Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘Writing Challenge’

Jan 30

Goals for 2019

It’s 2019! Happy New Year!

I’m 26 days out from my surgery and feeling good. Not going to lie, it was a tough recovery and I didn’t really feel good until around the 14th (about a week after I came home from the hospital). But day by day, I felt better and while I didn’t get any writing done, I did have a lot of time to think about what my goals were going to be for the year. For the first time in a while, I can really concentrate on writing. I don’t have to think about money, or my health. I’ve cleared those hurdles, and while I’ll keep an eye on other parts of my life, this year, I’d like to shift the focus back on getting my writing career moving forward.

Also, please enjoy these snowy pictures I took. It may be cold, but winter can be beautiful.

Goal #1– Finish my novel

I’ve been working on and off since 2014 on this book. It needs to be finished. Even if it is bad, I need to finish it. For a long time, I didn’t think I had another novel in me. I wrote two other novels years ago (think late 90’s and early 00’s) and they were bad… but I finished them. This new novel is the first idea I’ve had that I think could be a full novel. I JUST HAVE TO FINISH.

Goal #2 – Write 6 new short stories this year.

This one is a bit of a cheat. I have 2 stories that I’ve started and I need to finish them. So really, I just need to write 4 completely new stories. Not too hard. I’ve found that calls for themes in journals, or, anything really, can spark a story for me. I also find them to be a good break in between novel writing.

Goal #3 – Write 100K words

Not hard if I finish my novel.

Goal #4 – Grow followers of the blog

I’ve had this blog for a while now. 10 years (next month) I think. And while, I’ve never been too hung up on growing my following, I shouldn’t ignore it either. I think the best way to do this is to post more often. Consistency breeds growth.

Other Goals

  • I haven’t forgotten about my 100 rejections challenge from a few years ago. I’m still doing it. I got 3 more rejections this month. Currently, I’m up to 75.
  • I also want to attend more writer conferences. So I think I will set myself the goal of going to 4 this year — one for every season.
  • More consistent with the blog. I’m thinking about changing the look, but we’ll see.

That’s all my writing goals for 2019. Wish me luck. See you on the next post!

What are some of your goals?

 

Apr 2

50K by June 1st

I am now officially debt free. It feels good, but the work isn’t done yet. I still have to tackle some of my other financial goals. Time to rebuild my savings, turn my focus on retirement (it’s never to early to start), and get that down payment for a house. All of these goals are long term, so in the immediate future, I shifting more attention to writing.

I’ve been slow these first few months of the year. I always am, so now is about the time I will shift into a more productive mode. So, I’m setting new goal for the next two months.

I want 50,000 words of my novel done.

I have no idea how much I currently have. It’s half written/half typed. I’m not sure where I left off and the book needs to be organized. It’s screaming for attention and I’m going to give it. So from now to June 1, I am going to try my hardest to get to 50K.

Oct 6

End of September 2016 – Short Story September is a Bust

Not much left to say. This September challenge was a bust. Between my internet deciding after 4 years it would just not work anymore and me getting a bad cold at the end of September, I didn’t finish much.

Seriously, how did I get sick? I haven’t had a cold in…three (?) years? But there I was in the last few days of the month blowing my nose and guzzling cold meds.

Internet is all fixed too. I just felt like I was on the phone everyday. It would work for about an hour at a time. Then, I would have to restart something… again. Honestly, I’m tired just thinking about it. Glad it’s over.

So, I finished one chapter of my book. And started 3 other short stories. I’ll try to get the rest finished by the end of this month. So far this year hasn’t been very productive for me. I’ve gotten a few finished chapters of my book and two stories.

I’d like more, but it is what it is. At least I’m still writing, even if it is slow going.

Sep 6

Summer 100K Results & Beginning of Short Story September

I haven’t finished typing up everything I wrote for the months of July and August 2016, but as I said before, I didn’t hit 100K words. I still estimate that it will be closer to 10 – 11K in words. This is a huge feat when you consider I had barely 1, 000 words this year. Once I finish typing it all up, I’ll give the final results (hopefully this week). So what happened that kicked my productivity into overtime? Here are a few things:

Change of Routine

July chugged along and I didn’t have much success, so in August I threw the game plan out the window and radically changed my routine. Up until that time, I had been an evening writer. My routine was to wake up, have a breakfast, work (I work from home full-time now.), workout, shower, dinner, and then finally write. You know what? By the time I got my workout in, showered, and ate, the last thing I felt like doing was writing. I just wanted to turn my brain off and watch TV or surf the net.

I had tried working out in the morning, but I couldn’t do it. I’m an early riser, but I liked working out at the end of my day after sitting in front of my computer. I was used to writing in the evening, because that’s what I did when I went to an office. But once I started working from home, I had no evening commute. So I got lazy and pushed the time further and further back until I was writing at the same time some TV show was on that I didn’t want to miss. (Side note: I don’t have cable so no DVR.)

So I told myself starting in August I was going to write first thing in the morning. I woke up and before I got dressed, looked at the news, or ate any food, I would write. And it worked. The pages started to pile up. Chapters got finished. I no longer felt worn out or tired when I wrote. I also didn’t feel guilty about staring at the TV, or going out at night. Before I would beat myself up for not writing, but now I could say – I got some writing in this morning. I’m good.

Consistency

Not everyday was perfect. I missed 6 days in August. But today is the 22nd day in a row I have written some fiction. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t want to break the streak. That can be addictive. I would say to myself You’ve made it 10 days, why not go for 11? And I would pick up my notebook and get a few words down, happy as a clam that the streak was still alive. Some days I still had to write at night, but mostly these were morning writing words. They were the first things done before the rest of the world got moving.

Speed

I have accepted at this point in my writing life, I am not a fast writer. I don’t get 1,000 words written a day. I get closer to 200-300 words done. While I admire those that can churn out fast copy, it’s not me. Frankly, I’d rather be slow, but consistent. The words do add up. Maybe one day I will build up my speed, but right now, I just want to be consistent again. Once in a while, I will do a marathon day, but that will burn me out. Yesterday was Labor Day in the US, and a holiday for most. I spent about 5 hours or so finishing a story. I happy it’s done, but I don’t want to do that everyday.

Conclusion

I’m going to stick with this routine until it doesn’t work anymore. That’s the most valuable thing I learned. When your routine doesn’t serve your needs, it’s time to change it. You might have great success.

Also I want to make a note that it is time for my annual challenge to myself called Short Story September. I started in 2014 writing a new short story every week. Last year (2015) I tried writing a story everyday, with not so great results. So I’m back to a new story every week. I’ve already started the story for this week and hope to be done by Saturday. I’m also writing a novel, so I may switch things up and work on that this month too. Either way I want 4 new short stories and/or 4 new chapters.

Submissions are also chugging along. I’m at 55 rejections, and I have four currently out for consideration. Hope to have a few more by the end of the month.

Thanks everyone for reading. Happy Writing!

 

Aug 30

Not Going to Hit 100K, But That’s OK…

I have two more days until the end of the challenge, but I already know I’m not going to hit my goal for the summer. I’m bummed, because I wanted to really knock it out of the park. I’m so jealous of those people who can easily write thousands and thousands of words in a short amount of time. I guess that is a speed I’ll have to build up to.

But I’m still pretty proud of what I did do.

As I said before, I hand write almost everything. So I haven’t typed up all my words yet for the summer. I believe it will come in around 10-11K worth of words. Not bad considering that is one completed short story and I’m deep into chapter three of my novel. I’m so proud that I actually have two completed chapters of my novel. This is from almost nothing at the beginning of July.

I’ll take it.

Another great thing? For the month of August I have written 23 out of 29 days. (I don’t count today,  because I haven’t gotten my writing finished. BUT I will.) I still have two more days of writing to go. I plan to use them to finish another short story.

In a longer post (probably over the weekend.), I’ll go into more depth on how I did as well as the final word count. And an update on my submission journey.

Later folks!

Jun 30

100K By September 1st!

We’re well into summer and half the year is almost gone. I’ve been so unproductive this year that I’m a bit frustrated with myself. But I keep telling myself that what gets done gets done. I just wish I could get more done.

Don’t we all wish that?

My home search is on hold right now. Here in the DC area, home prices are so competitive that it is really hard to get a place. Plus I still have some debt from JHU. So my plan is to pay off the debt, then look into buying something. In this market, every thousand dollars makes a difference. On one hand I’m sad I won’t be able to own something now.

But I also started thinking about other expenses coming in the near future. The last thing I want is to have a mortgage, school debt, and other stuff like a car, etc. No thank you. I’d rather pay off the school debt, save for the house, and then save for the car. No more debt.

Seven years ago, I was debt free as I paid off the last of my undergrad loan. That was such a freeing moment and I want to have that feeling again. It’s addictive to have no obligation to anyone.

When I was 16, I took the “Strong Interest” test in high school. Number one career recommendation? Author. Annual salary? $16K.

Yep. I knew I was in a low paying career from the beginning.

But when you don’t have debt, a small salary will allow you to be very comfortable. I just slipped up and made some no so great decisions. Still, I got an MA out of it and over all I still think it was a good decision.

So, yes, my financial life takes up all my thoughts. Writing has fallen by the way side. It’s a three day weekend here in the US. I hope to get something done. I am still submitting. A story I submitted a year ago finally came back rejected and a few others are still in the que.

Can’t say I’m not persistent or patient.

I need to attack my writing goals like I attack my debt. So I’m making a goal right now that I will write 100K in the next two months. That is my writing goal. It’s a big one, but hey, aim high right?

I think I can do it.

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »