July Goals

Well, we’re officially halfway through the year. Anyone else distressed at how this could have happened? No? Just me then?
 
June Goals
1. Start posting the web serial again, and keep working on it.
This at least was easy.
 
2. Do something fun and distracting to recharge.
Meh, kind of. Could probably use more recharging. My battery is very bad at holding a charge.
 
3. Work on getting beta readers for my WIP. Opening up to people with my work is hard, and I need people I can trust. So yeah. This is quite a task.
I did manage to do this, though I’m still hoping to find more. The finding is the really tough part.
 
Remember when there were a ton of write-bloggers? There were awards and contests and online get-togethers. Hell, you could go on social media and meet other writers there. It was awesome. I miss those days.
 
July Goals
1. Work on notes from beta readers. It looks promising so far.
 
2. Find more beta readers and writer places. Please, just don’t make me have to go on Discord. Unfortunately it seems every other social media is dead now.
 
3. Sigh. Once again, update my etymology pages. I keep hoping they’ll update Blogger so it doesn’t suck any more, but fat chance of that happening when it took over a month for them to fix the problem with the links.
 
That’s what I want for this month, though who knows what will happen? What do you want to do this month? Where do you meet other writers?

July Goals

We are on the downswing of the year now. I don’t know how it happened. I feel like it should still be March. Now let’s see what I didn’t accomplish last month.
 
June Goals
1. Get to 60K on the sequel WIP.
Only got to 55K. It was such an easy goal, too, but it’s been a pretty stressful month. There were days I opened my document and just stared at the screen. I called those weekdays.
 
2. Rearrange my whole writing schedule in a way that hopefully works since I have a bunch more stuff on my plate.
This at least has mostly worked. I’ve been babysitting my new nephew sometimes and did you know babies were a lot of work?
 
3. Keep trying on the marketing stuff, even if I have no idea how.
I didn’t even get to this. Ugh.
 
And now for what I’m not going to get done this month.
 
July Goals
1. Reduce my blogging schedule. I know, it’s a shock. I’ve been at three times a week for over a decade now! Unfortunately, I don’t have as much energy as I used to.
 
2. Update my etymology page. You know what fun this always is.
 
3. Get to 90K on my WIP. I probably won’t get this far, but I’m hoping for a miraculous burst of inspiration.
 
So yeah. No more Saturday posts. I think I’ll intersperse comics with the spam posts now (EDIT: now because my computer crashed, it’s going to be comics for a while because I lost all my spam posts). Thursdays will still be dedicated to etymology, because I still really enjoy doing that. And I’m sure you do too.

 
What do you want to do this month?

July Goals

Ugh, this again.
 
June Goals
1. Get to work on more beta reads, as well as the notes from them.
Hey, what do you know, I did this. There are still some rewrites I have to get to, though.
 
2. Figure out what I want to do with my latest WIP, as it’s definitely not what I want it to be.
Did not do this, whoops. I was too busy working on my latest shiny new distraction.
 
3. Try to do something with the query, synopsis, and all that. Man, I wish I could have someone do it all for me.
Surprisingly, I did do some work on this. It’s a miracle!
 
Pretty successful, I guess. In all, June was a pretty busy month outside of writing, and oh my god, the road construction outside my house that goes on all night will never stop.
 
Anyway, July.
 
July Goals
1. Continue working on notes from beta reading (still could use more!). Not sure about some parts of it, but I do know a few things that need to be done.
 
2. Get my latest project underway. If it actually goes well, I’ll have to tell you about it.
 
3. [Heavy sigh] Update my etymology page. I hate what a chore this has become thanks to New Blogger.
 
I think I’ll be able to complete this month’s goals, though the etymology page may make me punch a hole in my computer. What do you want to do this month?

July Goals

That’s it, half the year is gone. That happened way too fast. What was I up to last month?
 
June Goals
1. Finish the latest WIP. It’s turned out a bit longer than I expected, but this should be easy.
Hey, I did this! Who knows when I’ll get around to editing it, but the first draft is done.
 
2. Get to work on the beta reading notes for the old WIP. This one needs a lot more work!
Did not do this. Was too busy with the other stuff. Not sure when I’ll get to this one either, but it might not be worth it at this point.
 
3. Sigh. Actually work on the editing notes for my other WIP. Maybe it’ll be possible with the other one done.
Miracle of miracles, I actually did this! I got through almost all the notes. There’s just a few pages left. I added almost five thousand words just describing things I skimmed over.
 
Next, what’s up for July…
 
July Goals
1. Finish the notes on my WIP and start a new editing pass focused on improving descriptions and reactions, because I’m really bad at this.
 
2. Update my etymology page. It’s that time again!
 
3. Start the editing notes for the new WIP. Not sure I’ll have time to get to this, but it’s on the list now so I won’t forget.
 
That’s what I want to get done this month. What are your plans for July? Is it sweltering for you too?

July Goals

Right, it’s goals day. Let’s see what I didn’t do last month.

June Goals

1. Finish new WIP. Not thinking this will be any problem.

And it wasn’t. Really, writing this was the best part of my month.

2. Actually work on one of my old projects this month! The exclamation point means I’m serious!

Not serious enough, it seems. It was just a lot more fun to work on the new WIP.

3. Update the etymology page. I keep forgetting to do this!

Hey, I did this! Yay!

So not bad really, considering how tough June was to get through.  Sometimes you have to take wins where you can get them.

July Goals

1. Finish first round of editing notes on WIP. I have over four hundred of them, mostly me telling myself to add more descriptions.

2. After finishing the above, complete the next round of structure edits on the WIP.

3. Look at the yearly goals I’m supposed to be working on that I’m sure I’ve made no progress on. Eep.

Stay tuned next week for when I actually see what my goals are for this year. Wow, I can’t believe more than half of 2020 is gone. It really seems like it’s been a lot longer. A lot longer.

What are you up to this month?

July Goals

We’re on the downswing of the year now. I’d be more excited if we weren’t slowly sliding into a dystopia.

Now I’ve depressed myself.

June Goals

1. Get more beta reads for WIP 1. I still have a lot of questions about what works and what doesn’t.

Could still use more.

2. Distract myself from the above by working on all the notes for the other WIP.

Okay, I totally worked on something else instead, because of course I did. I also spent a lot of time working on one of my goals from, like, May or something. Again, because of course I did.

3. Update etymology page. I don’t want to forget!

All up to date as of the first week in June!

Yaaaay. Anyway, what should I do this month?

July

1. Edit one of the many projects I have in the works. Also start planning for the story I want to write this year.

2. Work on edits from the beta notes I should be getting.

3. Do some posts in advance to get ready for my blogging break next month. That’s right, I plan ahead.

What are you planning to do this month?

July Goals

And now it’s July. How does this keep happening? Someone make it stop. But not this month. Next month, because that’s when my birthday is.

Time to check out my goals.

June Goals

1. Do my first color partition—when I highlight different parts of the MS in different colors to make sure everything works. I know I’ve posted about this at some point…

Yes, I did this, and I didn’t catch any glaring errors in terms of writing flow. That’s another draft down.

2. Do my second color partition—this one is checking for sensory cues to make sure descriptions are evocative. I’ve explained this one, too.

It went pretty smoothly. Of course now I’m wondering if I paid enough attention to it, because ninety nine percent of editing is thinking that it’s not good enough.

3. Update my etymology page. I can’t remember the last time I did it, which means it’s time to do it again.

Done, all the way up to the end of the -ment words. Now I can forget about it again for a few months.

June worked out pretty well. Writing-wise, anyway. The world at large seems to have turned into a cesspool of greed and corruption.

Anyway, goals!

July Goals

1. Do my word search. I always find I overuse certain words and phrases so now I have to get rid of some of them so it’s not totally ridiculous. You want to know how much I use the word “even”? Because it’s embarrassing.

2. Finish the short story I started. This one should be easy.

3. Get ready for my blogging break next month!!! I’ll have to get some extra posts ready.

Now I can’t stop thinking of infinite birthdays and infinite cake. So what are you doing this month?

July Goals

Wow. It’s somehow [current month] already.

I’m just going to be using that as a header on these posts from now on, because I seem to say it all the time. Anyway, goals.

June Goals

1. Get to 50K on my WIP (so about six thousand words).

It was actually less than I thought, so I made it easily. Hopefully I can keep up the pace.

2. Start organizing the outline for abovementioned WIP. This is actually pretty early for me.

Ha ha, no. Didn’t even try.

3. Get to all the stuff this month that I didn’t do last month. If it ever stops raining!

It’s a miracle! It finally stopped raining and now the fire orb is in the sky again! I think I did everything that needed to be done, although I’ll probably remember something else later on.

So I guess I did some things, but not all things. Solid C effort. If you’re grading on a curve. Which is only fair, damn it.

Anyway, this month:

July Goals

1. 10K more on my WIP. Go big or go home.

2. Update my etymology page before it gets ridiculous again.

3. Maybe actually do the outline. If free time starts falling from the sky.

I’m probably overreaching by a lot, sometimes it’s the only way to get going again. What are you up to this month?

July Goals

And kind of June goals since I didn’t do them. I can tell you, that is one month that I’m glad is gone.

Now let’s look way back at May.

May Goals

1. Look at revisions for old projects and see what needs to be done.

I did do this, and even did some revising! But I didn’t do nearly as much as I thought I would, due to being busy and then the world exploding.

2. Come up with a plan for what I want to write next. In addition to the revising, I should look at doing something brand new.

Unfortunately, I didn’t do this. I kept trying to think of what I wanted to write and I’d get really excited about planning it out for a day, then go What? No. I don’t want to do this. It’s a terrible idea. It was all kind of a mess.

3.  Update the Etymology page on the blog. It’s been a while…

At least I did this! It was easily the best part of the last two months and that’s really kind of sad.

Goals-wise, it wasn’t a very good month. And also everything else-wise. Especially everything else-wise. But maybe July can be better.

July Goals

1. See how I’m doing on my yearly resolution, because I’m betting it’s not good.

2. Figure out if I can block off some time once a week or something for me to just write.

3. Write something, anything, without any strings attached (like I have to finish it or it has to have a certain word count).

So, that’s the plan. So what are your plans for July? Doing anything now that summer is in full swing? Or winter, if you’re in the southern hemisphere?

July Goals

The year is now more than half over. I think it’s safe to say I’ve accomplished nothing.

June Goals

1. Try to find more time to write. And, you know. Write.

I did do this, and fairly successfully I think. Yay!

2. Finish that short story from last month. Well, last last month. Yes, this is a separate goal. I couldn’t think of anything else I’ll be doing this on the weekend, which is technically my free time.

Only a “kind of” on this one, as I worked on it, but as usual, it was a bit longer than I thought it would be.

3. Update the etymology page again. It has to be done sometime!

Yay! Did it! Using Excel for this is so much easier than Word. It comes out in such nice, even rows. Seriously, go look at it. It’s a thing of beauty.

Actually pretty good. Let’s hear it for realistic goals! And now, for this month…

July Goals

1. Figure out what I want to do with the fantasy idea that I have. Obviously I want to write a book, but I have to see about having the time!

2. Work on my other projects and hopefully make enough money to, you know, live.

3. Start working on extra post ideas because next month is August and you know that’s vacation month. And my birthday! WOOOO!

Okay, so that’s what I have planned for July. I think I can do it. What about you?

July Goals

Is it just me or do the months seem to be flying by? I wish I was a robot that could work 24/7. Then I’d feel like I was getting something done.

June Goals

1. Read aloud of Malice, including taking notes, and then fixing said notes. I’m fairly certain I can get this done, although reading the entire thing out loud might take longer than I expect.

Did this! It did take longer than I expected, but not by that much. I did start working on some of the notes, and even created a timeline (where I discovered even more problems to fix!), but honestly, right now I’m kind of burned out on MALICE. Maybe it’s looking at those 800+ notes I have to fix and all the rewrites it needs.

2. Sigh…do SOMETHING about my query. Obviously it’s going to need a complete and total rewrite. I may end up having to join some forum or other just to get some opinions, which I’m really not looking forward to. Did I say sigh yet?

Kind of? I did write another query, but I didn’t solicit any outside opinions. I know, there are all these great sites out there where you can post your queries for critiques, but I so hate doing things like that…I guess this one is a partial fail.

3. Two more apocalypse posts! I’ve kind of done zombies to death lately, so I’ll see if I can whip up something about one of the million other apocalypses waiting to take us out.

I got a little derailed by the whole computer thing, but I managed to get both in! Barely. I think I might need a month off from the apocalypse. (I can’t believe I said that!)

Now for this month. Wow, the year is half over…

July Goals

1. Do something about that query and then send out another set. Not that I’m expecting much…

2. Finally get to the read aloud of REMEMBER that I meant to do months ago and never did. If I’m not too distracted by something shiny.

3. Work on recreating some of the projects I lost when my computer crapped out on me. Most of them I could care less about, but there are a couple of things I really liked, even if they’re just for me.

Seriously, I’m so hella pissed that my computer crashed like that. You piece of crap! I gave you everything!

August Goals

Alas, this month was not as successful as previous months. Yes, it’s my fault for getting distracted by yet another project. Plus there was a week when it was reeeeeeeeeeeeeally hot out, like close to a hundred degrees and super humid. Surprisingly enough, melting from the temperature is not conducive to writing.

Anyway, let’s see what I did…

July Goals

1. Finish going over suggestions from previous readers for COLLAPSE. Maybe try to find more critique partners. I’ve got some good feedback, but I don’t know if four is enough (especially when I don’t have them all back yet).

Oh wow, I totally failed here, mostly because I completely forgot about searching for more crit partners. Um, whoops?

2. Be more present in social media. Mostly I want to leave more comments, respond to every one I receive, and return the favor.

Did this. I’m commenting more and responding to almost every one (the few I don’t is because some people don’t connect their web pages to their profiles and I can’t find them).

3. Add 20K more to New Project and finish combining the new and the old versions.

Did not do this. I worked more on the rewrite, but then I started working on a completely different project. I got that one done and even worked on yet another, but this goal is a total fail.

So it’s a failure in the sense that I have not been working on the goals I was supposed to be working on. I got quite a bit done, but not exactly on the correct things. Part of it is wanting a break from dystopian/apocalyptic writing—yes, really. Although the new idea I have is still more than a little apocalyptic…

August Goals

1. Keep on social media and keep searching for more beta readers for my YA apocalyptic. I really hope I remember it this month. Not that I know how to go about doing so…well, the goal should be to figure that out, then.

2. Add 20K to new project. It’s a paranormal with an apocalyptic twist because I can’t really stray that far.

3. Add 10K to my horror side project. Also, maybe reveal the horror story I wrote to you guys.

And the fourth goal: take a break. Honestly, I’m really busy this month outside all of my writing stuff, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to get done.

Anyway, what are you doing this August? Are you enjoying your last full month of summer (or winter, if you’re below the equator)?

July Goals

I fear this month wasn’t as successful as May…

June Goals

1. Finish collecting and giving critiques. This should be easy. I love beta reading.

Still in the middle of this, although there isn’t much I can do to get critiques done faster. I forget sometimes that most people don’t read 10K a day.

2. Start posting more at the Spamfiles. I think having more posts will attract more readers. Could it be that other people don’t find spam as amusing as I do?

Got this one done. I’m still disappointed that I don’t have more followers, though.

3. Add 20K more words to my rewrite. Usually first draft writing is easy for me, but I’ve been feeling a little bit of the writer’s block lately. I hope I can do it.

Kind of a failure. Because it’s a rewrite, there are still some things from the old version that I can use, so I’ve been working on that. But I could have done more if I hadn’t gotten distracted by a shiny new project. Darn your shininess!

Not as successful maybe, but not bad. I should’ve done more with number 3. On the other hand, I got a bunch of stuff done that wasn’t on my list, like aforementioned new project (something like twenty K there, so pretty good), and switching over to the new blog. I’d give my final grade as a B. An actual B, too, not a scaled B. Not bad.

Okay, now for July (I can’t believe the year is half over already!)

July Goals

1. Finish going over suggestions from previous readers for COLLAPSE. Maybe try to find more critique partners. I’ve got some good feedback, but I don’t know if four is enough (especially when I don’t have them all back yet).

2. Be more present in social media. Mostly I want to leave more comments, respond to every one I receive, and return the favor.

3. Add 20K more to New Project and finish combining the new and the old versions.

I wonder if it’s too ambitious or not ambitious enough.

Anyway, what are your plans for July, for writing or otherwise? Anyone doing anything fun?