I’m on the last page of the short story edit and the ending has me stumped. Ends are the hardest part for me. Not only that, now the word count is over 10K words, so I’ll have to go back through and cut once I get the end repaired.
All week last week I did good with my waking time. Made it out of bed at 0430 every day. This week is not off to such a good start. It was 0445 before I finally decided to turn on the lamp. Turning on the lamp seems to be a cue that works for me. If I turn it on, I might laze around for a few more minutes but I won’t ordinarily go back to sleep. If I leave it off, I snooze. And lose.
But I didn’t get to bed as early as I needed to last night, so tonight I’ll do better and tomorrow I’ll be back on track.
Goals are similar this week, but I should finish the editing, at least the first pass, tonight or even at lunch today. Then I’ll just go through and weed words until it’s back to or below 10K. I’ve added a couple other things to the list that have to be done this week.
Weekly Goals
- Wake up at
04450430 each morning - Finish editing Wand of Ash
- Register for OCW conference
- Layout bulk postcard order, send files to printer
Annual Goals
- Finish polishing Symbiosis so I can send it on it’s way to the next phase of life
- Begin readings at a public venue for our local Friday Fictioneers
- learn to convert to ebook format
- Compile all the flash I’ve written so far into a collection for Kindle
This is a timely post for me. I have a whole week off from my day job and plan to spend it writing and editing. Thanks for posting.
The day job is my nemesis. I dream of the day when I can write or edit or follow my bliss at least more often, if not daily. The day job is my enabler, too, because without it I guess I’d truly be a starving writer. And one with no electricity, lol. Good luck on your goals for your week off!
Go get ‘em, Mads.
D.
I love reading your goals, Madison, especially that you’ve broken them up into weekly and annual goals. Does making them public help you stick to them? I may have to give that a try.
I am so impressed that you post and keep at it. i know that’s the purpose of ROW80, but it’s amazing the watch the lot of you work away at your goals.
I see ROW80 posts, and wondered what that was about (obviously something similar to do with goal-setting), but I hadn’t joined any of the group efforts like that. I just decided to start doing it for my own purposes one day and it became a good habit, so I kept it
Jan, I don’t think it’s the public aspect of it so much because I don’t feel any sort of peer pressure to see to it that I meet the goals. I think it’s more effective for me because *I* can more easily see my progress because it’s public and searchable and I can pull up all the posts from this tag on one page. Once I realized that my baby-steps were adding up to significant progress, THAT is what gives me motivation to continue. And I find that too often if I don’t record my baby steps then I can’t tell that I’m making any and then I get discouraged. So it’s a sort of feedback loop that helps to keep me going with it. Also I realized that even though I don’t always meet the goals I set, I am trying and making progress toward meeting them, so that helps to keep me motivated. Feedback from y’all helps a lot, too, so I guess in that aspect the fact that it’s public does help. But not for fear of public failure, if that’s what you thought. I’ve failed to meet them so many times since I started doing this, that particular fear is nonexistent now
It helps because the blog is like a giant sounding board of sorts, even if I’m the only one hearing myself speak. I talk to myself a lot. Somehow blogging feels a lot like I’m doing that sometimes. Haha. Sad, but true.
I need to follow your example.
good for you. I need to set the habit and keep it – i’ve been slacking because of this blog. sheesh
I love your determination and stick-to-it-ness! You’re doing awesome
feel free to e-mail your story if you’d like someone else’s eyes to peek at it.
Thanks for that offer. If I finish in time for other input, I might do that. Deadline is April 15, though, so I’m cutting it close.
Ah. To be truly known and understood. Thanks, Madison.