1. The Atlantis Complex, Artemis Fowl #7, by Eoin Colfer
2. The Space Between, by Brenna Yovanoff
3. The Last Guardian, Artemis Fowl #8, by Eion Colfer
4. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy
Napowrimo Round Up
Poem #2: untitled
Poem #12: “Hunted”
Poem #28: “though you can’t see it”
So that’s 30 new poems! Yay!
Some will remain only on the pages of my notebook, some will be reworked and submitted to journals, and some are small pieces of much, much longer works. Always a fun challenge.
If you participated in Napowrimo, how did you do?
Cross posted to my livejournal. You are welcome to comment here or there.
2013 Goals Assessment
Inspired by whipchick, I’d thought I’d take a look at my year long goals and assess how I’m doing overall.
Primary Goals
1. Finish a coherent draft of Under the Midday Moon
Progress is perhaps a little slower than I hoped, but it’s still progress. Not sure that I’ll actually finish the entire draft by the end of the year, but I just might, especially if I pick up the pace a bit.
2. Work up to running three miles
Again, progress is slow, but steady. I’m feeling myself grow stronger week by week and I’m certain I can DO this. *believes*
3. Submit a chapbook- or full-length collection of poetry for publication
Done! Well, sort of. After sending the submission out, I realized that I might have forgotten to include an SASE, a profoundly stupid and newbie mistake. If I did forget, it doesn’t really count, since it wouldn’t be legitimate submission. This sucks. But never fear, I have every intention of sending out another manuscript to another publisher before June, so as to have this officially done.
4. Address finances
Complications have sort of sidetracked my intentions to start up an IRA or retirement savings account. There’s still time for me to start something up by the end of the year, but for the moment I’m putting this aside.
However, the second aspect of this goal was to start earning some money from my writing. I can’t control that entirely, but I can submit my work to paying markets on a regular basis, which I’m working on.
(A rather long list of secondary goals can be found here.)
What I’ve Learned So Far and/or Could Improve Upon
Bite Sized Pieces – Big goals can be a bit overwhelming, so the weekly goals has helped me break things down into little pieces that I know I can accomplish. This way I know that each week forward progress gets made in some way or another.
Plan for What’s Doable – That said, it’s equally important to make sure the list of weekly goals is doable. I have a life beyond my writing, family and friends I want to hang out with, trips to take, events to go to, errands to run, and downtime that needs to be had, so I try to make sure that the weekly goals I set are doable from a practical stand point: Do I really have time to do these things, assuming I use my time wisely? The answer is always yes. It doesn’t mean I always get the list done (in fact, more often than not, I don’t), but it means I could do it.
Accountability – Whenever the fantastic Kima Jones posts on twitter about her writing she always uses the hashtag “accountability”, and I love that. Hold yourself accountable, because no one else will. You’re life is what you make of it and the effort you put it. So, while my weekly goal posts are always public and I do get some kind feedback, it really comes down to my own sense of being accountable. It’s really about making choices, such as getting some writing down before turning on the TV or video game, which is something I personally need to work on.
How are you doing with your goals? What have you learned or what could you do to be better about meeting those goals?
Cross-posted to my website. You are welcome to comment either here or there.
La-de-dah and tra-la-la
Things accomplished in writing: Received rejections for the two flash pieces and sent out three poems. Also started Chapter Three, completing 1,200 words. Yay!*
*Honestly, I count the rejections as a yay, too, because it means I’ve been submitting and the process is ongoing.
Incidentally, a large portion of this work was accomplished on Thursday, when upon arriving home from work I wrote and edited new poem to completion (not a napowrimo poem), got a submission package prepped, and wrote 1,000 words of Chapter Three — at which point my head exploded. It took most of the rest of the weekend to pick up the bits of brain and skull and assemble then back into working order.
Things accomplished in health: Two running training workouts and one strength training workout with my trainer — all of which has me feeling great. I think I’m going to count the strength training workout as a part of my three required days (the last couple of weeks I’ve been trying to do three days of running, plus the strength training). If I can manage four days, great, but it’s good to have rest days and it’s not always practical for me to do more than three days. I think the strength training will really help me meet my running goal of reaching three miles, so it should all work out fine.
The one thing I need to start including is some yoga, even just a couple rounds of sun salutations, because I just know that will make my spine feel so much better.
Things accomplished in other stuff: State taxes are done and sent! Woot!
Haven’t made much (or any) progress on my filing, but I started cleaning and organizing my room a bit, because the clutter is killing me. No seriously, I think it’s crawling off the shelves and trying to throttle me in my sleep. Hiding it in the closet isn’t good enough, because I still know the monster’s there.
That which must be accomplished in the coming week:
– Finish Chapter Three of Under the Midday Moon
– Submit something (poetry, fiction, whatever)
– Finish the rest of Napowrimo poems (15 poems in two days O.o)
– Workout at least three days with two workouts being running training (0/3)
– Do three yoga workouts, three sun salutations min. (0/3)
– Sort paperwork out by year for filing
– Either purchase new a new filing cabinet(s), and/or buy folders/large envelopes, and/or go through the process of sorting and putting everything in its place
Cross-posted to my website. You are welcome to comment either here or there.
Um, interesting title about my novel goes here
Current Project: Under the Midday Moon
New Words: 1297
Current Total Word Count: 8,034
Goal: Put together an workable draft of the novel that I would actually let someone read.
Accomplished: The first half of Chapter Three.
Random Rough Sentence(s): I was tempted to tell Adam about my parents, because what else is a best friend for, if not for talking it all out, but I didn’t know if I could handle saying the word divorce. So, I just said, “Psychedelic.â€
Notes: I’m still struggling with these opening chapters, feeling like things are moving too slowly. I keep thinking that there’s more I want to fit in and it’s not all particularly inconsequential. For example, I almost forgot to include Claire’s potential love interest in Chapter Three like I originally intended. He’s in there now, but it seems like a lot is going on in the chapter. I know it’s not precisely right, but onward.
In other writing news: I also finished a new poem last night and compiled a submission, which is ready to go out today. All this work had me up to midnight, which makes me zzzzZZZZZZZZZ.