Today, I'm defining my goals for blogging, writing and reading through year-end.
Depression Cookies blog
In addition to posting about my love of books and adventures in writing, I want to challenge myself and give readers (and fellow bloggers and writers) a glimpse into my inner thoughts. It scares me to open up more, and I refuse to let fear rule! I would, however, appreciate someone telling me if my inner musings start to create widespread fear and concern. I teeter on the edge of insanity, but tend to fall back to the sane side most days.
This blog and our novel began as a mother-daughter journey, and I want to continue to highlight posts showing this important aspect of my life.
Goals for the rest of 2011
• Blog daily through October
• Cut myself some slack during the busy months of November and December and average posting four times per week
• Focus on writing, but also incorporate personal musings
• Have a stockpile of posts for “those days”
• Learn more about HTML code and focus on improving the look and function of this blog
• Hit the big 10,000 visitors and celebrate 200 posts
Mom in Love with Fiction blog
It's time to show this blog the love it deserves. My initial goal was to review a book a week, but my time management skills are lacking these days. I'm finding it very difficult to keep up with writing, volunteering, kids' activities, etc. and keep up with my reading. I truly believe avid reading makes a good writer, so reading is a priority.
Before embarking on the writing journey, I always read at night. It was my way to wind down after a long day with small children. Now that they are all in school, I should have all day to read, right? It's amazing, I'm so much busier now! Granted, I write and edit during the day and am now finding freelance work to supplement my novel writing passion. Once 2:30 hits, it's run, run, run.
Goals for the rest of 2011
• Incorporate Should be Reading prompts to ensure three times a week posts
• Read 3-4 books per month and review
• Focus on independently published books, but still read and review what strikes my fancy
Writing
Mom and I have a unique writing schedule. She writes a chapter and sends it to me for my character's response. I tried writing ahead during the last round with mixed results. I was cruising for awhile on word count, but had a lot of reworking to do once Mom's chapters came in.
One thing I discovered about my writing style during the last round of ROW80: the more I write, the better the ideas flow. Thanks to several suggestions from fellow participants, I have decided to work on my YA novel when not working on the sequel.
Goals for the rest of 2011
• Write 500 words per day on my YA novel idea and thirty minutes daily on background work such as character outlines, story outlines, research, etc.
• Write a new chapter for our sequel within two days of receiving Mom’s chapter
Miscellaneous Goals
• Support my fellow bloggers by reading and commenting on a minimum of 10-15 posts per week, more if time allows
• Read two books on the craft of writing: Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft and Dorothea Brande’s Becoming a Writer
• Finish my Freelance Writing course and look for another writing course to jumpstart 2012 (would love recommendations)
• Free write in a journal 15 minutes, 3-4 times per week (will involve my children in this goal for fun)
I'm exhausted, but inspired. I may have to pour myself another glass of wine. Wait, it is just after noon. And, confession time... I downed hot tea earlier in place of wine because I'm freezing thanks to the first signs of fall.
Best wishes to my fellow UBC and ROW80 friends with all their year-end goals.
How important are goal-setting and planning in your day to day achievements?
11 comments:
You must have the most goals out of everyone I've seen so far! At least you have a good variety of things going on. I'm thinking I will tackle "On Writing" by Stephen King in late November or December (second half of ROW80). If you're in, we could read it "together"?
See you at the Twitter party!
Nicole, I hope I haven't set myself up for falling on the wrong side of sane. ;-) I've been wanting to do more book reviewing and show the love to smaller books, so needed to focus on both my blogs for awhile.
But writing will come first! So, yes, I'd love to read Stephen King's book with you. Should be fun!
Wow, that is a lot! Good luck.
I personally don't tend to do well with goals as I usually end up disappointed with myself.
Instead, I did one of those "wish" boards, with no set timeline, which seems to work better for me.
To each his own. So long as it works for you, I say!
I know... I'm over-reaching a bit. But I really do want to accomplish these things and I'm motivated to succeed. (Plus, ROW80 allows for adjustments as Life interceeds.)
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Fairview.
That's quite the list of goals. Good luck with them all! Looking forward to connecting in round 4 :)
Ambitious goals but it sounds like you have a great plan to achieve them. Sending the chapters back and forth is a great idea but it would be difficult to write ahead. By the way, your site looks great!
Have a great first week :)
So many people do not give themselves a break during the crazy Thanksgiving - Holiday time and then they don't reach their goals and feel bad. I like that you put that into your plan!
Good luck with your goals! Lots of writing for you. I know the feeling about book reviews. I want to get back to doing more reviews again, too, but I didn't want to add in a goal for it yet until I see how I do with what I've got right now.
Quite a few goals on your list. I like that you are reevaluating and changing your plan as you learn more about yourself and your schedule. In fact, that's what I really like about ROW80 - the flexibility and personalization of goal-setting. Best wishes on checking them off as you go!
Thanks everyone. I'm excited, but cautious, about my lofty goals.
The ROW80 party yesterday sure helped fire me up, though.
Wishing everyone much success in Round 4!
That's perfect. prepare yourself for the next day as to keep survive you need to be planned it today. Great and thoughtful post. But i think need some courage to do the whole some.
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