March Goals

I actually heard that writing down your goals doesn’t help you get things done. In fact, it makes it worse because writing it down makes it feel like you’ve completed the task even if you haven’t. I don’t know why. Because the way the human mind works makes absolutely no sense at all.

But that’s not going to stop me! If I post goals, I get to get out of thinking up a new blog idea one day a month feel guilty and humiliated if I don’t complete them and for me, there is no greater motivation than not making a fool out of myself. So! Here we go.

February Goals

Goal 1: Get rid of certain phrasing styles I overuse in COLLAPSE, as well as too many questions, and sentences beginning with “before” or “after”. Update the outline.

            Done! This actually took longer than I expected (making it the reverse of last month) so I spent almost the full month on it. I really micro-edited—the MS is now down a full four thousand words. That’s okay, though. It’s still got 93K left.

Goal 2: Work on promoting the Spamfiles. I’m not very good at self-promotion, the annoying fault of being so shy. Expect me to start mentioning it on Twitter a lot.

            Done, although not Done! I’ve been tweeting more about it and I even did a guest post at Liz’s, but I’m still pretty bad at self-promotion so…well, it’s really on ongoing process.

Goal 3: Fix the awkward phrasing in GLITCH. Continue word hunt. Trust me, this will take a while.

            The first part is mostly done (I’m sure there are some rogue sentences that need fixing). I was only able to focus on the Word Hunt for a few days, though.

And now for this month:

Goal 1: Check for sight, smell, sound, touch and taste on every page of COLLAPSE. This means I’m highlighting and checking every descriptive phrase to make sure it’s A) good and B) correct. Basically, more microediting. I’m thinking this will take a while.

Goal 2: Tweet every new entry on the Spamfiles. Update my Twitter profile to include it (the profile’s long overdue for an updating anyway…).

Goal 3: If I have time, more word hunting in GLITCH. I have nothing pithy and amusing to add to that.

February Goals

First, let’s see how I did on last month’s goals:

Goal 1: Work on new Tumblr account.

            BAM!

Goal 2: I have over two hundred notes on COLLAPSE that I want to work on (word usage, phrasing, continuity, and feasibility mostly). I want to finish them all by the end of the month.

            BAM!

Goal 3: Finish editorial pass on GLITCH, with emphasis on word usage.

            BAM!

So, yeah, I’m pleased with myself. To be honest, the notes were WAY easier than I thought they would be. I guess when you have vague notes like “Work on this” it’s easy to ignore them. Next time I make notes on a book, I’ll be sure to be more specific because it’s really annoying when I have no idea what past-me was talking about. Seriously, that girl is a pain in my ass.

Anyway, for this month’s goals:

Goal 1: Get rid of certain phrasing styles I overuse in COLLAPSE, as well as too many questions, and sentences beginning with “before” or “after”. Update the outline.

Goal 2: Work on promoting the Spamfiles. I’m not very good at self-promotion, the annoying fault of being so shy. Expect me to start mentioning it on Twitter a lot.

Goal 3: Fix the awkward phrasing in GLITCH. Continue word hunt. Trust me, this will take a while.

Basically the same triad as last month. It’s also in the order I want to focus them on, although Goal 2 is more of an ongoing objective rather than a specific task.

Do you guys have any goals for the month, writing or otherwise? How did you do in January?

Man, I told myself I would stop adding questions to the ends of my posts in an attempt to garner comments. Oh well. It’s not like it’s a goal ; ). Yay semantics!

January Goals

See? I said I was going to do it and here it is.

I think it’ll help me get more done if I have someone to be accountable to—namely, all of you. The potential embarrassment of not having completed my self-imposed goals will surely drive me towards completing them. Or towards a complete mental breakdown. Same difference, really.

Anyway, here’s what I want to get done this month:

Goal 1: Work on new Tumblr account.

Goal 2: I have over two hundred notes on COLLAPSE that I want to work on (word usage, phrasing, continuity, and feasibility mostly). I want to finish them all by the end of the month.

Goal 3: Finish editorial pass on GLITCH, with emphasis on word usage.

I’m not entirely sure how long it will take me to complete each of said goals, but this is the order I plan to go in. Goal 1 is actually almost taken care of (yay). You’ll see the results soon enough.

So what do you guys think of the whole posted-goal system? Do any of you do it? If yes, does it work? If no, why not?

Resolutions 2013

Wow, it’s 2013 already. I feel like I didn’t get nearly enough done writing-wise last year, although I’m not sure if I didn’t try hard enough or had too much on my plate. Probably it was both. Maybe I can be a bit more realistic this year.

1. Get COLLAPSE to the point where it’s ready for beta reading.

            I certainly think I’ll be able to do this. I have a system for how I go about edits and I don’t have any trouble getting to the point where it needs outside opinions.

2. Find more beta readers.

            As I mentioned in my Reflections post, I haven’t had much luck with finding a long term crit partner/beta reader : (. I’d certainly like to find some new ones, not only for COLLAPSE when it’s ready but for GLITCH (I won’t give up on it!).

3. Rewrite A SAFE PLACE IN HELL.

            This won’t be just a revision, but a full on rewrite. I started on this book back before I got involved in social media and I honestly think it lacks a lot of the finesse I picked up from suggestions by my fabulous blogging buddies. However! I will not do this until both GLITCH and COLLAPSE are at the point where nothing more can be done. If I fail this resolution, it better be because I’ve finished the above two.

4. Start posting my writing goals.

            I think this will help keep me honest. On the first Tuesday of the month, I’m going to post what I want to accomplish and how far I’ve come (basically these resolutions/reflections posts on a monthly basis). Also, I’m going to keep the list posted on my sidebar with progress reports. The guilt should definitely keep me going.

5. Start up a Tumblr.

            You heard that right! More details later.

6. Start my own utopian society.

            Well, I’m starting a bunch of other things.

7. Never give up on my books!

            Namely, the above three that I mentioned. I will edit them, I will send them out to beta readers, I will hunt down and capture said beta readers, etc. It might seem redundant to have this here, but I need the extra reminder.

Okay, that’s it! I hope I get these done. Anyone have any resolutions they want to share?

Reflections 2012

Way at the beginning of the year I made a list of goals I hoped to reach by the end of the year. I…have a bad feeling about this.

1. Finish editing GLITCH.

            This includes working on all the notes I have, more beta reads, more critiques, checking word usage, finish making it make sense, making sure it all pops like firecrackers, another grammar check, and the final polish. There’s probably more but I’ve blocked it from my mind for sanity reasons.

            Sigh, I didn’t finish, although I did make a lot of headway. Overall, I’d put it at 90% done, but unfortunately without much input from beta readers (so it's probably a bit less than that in reality). That last one isn’t so much my fault as bad luck. I’m hoping this year I can find someone who doesn’t get sick, disappear, or absolutely hate my main character.

2. Write another book.

            Maybe two if I do NaNo again this year. I’m not quite sure what it is that I’ll write (one of the consequences of being a panster), but I had one of those magical sparks that might be Something Good. If it’s still in my head in a few months, I’ll see where it goes.

            Yep and yep. Like in 2010, the second book was much shorter only about 40K, but since the first one is close to 100K right now, I think it’s okay.

3. Start editing above book.

            I only say “start” because GLITCH has a lot more edits to go through and I want to really finish it. So…many…edits.

            Yes, I’ve started. Sadly, I’ve probably neglected GLITCH more than I should have, although it was more than laziness that made me do so.

4. Write a query letter for GLITCH.

            And it has to be good! This will have to be sent to be critiqued too.

            Through something out of my hands (a book with the same title and a similar plot point), I’ve decided not to query GLITCH right now.

5. Send out queries for GLITCH.

            I hope. If life gets in the way again, I may have to resort to death. Of myself, others, all life in the universe…whatever gets in my way the most.

            Same as above. I’m disappointed about that, but I don’t think it’s query ready anyway. Not being ready is a big failure on my part.

6. Make significant progress towards taking over the world. Do absolutely nothing that will elicit international scrutiny.

            You saw nothing.

            Heh heh heh.

7. Join in more blogfests.

            I think it will help make more blogging friends and that’s always fun.

            This was an utter failure. I didn’t join a single one after the Mini-Platform Building Campaign last February! I’d like to say it’s because I didn’t see any that interested me, but in truth I think it’s just because it’s hard for me to be social, even online. Sigh…resolution not achieved…

So overall, I completed about fifty percent of my goals. A failing grade, yes, but only if you don’t scale. Does life grade on a curve? I sure hope so.