The Aftermath of a Productive Weekend

MONDAY MADNESS
"The best laid plans of mice and men..." 

That's the beginning of a line in Robert Burn's poem, "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough," and often describes my weekend plans.

Not this past weekend.

In fact, the weekend was more productive than most and considerably more satisfying.  I had a list.  Not a long list, only four items.  For once, I didn't go mad and overdo, which leads to disappointment in myself.  No, this one was simple.

A load of laundry and several loads of dishes on Friday (we've been saving up *wink*), followed by the replacement of a light switch on Saturday morning.  Yes, I'm a handy little devil.  Or would be if I had done it right.  Unfortunately, I didn't, but neither did I cause a flash fire.  That's a win.  And, after a little more research, I discovered what I needed to do, so it now reappears on my list of chores-for-later-in-the-week.  No need to push it.  The light hasn't worked for some time.  A few more days won't matter.  Live and learn, right?  The last of the errant dishes---how do they manage to meander into other rooms?---were done, and I moved on to finish some small updates on my website.  Not a lot of work, but everything on the list crossed off.  Well, except for that light switch, but that's covered.

There was also the editing of the first three chapters of what will (I hope) be the first of a series of books that I wrote in the spring a year ago.  The tentative series name is The Divine Misfits.  Maybe.  We'll see how that goes.  So what if there are still  eleven chapters to go?  It's begun and, with luck, will be finished by Sunday.  That's the plan.

This feeling of accomplishment is rare, and I think I've discovered the secret.  Of course, most everyone but me knows that secret.  I'm a little slow on the uptake.  And what is it?  Don't overload yourself with trying to do too much!  Obviously my goal setting has weak spots.  But I'm working on that.  When it comes to writing, it isn't difficult.  When it comes to normal, everyday life, yeah, there are problems.

Yesterday (Sunday) was good, especially because it was our writers group meeting.  A week later than usual, thanks to Mother's Day, so even more welcome.  There's nothing like getting together with like-minded and wonderful friends.  I could do this all the time!  And with a handful of us vowing to meet for critiquing once a week, it's all good.  I'm pumped.  But I'm also trying not to get over-pumped.  That leads to downfall.  So it's take one small thing at a time and enjoy.

I'm learning new things.  I'm reading blogs, books, articles and whatever appears as a gift from the Universe to see life in a different way.  I like to call myself a realist, but over the years, I've become more pessimistic.  If something good happened (and it does), it was easier to say it was a fluke.  Now I'm trying to expect the good stuff.  Why not?  Shouldn't we choose the good over the bad?  I mean, if we have a choice---which we do---let's choose not only good, but great!  I like that.  I really do.  (Doing some weird Sally Field channeling here.)

Yes, there are a million things that need to be done to get the things in my life in line to the way I want it.  But they can't all be done in a day, a weekend, or even a week.  They take time.  And time is often our enemy.  Instead, let's make it our friend.  Don't overload yourself with trying to do too much!  Yes, it's definitely worth repeating.  And now that I know the secret...

In the end, what I got from all this was that I could have the best of both worlds:  Getting things done AND enjoying the weekend.  What could be better than that?  There's still laundry to be done, winter clothes to wash, dry, fold, pack away until the weather turns cold again.  Small closets and not enough drawer space means everything can't always be at hand.  That's okay.  We understand it.  It's become a tradition to start mentioning it as the weather begins to change, and finally saying, "Let's get it done today."  There's still the office that could use a bulldozer, but it, too, will be done in small doses and chunks.  Why not?  It isn't going anywhere on its own.  Lots of sort and toss and store...and finding new places to store.  Just how many file folders need to be on hand at all times?

In a few days, school will be out, and this summer may be unlike the past nine summers, filled with grandkids bickering and running crazy, trips to the library and trying to find enough food to please and fill up five growing youngsters.  I need the break.  I deserve the break.  (See that positive there?)  I want to enjoy this time.  It's MY TURN.  (Please pass that on to my offspring.)

Monday Madness will remain as it's called, only because it's MONDAY, but there'll be some small changes.  Change is good.  Change is healthy.  Change is fun!  One day at a time.  One step at a time.  And, hey, I might actually become that productive person I dream of being?

How was your weekend?  Did you have (TAKE!) the opportunity to make it a good one?  Or would you like to climb out of the rut?  Let's take the road together and see where it takes us, pitfalls and all, because there will always be those...unless we live on a faraway island where no one can find us.

Check back next week and see if this new positive course continues to work.  Yes, there will be a failure here and there, but focusing on the successes will take care of those, right?  And next week I'll share some links I've discovered that are helping me along my way.  Maybe you'll find something helpful, too.!

"The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence."  ~  Confucius

Who Me? Write?

WRITING WEDNESDAY
It's been that kind of week.  You know the kind.  Shiny objects grab attention and take you away for a few minutes, an hour, or half--if not most--of the day.

Writing, you say?  It's on my list of things to do.  The list in my head, not the one written down that's there to bug me to get things done.

But I have an excuse!  Enter March 1 of this year.  I'd been pounding out words since July, tearing my hair out over revisions and the need to get it done.  Even the holidays were taken up by writing.  It happens, and the world doesn't stop spinning.  But on February 28, the veil lifted and regular life began again.

You'd think that within nearly two months I would have caught up on all the things that clamored and hammered at me for 8+ months.  But no-o-o-o-o.  Too many shiny objects.  I did sit down and make myself start a new manuscript...over a week ago.  Four pages written.  Four.

I feel like a fake.  I come to my blog and encourage others to write...every day, if possible.  And yet I've ignored my own writing for more than a few days.  More than a few weeks.  We're into months, friends.  That isn't good.

So what do I need to do?  (You, too, if you've been ignoring your writing!)  I have two choices.  The first is to motivate myself.  There's a problem with that, because at this moment, I can't think of single bit of motivation that will get my focus where it needs to be and my fingers on the keyboard.

Let me say up front that I am not an organize person.  That isn't completely true.  I'm an organized-disorganized person.  Or is that disorganized-organized?  I've never quite figured that one out.  Yes, I keep a written list of the things that need to be done, but I often leave out things for myself.  Lately, though, I've been doing those things for myself, and none of them have involved writing.

That brings me to choice #2:  Just do it.  Give it two hours, four hours, whatever it takes.  I've already set a goal of five pages (pitiful, isn't it?) for this week's BIAW.  (Hint:  That's how I managed those previous four pages, which were two pages short of my 6-page goal.)  I know it's possible to write five pages in one day.  I've done it more times than not done it.  Well, except for that past almost-two months.  In fact, I hit a new high last year of 28 pages in one day, and several days of 24 pages.  Yes, I can do it.

Yes, I will do it!  Want to come along for the ride?  Passengers are welcome...as long as they're writing.  No daydreaming, no shiny objects demanding our attention.  Just writing.

For the curious, check back tomorrow.  I'll comment on whether I reached my goal or not.  And those who are along for the ride are welcome to do the same.  After all, we're in this together.

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily. ~ Zig Ziglar

Notes from the Queen

Yes, that's me.  The Queen of Procrastination.  I'm the one who always put off those term papers in high school, waiting until the last, possible moment to start.  They did get done and turned in on time, but the headaches and anxiety that caused didn't need to happy.

I can procrastinate with the best.  The best would be myself, when it comes to that.  It's so-o-o-o-o easy to put things off, especially the things that don't thrill me.

Sometimes that's writing.  Okay, often it is, if I'm going to be honest.  I haven't had a chance to procrastinate with that for a while and have missed the few TV shows I watch.  (I gave up a lot of TV, a long time ago.)


Procrastination is one of the easiest things to do.  The problem is, it doesn't have much value.  Things, chores, wants and needs have a tendency to pile up, if we ignore them with something else.  Let's take laundry, for an example.  Or washing dishes.  Or cleaning.  Or...  Yeah, all of those things that need to be done, yet get set aside.  For me, lately, they have taken a backseat to deadlines.  But today I finished the last of big deadlines.  Only a few to go.  Revisions, line edits and proofs is all that are left.  And you know I'll be right in the swing of procrastinating when they arrive.

Yes, I blog a lot about goals.  Unfortunately, I focus my goal setting on writing.  Daily things--other than "It must all be cleared" tend to fall by the wayside.   Why?  I've been focused on that writing.  I'm over a month past my normal schedule of getting my taxes done.  Guess what I'll be doing Sunday, when my desk is clear?  Yeah, you guessed it.  I'll be downing massive amounts of caffeine and looking for a wig to wear, after I've pulled out all my hair.  I am so not into math.  But it must be done.

Now that I'm back into the real world, instead of the trying-to-beat-it world of deadlines, I'm being smacked by all the things that didn't get done.  With what's left of tonight and into tomorrow (after running errands and watching Wichita State University try to make their 30-0 record a 31-record), at the top of my list of things to do is clear my desk.  O.M.G.  What a mess!  There's only an 8" square that I cleared a couple of hours ago where the actual top of my desk is visible.  And I have a pretty big desk.

So after I finish finding the top of my desk, my goal for the next few days--other than those taxes--is to make my goals for this month.  And they're going to have to include all the silly day-to-day things----dishes, laundry, cleaning...  Yeah, the fun stuff.  As for writing?  Yeah, there will have to be some of that.  I need to plot, I need to edit some things I worked on last spring...before the dreaded deadlines hit.  And I need to remember to kick back and enjoy a little TV, reading, or whatever strikes my fancy.

If you're looking at your goals for March (yikes! already?), remember to make time for a little enjoyment, while keeping those goals uppermost in mind.  Work on our goals should come first.  Okay, after family and personal hygiene.  We work to gain the perks of enjoying the good things.  While that doesn't sound like much fun, rushing around at the last minute to finish a goal that was ignored for too long, is even worse.  Don't procrastinate.  Do the work, the reward yourself with something, whether it's time or a small gift.

Here's hoping March will bring warmer weather, time to enjoy life and the satisfaction of meeting or even surpassing our goals.

Procrastination is like a credit card: it's a lot of fun until you get the bill. ~ Christopher Parker

Short On Time

There's never enough, is there?  Time, I mean.  We're given 60 minutes for an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks/365 days in a year, and yet there's never enough time for everything.

I have a mental list of all the things I want to do "when I have time."  That list grows longer, not shorter.  It doesn't include the dreams.  The vacations in a warm spot, with a beach and sunshine.  (I'm really tired of wearing 2 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, and 3 pairs of socks to keep warm...while sitting at my desk!)  And I really should put that list in my head on a piece of paper.  The trouble is, I'd probably lose it.  One of those things at the top of my list is to declutter my office.  It's not happening. :(

The fact is, right now I should be working on one of three deadlines.  One is small, one is medium, and the other is much bigger.  The small one is due ASAP or by Friday at the latest.  It shouldn't take all that much time.  I have a Dear Reader letter to write for my August book, along with a dedication.  I know what they'll both be about, but the difficulty is setting aside the time to do it.  The medium one is to finish reading through the proofs for that same book.  It takes some time, making sure everything is as perfect as possible.  (It's never perfect.  We're human.)  I have two chapters and an epilogue left to go through.  It's due next Tuesday.  And the there's the much bigger one:  Finish the book!  Or rather editing and polishing the book.  At least the first draft is written.  February 24th--that's less than two weeks away!--is the deadline for the full manuscript (entire book) for the last book in my Desperation, Oklahoma, series, which will hit shelves sometime early next year.  Hey, I'm trying.

The above are only writing deadlines.  Then there's life.  Pay bills, pick up a washer cartridges for two dripping faucets, declutter my office...after writing deadlines are met, buy groceries, fix meals, do some laundry so I actually have clean clothes.  Just the normal stuff.  Oh, and there are still taxes to do and send to the IRS.  Add to all that the 3-4 trips to schools during the week, and two upcoming no-school days next week.  Really?  I mean, REALLY!  Can we add a few more things to the Have-To's?

So what do I end up doing?  Watching basketball games and staying up much later to work on writing deadlines at night than I should, i.e. skipping much needed sleep.  My beloved Wichita State University Shockers are 26-0, one of only two unbeaten teams in the NCAA.  Only five more games to go.  And then my Kansas State University Wildcats are a must see...even though I forgot and missed the biggest game of the year on Monday, the second rivalry game of the year, KSU v. KU (University of Kansas).  And KSU won!!!!  Even though I knew the final score, I watched the whole game yesterday online. ;) Yes, I should have been working. :(

I've already given up two of the few television shows I usually watch.  I haven't seen one episode of this season's DOWNTON ABBEY, and I'm way behind on PARENTHOOD.  Except for basketball, there are only three shows (and the one CNN: The British Invasion special) that I've watched over the past month or so.  Do I miss watching TV?  Sometimes, but I'll find a way via online or other to catch up, if I feel the need.

When time is short, we have to set priorities.  We have to give up some of the things that are important to us.  Believe me, a little down time is needed to get through life, as it is, so giving up some of it is almost painful.  Yet following our dream is important, too.  Yes, work is what pays the bills, whether we love our jobs or not, so it can't be ignored.  Those other things can, at least for a little while.  There will be time, later, to enjoy the good things, too.  Or at least I hope there will be!

I'm off to work on those priorities, those deadlines.  Hope all is well in your world and you're getting done what needs to be done, yet still having a little "playtime!"

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work. ~ H. L. Hunt

SMART Goals 4 - Final Friday

Today is the last of our SMART Goals series.  That doesn't mean you get a break, once today is over. :)  It means that if you haven't set a goal yet, it's time to get to work.  If you have set a goal, you should be working on it.

GOAL= I want
GOAL REACHED= I have

Between those two is work.  A person can't simply want without doing and hope for the best.  It takes work, it takes dedication, it means sticking to your goal and all the little goals that get you to have.

On this final day, we're going to look at the last of the tasks we need to focus on and the questions we need to ask ourselves.  The two words that define T in SMART are Time-Bound and Touchable.

TIME-BOUND
Our lives are all about time.  We know that there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day.  Add 7 days in a week, 52 weeks or 12 months in a year, and we have the basis of time in our lives.  We can't work 24 hours a day for 52 weeks over the time we're here on earth.  We know there are things we have to do to live.  We eat, we play, we sleep, we work.  That's the cycle of our lives.  And throughout much of those things, we pray and wish.  Our lives are run by goals.  "I'm expected to get to work at 8 a.m."  "I sleep so I can be rested for tomorrow."  "I'm hungry, so I eat."  On and on, throughout each day, we have goals.  Most of the time we work on them without a lot of thought, because they've become natural to us.  Big goals, the ones that will help shape our lives and our futures, take more time and thought.

The final steps in setting a big goal is to ask yourselves these two questions.

• When will I achieve my goal?

"Someday I want to..." isn't a goal.  It's a dream.  Remember that dreams are the basis of our goals.  They're what spur us on to set those goals, to do things that will help us realize our dreams.

When setting the "when" of goal achievement, take into account that life never runs smoothly.  There will always be something that pulls you away from the steps and small goals you've set to get what you want...what you dream of having or doing.  

When we think of working on a goal, we often think of it in terms of weeks, months, or years.  Because these are the measures of time we use, keep them uppermost in mind when setting the time of achieving the goal.  Do you have a big goal, one that will take more time than one that's more simple?  Give it a year.  Give it two years, if needed.  Never short yourself on time.  Factor in those somethings that could pull you away from your goal.  Don't overwork yourself, but always try to keep you goal in mind.  And especially remember to take time for yourself (non-goal life), your family and your friends.

• What's my deadline?

Scary word, deadline.  I've come to the conclusion while working on my current deadlines that the word is apropos. Spot on.  Dead on.  I may be initially excited when I meet a goal on time, but when that rush of adrenalin vanishes, I may often want to sleep for days.  Not that I can, but I sure would like to. ☺

Do you know the origin of the word deadline?  Check it out here.  There's a reason it's called a dead-line.  That doesn't mean that deadlines are bad.  They're needed to reach our goals, whether it's getting healthy by exercise or losing weight (always a #1 on those New Year's resolution lists), taking a dreamed-of vacation, getting a better job, an education, or, yes, writing a book.  We need a way to reach that goal, that deadline.  We set goals.  We NEED deadlines, or we might never work toward our dreams and goals.  Goals take work.  Don't be afraid of doing it or from reaching your goal.

TOUCHABLE

Here's the question to ask yourself: 

•  What will I have to hold as a completed result?

Losing weight is touchable.  Our bodies are lighter, our old clothes aren't clinging to us as they did before.  We'll have new clothes to replace the old one's we give away.

Taking that cruise is touchable.  We feel the spray of the ocean on our faces, the movement of the ship across the water, the feel of the wind and sun on our faces.  And hundreds of photos to share with others and take out, from time to time, to relive the experience again and again.

A completed manuscript is something we can hold in our hands, and someday it may become a published book.  (Another goal to reach?)  

A college diploma that has been a long-term goal is touchable.  

Learning to ride a bike or a drive a car is touchable.

Have you set your goal?

Have you set a smart goal?

Here they are again, those questions to ask yourself as you set your goal.  As you work through your goal, you can use these questions to keep you on track and to adjust your goal, if needed.  

SPECIFIC - Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?

Can your goal be broken into smaller steps?

MEASURABLE - How will you know when you're done?

MOTIVATIONAL - Is your goal emotionally charged?  Do you have the energy to carry out the goal?

ATTAINABLE - Is your goal realistic?

ACCOUNTABLE - Can your goal be tracked and accounted for?

RELEVANT - How does this fit into your life now?

RESPONSIBLE - Will your goal or working on it cost you friends?  Respect from family?  Your integrity?  Will it be easy to respond to changes IF required?

TIME-BOUND - When will you achieve your goal?  What's your deadline?

TOUCHABLE - What will you have to hold as a completed result?


SMART (S.M.A.R.T.) Goals.  Our tools to make our dreams come true.

All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. ~ Walt Disney

SMART Goals 3

There are three words that define the R in SMART: Relevant, Responsible, and Realistic.

All of the things involved in SMART Goals interconnect with each other, so there will often be duplications, but those duplications sometimes dig a little deeper with each step.  And sometimes we simply need it repeated ad nauseum, pounding it into our brains.  Setting goals takes practice.  Setting SMART Goals takes even more.


R is for Relevant
One key to clarifying what it is your goal will be is to check to see that you will be able to see results.  By breaking your big goal into smaller ones, you'll be able to see results and progress.  It's hard to stick with a goal if you don't see yourself moving forward.

For instance, your goal is to write a book in a year.  There are 52 weeks in a year.  Each week should include a smaller goal that pertains to the large, main goal.  Using number of words or pages to write is an excellent smaller goal, and if you keep track of that, you'll see results.  Words and/or pages to be written are relevant because you'll see results...as long as you're working toward your goal.

Once again, ask yourself these questions as you're setting your goals.

• How many days in each week can you use to write?  To work on reaching your goal?  
• How much time in each of your days can you and are you willing to spend on your goal?
• When will you not be able to work on your goal?  This one is important.  We get sick, our family members get sick.  There are vacations and other personal things that we need to work around and factor in when we won't be able to work on our goals.

When I start to write a book, I know how much I can reasonably write in one day.  Because my books are broken down into scenes in chapters, I set a goal of one scene per day.  I know it can be done.  I also know it sometimes won't get done.  During the week is usually the hardest, because it never fails that something will come up to drag me away from my goal.  I do my catching up on weekends and hope there isn't a lot of catching up to do!

So what's relevant to your goal?

• Research.  I try to do research before starting the book, but it always seems to happen that I have to go look up something I missed.
• Taking time to unwind.  All work and no play makes Johnny and Janey dull, tired, and mush-brained.  Be sure to build in some downtime, when you don't have to think about your story.
• Working when you'd rather be playing.  Saying "next time" to an invitation from a friend that will drag you far away from your goal.  This includes phone calls.
• Track your progress.  Don't guess.  Keep a spreadsheet or whatever works best.
• Breaking down goals.  The idea of writing a book--or doing any other big goal--is exciting at first.  But as time goes on, it can become daunting.  That's why it takes thought and planning.  It's much easier to reach a small goal than a huge one.  We don't eat a Cattleman's Steak by cramming it in our mouth.  It's bite by bite.  Create bite-sized goals to reach the big one.

R is for Responsible

While burying yourself in your goal might seem admirable, it isn't.  There are more things in life than even major goals.  As much as I would like to sometimes, I can't lock myself in my office and shut out the world for extended periods of time.  Meals must be cooked or at least a run for hamburgers to the closest, cheapest and fastest fastfood spot.  Bills must be paid, laundry done, and dishes washed.  Getting out and breathing fresh air is a good idea, too.

How important is your goal?  Well, it's definitely important to you.  Mine is important to me.  Everyone's goal should be important to the person who makes the goal.  Otherwise, why bother?

What we don't think about when dreaming of reaching our goal is how it can affect others.  When setting your goal, ask yourself these questions.

• Will it cost me friends?  We like to think that our friends are as excited about our goals as we are.  Many of them are!  And some of them may discover down that line your goal has usurped time you once spent together or talked, emailed, whatever.  Good friends will cheer you on and listen to you whine.  But there's a limit to that with most friends.  Be sure to make time for your friends, even if it's a quick email or limited phone call to say "I'm thinking of you."
• Will I have my family's respect?  No matter what, there will always be times when family wants our full and undivided attention.  It may take talking it out and reaching a compromise, where they agree to leave me alone for X amount of time on X day(s), and I will take them to X or spend X amount of time with them.  (Small children especially will need more time than, say teens, although they, too, will notice that your full attention is not on them.)  Family members are like the person with the goals.  At first it's all bright and shiny, but when it starts to take time away from real life, somebody is going to be unhappy and think you care more about the goal than them.  Word of advice?  Deal with.  Don't ignore it.
• Will this cost me my integrity?  Integrity, smigtegrity.  Who cares, right?  Think again.  Two instances come to mind.  I'm sure you'll get the gist.

   1.  You're employed and have a good work record on which your employer has commended you.  Now that you have this big goal, you want to focus on it.  You get behind on your goal and start taking time off from your job.  You've compromised your integrity.  Both your employment and your goal are important.

   2.  You're a parent who people admire.  Now you have a goal, and by golly by gee, you're going to meet that goal, no matter what.  Your child(ren) can manage one day of wearing dirty underwear and socks.  Now that day has turned into a week.  Or your child may need help with homework, but you have your own work (goal) to focus on, not Johnny or Janie who is beginning to fail a class in school or is getting into trouble in school or elsewhere.  Big ding on the integrity you'd worked so hard to build.  Put your goal aside, revamp if necessary, and rebuild that integrity.  The goal will still be reached, just maybe not as soon as you'd planned.

• Is your goal easy enough to respond to and change, if needed?  Life happens.  I'll be honest.  If I won a trip just about anywhere, I'd take it in the blink of an eye.  My goal can wait.  Although I'd probably find myself at least jotting down random notes, because when a writer isn't able to work, the mind creates megatons of information. ;)  Sad things and happy thing abound.  As humans, we try (or at least should try) to roll with the punches.  Some things are more important than a goal.  Other things are not.  You get to decide on which.  
• Change the above to...  Is your goal easy enough to changes IF REQUIRED?  When it comes down to things that have no choices--maybe a stint in the hospital for an ailing family member, the loss of a family member, or something dire you must attend to immediately and even long term such as taking a second job--we, as caring individuals, will put aside our goal.  It can be picked up later, when life allows.  And life will allow it, as long as we keep a hold on the dream.  When goals have to be set aside, the dream is still there.  Believe it.

The nice thing about setting goals is that we have the opportunity to change and tweak them as we go.  There's nothing wrong if we find ourselves floundering with a goal.  But instead of chucking it all when that happens, making changes can get us to where we need to be.

R is for Realistic

It never hurts to go over this one again.  Can your goal be met by you, or so it require someone/something else?  Back to the I-want-to-write-a-book-which-will-become-a-bestseller.  The first part is doable.  The part after "which?"  That depends on a lot of things that are simply out of our hands.  With a goal, we do the very best we can do.  For the above, the next step would be to get a publisher interested.  It's possible.  It isn't set in stone.  But it doesn't mean you dump the entire goal.  A "someday I will be published" is more realistic, although never a given.  It may take five complete books, it may take ten or more, but your chances of reaching that dream becomes better and better.

The same goes with the time that goes into your goal.  "I want to write a book in 2 weeks."  Yeah, good luck with that one!  A short book, a children's book, either would be possible.  But there's a lot more to it.  That's the way it is with big goals.  Throwing away everything else in life to work on a big goal would be sad, if not a huge mistake.  One thing does not make a life.  It's all the little things that make it well-rounded and exciting. We want to make it a good life.  Be realistic.

One last Friday for SMART Goals next week!  We'll look at the letter T.  Another two-parter.  Time-Bound and Touchable.

Have you been working on your goals?  Are you still setting your goals?  Either way, how is it going?

There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams. Then they put the box away and bring it out once in a while to look in it, and yep, they're still there. ~ Erna Bombeck

SMART Goals 2

For anyone who stopped by here to take a look on Friday, you're doing better than I am.  It's 11:20 p.m. my time, and I'm finally getting to this.  Between a grandson who was sick and didn't make it to school, but needed to be watched over, to far too many website updates and Facebook Page creating, to a daughter who asked if I'd pick up her daughter after school, to another daughter who had to attend a funeral, the day didn't work out as expected.  And I'm 3 days behind on my daily goals. *sigh*

But I'm here, and I'll share what I know about setting smart goals.  I still have a lot to learn.  Obviously.

Last week we looked into the Who, What, When, Why, How of setting goals.  Today we're going  to double up with the M and the A in SMART.  And both use two words each.

MEASURABLE

As it asks in the graphic above, How will you know when you're done?  A relative question, since a goal without end isn't a real goal.

A goal is something to work toward.  With writers, that goal can be a number of things.  The most popular are page goals and word count goals.  A goal might be to write a book, but that can often be more easily measured by the number of pages or number of words you'll need to write.  My books run between 58,000 words to 60,000 words.  Someone else's might be double that.  A novella might be a little more than half that.

The writers group I belong to offers two different chances to work toward goals.  One is short term, the other much longer.

Our short-term group is what's called BIAW or Book In A Week.  No, we don't expect to write a book in a week, but it doesn't give us incentive to write.  Although it's supposed to be a week, we extend it an extra day, so our week is actually 8 days.  (Hat tip to the Beatles.)  We do it twice a month, every month, beginning on the first Sunday through the second Sunday, then turn around and do it again on the third Sunday through the fourth.  Before it begins, those who want to participate declare by email how many pages we've set as our goal for the week.  My goal, beginning this coming Sunday, is 50 pages.  I know I can do it, but I'll have to work hard to reach it.

The second group is our yearly Word Count Challenge.  This is our third year.  In January, we declare our goal of words written during the year, and at the end of each month, we announce our monthly word total.  A spread sheet is used to keep track of each member's Goal, and both monthly and accumulated total.  The first year we tended to overreach.  Our group's yearly total goal for 2013 was 910,000 words.  The fifteen of us wrote 838,960.  We reached 92% of our goal, 1% better than the year before.  This year our group goal, a combination of all individual goals, is 1,340,001.  (That 1 is a race between two members, both published.)  Will we make it?  We'll try!

Here are a few questions to ask yourself when setting your goal.

• Is your goal is measurable?  Without knowing the specifics, you'll be at loose ends and may not reach your goal or struggle with reaching it.  Maybe you aren't a writer, and your goal is to lose 20 pounds in a year.  Or whatever reasonable and reachable goal of pounds might be.  A yearly goal makes it easy to measure.  Or you want to be more fit.  Walking, running, exercise all need goals, too.
• Can your goal be broken down into smaller goals?  Easy with a yearly goal.  There are twelve months in a year.  If I'm writing a 12 chapter book at approximately 60,000 words, I'll have to write 1 chapter per month/5,000 words.  You can break that down to the number of scenes or number of words.  Decide how much time you have for writing, and you'll know how many words or pages you'll need to write each day.  And you don't have to write every day.
• Are there other priorities that come before writing?  If you're a mother with small children or a working woman, or a working woman with children, huge chunks of writing time are hard to find. (Men also have priorities, the same as women.) Some people get up an hour earlier in the morning, some stay up an hour or two later.  Some people write during their lunchtime.  Some write during baby/child's naptime.  When is your best time?
• Will it be possible to work on your goals during holidays and/or vacations?  My daughters are grown, but holidays still roll around each year.  I've written during Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, summers full of grandchildren, and helping other family members with their own goals and schedules.  I do get more done on weekends, but for some people, this isn't always the best time to hole away.  Be sure to factor in the things you know in advance that will take time away from your goal.  Work around those time.  It may take a little less sleep, less television or movies, or something else, but it comes down to priorities.  Family is always first priority.
• What happens if sickness intrudes and messes up the goals?  It happens to the healthiest of us.  If it does, and you fall behind on your short-term goals, don't beat yourself up.  When you feel up to it, work a little on your goal, but don't wear yourself out and end up being sick longer.  That's counter-productive.  If you have to make up some time on your goal, do it in small stages.  An extra page here and there will soon have you back on your goal schedule.  The same goes for most everything else.  But don't give up food if you're dieting!!

Give yourself enough time to set reasonable goals.  Rushing into it without giving thought to your lifestyle, demands of others, and the inevitable things that intrude, will only cause you to give up.  That's not what working toward!  When that book, or diet, or exercise routine or whatever your goal is all about is reached, you're done!  And then you can turn around and do it again. ☺

Now for the second M.

MOTIVATIONAL

Is your goal emotionally charged?  Are you motivated enough to spend the time needed to reach your goal? 

1. Do you want to reach this goal bad enough to give up something else you love, once in a while?  Yes, that hot fudge sundae is calling you to take a spin to Sonic, but think of that weight-loss goal.
2. Do you have the energy to carry out the goal?  Training for a race can be grueling.  Staying up late or getting up early to do whatever it's going to take to reach that goal must be done in moderation that will keep you going, not lead you to giving up.  Goals can be adjusted.  Missed goal-working time can be made up.  But if you find you're not getting enough rest, and you're falling asleep at work or during your favorite TV show or your son's soccer game or daughter's dance recital, it's time to adjust the goal-work that's causing it.

Last but not least, we're to the two As.  All of the letters in SMART are needed for setting your goals.  Don't skimp, don't skip.  Think it through.

ATTAINABLE

Is your goal realistic?  We took a look at this last week with Will it Work?  Let's face it.  Most of us aren't going to run in the Boston Marathon our first time out.  The majority of writers will not sell their first book.  We aren't going to be an Olympian in only a few short months.  Or probably in a year.  But there are a lot of things that can be done in a year.  If you can break down a yearly goal into small chunks and bites of time or practice or training or whatever, it should be attainable.  Your goal shouldn't take up every moment of your life, but it should be a priority.  If you feel it's taking too much time away from other things, adjust your goal to fit you and your life.

ACCOUNTABLE

We're all held accountable for nearly everything we do.  It starts when we're young.  Remember chores and chore charts when you were growing up?  Mom or Dad made up the list, and we were accountable for getting them done.  Now that we're grown up, we're still accountable...to our boss, or spouse, our friends, even our children.

Can your goal be tracked?  This is a big one.  When it comes to goals, falling back on those chore charts might not be such a bad thing.  There are hundred, if not thousands or millions of ways to track goals.  I use spreadsheets.  And calendars.  Right now, I know I have to write 1 scene a day.  Why a scene?  It has a beginning and an end.  My calendar tells me what I need to be working on, what my goal for the day will be.  My spreadsheets help me keep track of how many pages and words I've written in a day, a week, a month.  They tell me how far I've gone and how far I have to get to the end.  My editor isn't going to accept a 40,000 words book.  I'm going to need a lot more than that.  I'll admit that it can be exhilarating, the closer I get to reaching my goal.  Those last two chapters, those last few scenes, almost write themselves.  I want to reach that goal, and by tracking my progress, I know I can make it or at least how hard I'll have to work to reach it.

There are all kinds of tracking programs and spreadsheets on the Internet for anything you might imagine.  Use one of them or make your own, as I do.  The one thing you have to remember is to KEEP TRACK each day as you work on your goal.  Find the best way to be accountable.

If you have a friend or family member who you can count on to keep you accountable (Did you write today?  Did you walk that two miles?), it's a lot easier to stay on track.  And be sure it's a friend who wants to see you succeed, not one who will lure you away from your goals. :)  Buddy-up with a friend, if h/she is working on a similar goal.  Encouragement from others can go a long, long way.

And you thought setting goals would be easy?  Nothing is easy.  But the rewards are magnificent!

Next week we'll work on the Rs=Relevant and Responsible.  Yes, more thinking and planning.  Before you know it, you'll be setting goals for all kinds of things.  And reaching them!

It is not enough to take steps which may some day lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

All Work and No Play...

I'm in the midst of revising rewrites.  Sounds crazy, doesn't it?  I've rewritten 30,000 words of a nearly 60,000 word manuscript over the past month.  Not the most fun way to spend the first day of a new year, but it is what it is, and nobody will do it for me.

Monday is my goal to have this done and sent to my editor.  At the rate I'm going, there'll need to be an extension.  The holidays, family, and friends have taken more time than I'd planned, but I don't care.  Family and friends are important, and I won't give them up for anything.

I haven't made it through the first of the eleven chapters yet.  I've been making notes, re-reading the notes from my editor, and making more notes.  One way or another, I'll shove, pull, smash and whatever else it takes to get this right.  Or as right as it can be.

No, writing isn't always a joy.  I have a feeling of dread that the new writing I've done on this may be a bunch of dreck and not at all what it should be.  On the other hand, I know there are some things that are better than they were.  Definitely not the same, that's for sure.  I'm rethinking everything, probably more than I should.  Paranoia is rattle the door to my mind, but I'm trying to ignore it.  Final deadline for this is January 20, giving me a little more time.  But I have a February 24 deadline for another book, so...

I work weekends, evenings, late nights, and whatever small bits of time I can find during the weekdays.  Very little time for TV and fun things, although our family enjoyed Christmas together and New Year's Eve was spent playing Trivial Pursuit and ringing in 2014 with oldest daughter, granddaughter, son-in-law and my youngest daughter.  Today my four girls (and their children) went to their dad's for a grilled chicken dinner.  I'm sure they left stuffed and satisfied.  A good thing, since time to cook at my house has shrunk.

But today I'm revising those rewrites and probably writing a few more new words...to take the place of the ones that will need dumped.  Such is the life of a writer.

Daughters are back, so it's time to hear how their afternoon went.  I hope you and yours started the new year on a high note, and 2014 is filled with everything good.  Stay well, stay happy!

May your New Year flourish with new discoveries, wonderful inspirations, and happiness to fill your heart. ~ unknown

Time, Schedules, and Crazy Life

Prepare for a whine.

Time?  Not enough.
Schedules?  Overrun
Crazy Life?  Totally

My #3 daughter is getting married in two weeks.  I'm not that involved in the wedding preparations, but I'm not completely out of the circle of planning and doing.  Just listening takes a lot of time.  Most days and weeks, I have that time.  Right now?  Uh, no.

#4 daughter, the youngest, is now working part-time in the office where #2 daughter works.  This means another pickup trip during mid-day.  I now have one drop-off and three pickups.  Longest period between each is less than three hours.  And that's only the weekdays.

Except for last weekend, every weekend is full until after the wedding.  Although the plans for the weekend fell through, youngest and I, along with oldest, spent time shopping for a dress I will wear to the wedding.  I'll be walking the bride down the aisle, so it does matter.  And I hate shopping for clothes!

But it's these next two weeks and weekends that may prove to be my undoing.  This week is parent/teacher conferences for grade schools in our city.  Since Wednesday, students have been let out at 1:30.  Next week, middle grade students will let out at 12:30...the same time I pick up youngest daughter at work.  And then Thursday and Friday, no school for everyone!  (That sound you hear is my headed banging on my desk.)  If I look on the bright side, that means no running back and forth to take and drop off students.  I'll accept that as a plus, but it means we're back to summertime madness for two...full...days.

Upcoming weekends include Woofstock, our state's Humane Society fundraiser, and this year we're taking Max.  I'll post photos next week.  The next weekend involves the bachelorette party at a local eat-and-drink club.  This is the first I'll get to attend.  Usually, I'm the babysitter.  This time I said NO.

The wedding, with reception, dinner and dance, is the final event.  Wouldn't a vacation be perfect after that?  But by then, I'll be in the middle of writing a proposal (3 chapters & full synopsis) for the next book, due a month later.

My plan was to have this current book polished and sent to my editor early.  My goal now (along with prayer) today and for this weekend is to finish that polish.  Yikes!  I'm almost two weeks behind on the schedule I made, but at least I'll make deadline.  Life does get in the way. I live by the old saying, "No rest for the wicked."

The point is that we all have schedules, and there are times in our lives that are more filled with to-do's than at others.  Crazy times.  We get through them, rest a while, then end up with our noses to the grindstones or hands on the steering wheel and foot on the gas pedal, only to do it all again.  It's the cycle of our lives.  Sometimes a short lull turns into a long and boring downtime, and we all know that isn't mentally healthy.  We all need goals to work toward...and those shouldn't be goals of sleeping the day and night away.  (That sounds heavenly!)  And we need those quiet times in between to catch our breaths.  We survive.

Make it fun, no matter what.  Get up and dance!

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. ~ John Lennon

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

My apologies for the missed blog last week and this week's being late.  My daughter's bridal shower was held last Saturday, and the days prior to it were filled with chaos.  Such is life. :)

Yes, it's goal-setting time again!

Fall is quickly sneaking up on us, although a high of 92 yesterday made that hard to believe.  But we're cooler today, and fall is in the air.  Fall is my favorite season for just about anything. :)

I've never been a "scheduled" person.  Most schedules have been given to me.  With four daughters, there were schedules set by others (school, Girl Scouts, sports, drama, etc.) that I had to follow to keep life within the bounds of sanity.  Add in the fact that we were a farm family, and nature dictated our schedules.  I am, by nature, a fairly laid back person.  There are those who might say I tend toward laziness, but I chalk that up to my being a more cerebral personality.  (Hey!  It sounds good, right?)  But over the years, I realized that, although I could get things done without a schedule and long-term goals, life often became chaotic.  And sometimes those goals were pushed aside.

I've had to re-evaluate, over the years.  I've learned to do things in different ways.  I've learned that setting goals, especially with writing, keeps me going.  I really like proving to my inner critic that I can do what I set out to do.

That re-evaluation took time.  My current manuscript will be my fifteenth published book.  While that isn't a large number for some, when I look back, I see how much I've grown, not only as a writer, but as a person.  And I expect to continue growing.  I continue to learn.  School is always in session!

One of the keys to setting goals is making adjustments.  This particular book has been filled with those.  But this time I didn't sit on my hands, waiting for news of a contract or rejection.  I put my butt in my chair and my hands on the keyboard (aka BIC-HOC) and worked on other manuscripts.  In just over two months, I wrote two books.  Luckily, the first three chapters of both books had been written and only needed some small changes.  No deadlines, no parameters with the plots or stories, I wrote for myself.  This did two things for me.

1. For the first time in several years, I wrote with the freedom to tell stories that didn't fit the parameters of what's currently selling.  My only goal was to finish them and discover how long it might take me.
2. When I finally received the contract for the current book, I was able to jump right into writing it, without the usual warm-up time. (HINT:  If you don't keep the writing muscles toned, getting back into writing after a long spell of non-writing, it takes a while get "in the writing groove.")

You don't have to be published to set goals!

I learned to set goals early on when I decided (actually was coerced by my writing friend) to enter writing contests.  The deadline was then set for me, and I had to set smaller goals to reach that big one.  I entered many.  Results varied.  And knowing in advance that if, by some crazy chance, my entry might lead to a request for a partial or full, I made sure the entire manuscript was finished.  You know, just in case. ;)  That paid off for me.  I'd been making the final rounds in some contests, earning second and third, but had never won a contest.  For the first time, I entered a contest without having finished the manuscript.  While it was being sent out to judges, I finished it.  That entry one first place in the Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Contest and the full manuscript was requested by the senior editor of the publishing line I'd targeted.  All I had to do was a quick polish, and off it went.  Eventually, it became my first Silhouette Romance, Rachel's Rescuer.  The door had opened.

With that open door came deadlines...and revisions and edits, oh my!  I felt like Dorothy in the Land of Oz.  Fitting, considering I'm a Kansas girl.  I learned to write on a fairly daily basis.  Those revisions had to be made and had to be done by deadline.

The road to publication has twists and turns.  Sometimes, along the way to that first contract offer, I wanted to give up the fight, become a "normal" person and stop writing.  But determination and some pushy friends kept me going.  So did one thought.

If I quit now, I'll never know if I might have made it.

 I landed on the Yellow Brick Road.  That road contains twists and turns.  Silhouette Romance closed, and I had to find a different line where my writing fit.  It took a while.

Sometimes the Wicked Witch of the West came along to try to stop me. That Wicked Witch being the Demon of Self-Doubt.  I still haven't found the bucket of water to throw on her and probably never will, but there will always be times when I laugh in her face and tell her that she won't get the Ruby Slippers.  I will write.  I will set goals.  I will reach those goals.

Now is the time for all good writers to set goals.  If you're not a goal-setter, start small.  Start slow.  Use your brain, as the Tin Man did.  Keep writing--on a fairly regular schedule--so you don't have time to rust, as the Tin Man did.  Be courageous, as the Cowardly Lion did, and submit your work, whether to a critique group, contests, or editors.  You'll find many Wizards to help you along the way!

It really was no miracle. What happened was just this... ~ Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz

Life's Little Adjustments & Changes

Roll With the Changes.  Or so says REO Speedwagon.

Changes are hard, and the older we get, the harder it is to make changes.  But let's face it.  Trying to fight change is an effort in futility.  It's much better to roll with the changes and make the adjustments needed.

That's where I am.  Rolling.  Making adjustments.

We're finishing up our second week of school today, so life is getting a little smoother.  I have four trips each day to two different schools, so I'm on the road for short periods of time.  When I head out on the two afternoon trips, I leave early and take something with me to read, edit, or sometimes I even play games on my Kindle, if I feel I need a real break.  It's quiet time for me, something that's in short supply in the summer.  I like quiet time. ☺

We're even having to adjust to weather changes.  We started the summer with hot and dry.  In July, we finally had rain to ease the drought of the last few years.  That rain picked up and ran into August.  At the halfway mark of this month, we'd had two days when it didn't rain.  It got a bit soggy.  Now that we're nearly done with August, it's hot and dry again.  I have no doubt that will change.

While we don't always like changes, we'd get bored without them.  Beginning something new, finishing something old, and looking forward to more new things keep us going.  And isn't that what we want?  To keep on going?

Have a blessed end-of-summer, and roll with the changes it brings.

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. - Alan Watts 

Surviving the Insanity

We've all experienced those times when we wonder if we'll beat the craziness that's descended on us.  For me, it's been the past 2+ weeks.  And it isn't getting better.

For the past few weeks, I've been working on what I hope will be the last (or last two) books in my Hearts of Desperation series.  It's time to bring an end to what has become, at this time, eight books, set in and around the fictional town of Desperation, Oklahoma.  To do that, there are storylines that need to be wrapped up.  For instance, there's an 80-something woman, who's been seen following/chasing an 80-something man around town for many years.  They have their own story to tell and maybe find their own happy-ever-after.  Babies have been born...with maybe a few more to come...and the children who have appeared early on, have grown in the last five years.  Couples have married and are settling in to enjoy small town life.  I've loved writing these books and the characters in them.  They're like good friends and a part of me.  But it's time to bring it all full circle and say goodbye to them.

You're probably asking what that has to do with surviving insanity.  Easy answer.  After surviving a week+ of Spring Break last month, we now have two more days of no school with grandkids--5 of them--to keep safe and somehow entertained.  It may be mid-April, but the weather today says it's late February.  Cold.  Rain.  Dreary.  Not the best environment for fun and games.  At present, the oldest and youngest boys (8 and 5), are doing their best to destroy my living room, with help from the youngest girl, who's 3.  The two older girls (10 and 11) are across the street, avoiding the mayhem with a friend.  By the way, the "we" above is myself and my youngest daughter, the aunt of the five.

And I'm trying to write.

I need to write.  I have to write.  The characters in my head are calling to me to tell their story.  We've been down this road before.  This is the third round for them, but this time we've hit on a winner.  Or hoping we've hit on a winner. ☺  But trying to write, while blood-curdling screams are coming from another room, just isn't easy.

I've already missed two weeks of blogging, and I decided that this time, I wasn't going let that happen again.   So here I am.  No special topic today, no writing about the art and craft of storytelling.  Only a simple statement to assure everyone that there are days...and more days...when the outside world can't always be shut off from the world we live in while creating.  As the Rolling Stones so aptly put it, you don't always get what you want.

With one chapter done, I'm itching to move on.  I'll do what I can, between saving the lamp with the now damaged shade and mourning the folding table I expect to collapse from the weight of two boys, who simply don't understand that it is not made of strong wood.  It's a fort, a cave, a place to hide out, while watching a movie.  For now, it's relatively quiet, but I really should go check on that crash I heard.

It is only when we silence the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.  ~K.T. Jong

Goals are Set. Now What?

MOTIVATION MONDAYS

Today marks the official last day of the first week of the new year.  Our goals should be made.  In theory, we should be moving forward on them.

Reaching our goal is like climbing a staircase.  We start at the bottom by deciding what it is we want to accomplish, then step by step, we move toward it.  That takes motivation.  The key is knowing what each step involves so we can more easily get to the top aka Our Goal.  That's where a little planning comes in.  My goals won't be the same as another's, but there are a few steps that we all can take to make the trip easier.

As it was last year, my goal this year is a specific word count.  Because of that, I have a good idea of what I can do in that amount of time.  I set last year's goal at 120,000 words.  I included both blogging and book word count and ended up nearly doubling my goal. This year I'm sticking totally with main writing word count, which I've increased to just over last year's total.  A quick look on the right will show that I haven't made any progress yet.

Why no progress?  For nearly two weeks before Christmas and after New Year's Day, there have been five grandkids, ages 3-11, here from morning until evening.  By the time they leave, I do well to know my name.  Now that they're back in school, I can relax and work some during the day.  (3-year-old will still be here during the day.)  What I realized last night is that I've been waffling, not knowing for sure what I specifically want to work on this year.  I gave it some thought yesterday and last night, and I now have a clear idea of what I'm going to do.  Of course it can change, but I can look up that long stairway and see the top.  I know how to work my goal.

Stuck with no idea of where to start?  If you're working on a specific book/manuscript or more than one, it doesn't matter whether you've set your goal to write to the finish or if you'll use page count or word count as your goal.  By now you should have broken that big goal into smaller ones.  You should also know what you want to work on.  That puts you one step up.  Forward motion!  What's left is each of the rest of the steps aka mini-goals.  It's like losing weight.  We do it day by day, pound by pound, whether dieting or exercising or both.  Writing goals work the same way.

There are a few things that can help make the journey easier.

1. Know what kind of story you'll be writing.  Whether it's romance, suspense, paranormal, inspirational or other, have an idea of 
2. Know your characters.  Not just their names, but who they are, what they do, and especially where they came from.  This is where GMC comes in.  This doesn't have to be done in a day, and quite often when the writing is moving along, we often discover things about characters that we didn't know when we wrote the first words or even chapters.  Or even more often, we've had these characters in our mind for some time, growing little by little.
3. Know where your story is going.  This doesn't mean your book must be completely plotted or even a little plotting, but if you know where it needs to start, what the main turning point will be, and some kind of an idea of how it will end, you can go from point to point more quickly and smoothly, without a major panic attack.
4. Know when your best writing time is and write on a regular schedule.  I'm guilty of not doing this as much as I should, so it's something I need to work on.  Remember, the more often you write, the easier it becomes.  You might even get lucky and make it a habit.  If you know on Monday that you're going to be writing the second scene of chapter four on Wednesday, you can be thinking about how that scene will play out.
5. Know in your heart that if you get behind on your mini-goals, you can still make progress and quite possibly still make your goal.  You missed a day writing on your 3-page-a-day goal?  Write one extra page for each of the next 3 days, and you're back on track.  Or give up an evening of television to make some progress.  Your goal isn't over until the time is up.

If you've found some ways to keep yourself motivated through the year-long goal, share them!  We learn not only from what we do, but from others do, too.  

Let's make 2013 the year we meet and maybe even exceed our goals.  I'm willing to try.  How about you?

Everyone has inside himself a piece of good news! The good news is that you really don’t know how great you can be, how much you can love, what you can accomplish, and what your potential is! - Anne Frank

Final Friday

Have you set your goals for 2013?

It's Final Friday, the last Friday of 2012.  There are only four days left of this year to begin, work on, and finish the list of goals we'll be working toward next year.  This time next week, we'll be four days into the new year.

It's goal setting time!

It's hard to stay productive without knowing where and how you're going.  That's how goals help us.  My local writing group has been working on a goal all year.  Actually, we've each had our own word goal which is part of the overall word goal of the entire group.  We'll be talking about a new word count challenge at our January meeting and how we can make it more successful than this one.  We've all learned something this year about goals and writing, so next year can be even better.  The following are a few of those things I learned over the past few years when setting and trying to reach goals.

• Murphy's Law of Goals: When working on a goal, especially a year-long one, life will always intrude.  Try to build in extra time when setting your goal.  If it's early in the goal and you discover you're behind, there's still time to make up for lost ground.  Write an extra page or the equivalent word count of a page each day or twice a week.  Your odds for catching up are fairly good.  If it's later in your goal, just keep working and don't worry about the deficit.  Any progress, no matter how small, is PROGRESS.
• Never give up because you've fallen behind.  Dumping a goal is the worst thing you can do.  Giving up gets you nowhere, and you'll always wish you'd kept going.  Recognize why you're not staying on goal and try to correct it, if possible.  If not, keep going.  Sometimes miracles DO happen!
• Don't expect perfection.  Write first, polish later.  It's easy to write a few pages, then spend days, even weeks, going back over and fixing this little thing and that little thing, never making real progress. It's true that we can polish the shine out of anything we work to death.  Never surrender.  Write now.  Fix later.  Remember, you can't fix a blank page, except by putting words on it.
• Have a road map of where you're going.  Whether your goal is two pages a day or ten, having an idea of where your story is going and who your characters are will make the writing much easier.  This doesn't mean you have to have a complex plot, complete with twenty page synopsis.  It simply means that you need to have a solid idea of who the story is about, what's going to happen to him/her/them, and how the conflicts will be resolved.  Plan ahead.  If that means planning only a few scenes or chapters ahead, go for it.  Having an idea of what's going to happen when you sit down to write will be one step closer to getting words on paper.
• Celebrate each small goal you reach.  We all tend to be harder on ourselves than we should be.  When we don't reach a goal, we frown, grumble and brood.  When we do reach a goal, we too often don't give ourselves even something as simple as a pat on the back or a "Way to go!"  Reward yourself, even if it's nothing more than an hour reading, watching TV, napping, or spending extra time with family or friends.

What did I learn this year?  Taking a look at my stats-to-date, I see I need to make some changes.  I'm amazed that I surpassed the word count I'd set as my goal.  This past year, my word count total included both regular book writing and also blog writing.  In 2013, I plan to significantly raise my regular writing goal and keep the blog word count separate from it.  This year my word count goal will be 175,000 words.  Having learned that I can write more than I thought I could, there's no reason not to raise my goal.  

For those who set a goal for this year, but missed meeting it, don't give up.  A new year is just around the corner, and learning from our mistakes is a blessing.

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. - Edith Lovejoy Pierce

NaNoWriMo: When Word Count is Your Goal

WRITING WEDNESDAYS

If you haven't been paying attention for the past ten plus years, you might have missed hearing about National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo.  I admit that until a few years ago, I was clueless and had no idea what that "gibberish" meant.  Since then, I've become more enlightened and given quite a lot of thought to participating.  If I didn't seem to always fall in the middle of some kind of deadline, I would have jumped in last year or even the year before.  The same holds true for this year.  Unfortunately, revisions don't net 50,000 words, as a rule.  (I have managed to accrue a few thousand, though, so imagine what that means. ;) )

For anyone who thinks that writing 50,000 words in a month (NaNo runs each year from Nov. 1 through Nov. 30) is an easy task, it isn't.  Okay, back in the day when I first started writing towards the goal of being published, I could write a 50,000 word book in three weeks or less.  And some of those books written that fast weren't half bad.  They weren't always half good, either.  But let's face it.  A book written that quickly is basically nothing more than a first draft.  It takes me longer now to write that first draft.  To write a book from scratch via NaNo, I'd have to write more almost three times faster.  Oy vey!

There are tricks to writing a first draft that fast, and one of them is knowing who your characters are and where the story is going.  Trying to do it with no road map will probably net the writing a lot of rewriting in the future.  For those who enjoy rewriting and revising, this is a plus.  For Geminis like me who get easily bored with the SaMoSaMo, it's not so great, but for others who have polished and tweaked their process...WOW!

There are tricks to writing for NaNo or for any type of fast draft writing.  If word count really is your goal, but you want to have something to substantial to build on, have a plan and especially a system.  I encourage you to look around for hints and tips and the processes of others.  Then, as national bestselling author Anna DeStefano says:

"Listen to what I do, watch others, then figure out your own process and how best to improve how YOU write. So YOU can draft better and more productively and have what you need to rewrite something brilliant from those rough first words."

and check out her new blog post, How We Write: Drafting freedom.  You don't want to miss it!