continue that pattern this year, but I’m changing up my days a bit. In 2013, we’ll look at:

  • Mondays: ups & downs of the writing life
  • Tuesdays: the Neverending TBR pile
  • Wednesdays: Writing craft
  • Thursdays: TBA
  • Fridays: all kinds of fun

I’ll also be working on several writing guide PDFs this year, including last year’s marketing series, and updating some of the older PDFs throughout the year.

Writing in 2013

Naturally, I’ve got big plans in writing, too. I actually made up a day-by-day production schedule last month—leaving the end of the year a little open, but still. Kinda scary, huh?

If I can keep up with my schedule, I’ll finish two new books and a short novella this year. Unfortunately, I’m already behind in my schedule (I really hope this isn’t indicative of the future!), so I’ll probably be playing catch up a bit this month—but I’ll writing that novella and starting on one of my novels. My production schedule also takes into account lots of editing and critiquing—but I actually tried not to push myself too hard.

Writing slower

Yes, shockingly, one of my goals for 2013 is to write slower.

I wrote two new novels in 2012, in a combined total of less than six weeks. I kind of love letting my fictional worlds consume me, and I found that writing so much, so quickly had some definite advantages in quality (no, really!)—but also some distinct drawbacks.

To put it bluntly, writing isn’t my only—or even my most important—responsibility. I’ve got three small children, and I’m not going to plant them in front of the TV forever. So one of my most important goals this year is to be more careful about my writing time. I’ll still shoot for a decent amount of words when I’m drafting, but it’s less than half of my 2012 daily drafting goal. I really don’t want to spend more than ~4 hours a day on my work, and most or all of that while my kids are at (pre)school or asleep.

I absolutely believe you have to guard your work time—but novels aren’t the only things I’m working on right now, and I’m pretty sure my fictional characters can wait much better than the real characters who awe weawwy, weawwy hungwy!

What do you think? What do you hope to achieve in 2013? Come join the conversation!

Photo by Kotomi Yamamura

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
Technique

Reaching your Nano goals on autopilot

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This entry is part 13 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

I set goals all the time—and I’ve found the easiest way to achieve my goals is on autopilot.

That doesn’t mean coasting through the month, or setting absurdly low goals so I can achieve them, though. Like I mentioned yesterday, that means scheduling for me. I kind of beasted Nano 2011, and—especially the first week—I managed to do this without the world falling down around the ears. I’m the mom, of course, and I set the pace of the household. I do most of the housework. So how did I write 5000-6000 words a day (hours and hours of work) without running out of meals and clean underwear for the family?

Planning.

I was already used to one very useful phone alarm: a 15 minute warning to the time we need leave for school. So I decided to expand on that and use the phone alarm to remind me to do laundry (and switch it, fold it, and hand it off to the kids to put away), work with the kids to empty the dishwasher, read with the kids, start dinner and go to bed on time.

Dinners were also planned: I took the calendar for the month and planned out our meals (actually, when I did this for 2012, I planned for the rest of the year because I found so many great recipes—you can see the online ones on my Pinterest). Last year, I focused on quick meals, slow cooker meals, meals I’ve squirreled away in the freezer, and family favorites. Themed nights were also big helps: Meatless Monday, Favorites Fridays, etc. It took a couple hours to write it out, but then for the rest of the month, meal planning was handled and I could just look at the calendar to make out my shopping list.

Even blog posts (on four blogs!) were planned the month in advance. Topics and dates went on the calendar. I made up post drafts for each of those days with the topics all ready to go. I stockpiled topics and full posts. On weekends, I filled in the remaining posts and scheduled them to go.

It actually went really well—until I finished my novel. And then I let a lot of it fall apart. But all that advanced planning helped me to maintain a good routine, be productive and run the house better than I usually did.

So how can that apply to other goals?

Schedule them now.

If you want to write 1000, 2000 or 5000 words a day, pick a time and put it in your schedule. (Doing it at the same time each day can help, too.) Unplug from the Internet. Schedule a time with the fewest kids distractions around. I’ve used a handy browser plugin that would block certain time-wasting websites during certain times of the day—another helper.

5000 words a day was my goal during Nano 2011. I broke it into chunks and assigned each chunk a time: 1500 in the morning, 1500 in the afternoon and 2000 in the evening.

This works for other goals, too. If you want to read a certain number of books next year, start collecting recommendations. Figure out whether you prefer reading on an eReader/mobile device (if you have one) or paper book. I like library books since they come with built-in deadlines—and, oh yeah, they’re free.

If you’re trying to research a project, make a list of resources, get them and give yourself a timeline to read them.

If you want to lose weight, schedule your exercise sessions with yourself. Make up healthy meal plans in advance. Buy and prepare healthy snacks.

We all know that goals should to be broken down into steps to be achievable. But what it really comes down to is to just do it, to quote Nike. Little reminders and baby steps help me.

What does it take to help you just do it?

Photo by Kent Wein

Originally posted in January 2012

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
News & Contests

Some fun news!

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Hey folks! In case you missed it yesterday, I put out my first PDF writing guide in years, this time on emotion. And my friend and new critique partner, author Julie Coulter Bellon, featured me and my writing guides on her blog today. And man, am I blushing after all the nice things she said. Thanks, Julie!

Also today, it’s the first of March, in case you didn’t notice. That means it’s time for the first ever AI MARCH-A-THON!

!I’m part of the executive committee of a writing community called Authors Incognito (our one and only membership requirement: have attended an LDStorymakers Conference). And this month, we’re setting the bar really high for ourselves. We’re shooting for a Nano-style “31 days of going for the gold”—only instead of 50,000 words, we can set whatever writing-related goals we want.

You don’t have to be a member of AI to join in—come post your goals now and work together with us!

So I dreamed big. I’m already afraid I dreamed too big. But I’m hoping to finish revisions on one book (1/3 of the way through now), read one book, and write one book.

Yeah, a whole one.

See what I mean?

And I’m going to keep up the blog? Oy.

Diving back into my revisions!

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