First Quarter Goals Review
This started out as a What’s Up Wednesday post. I even published it and went to link it when I saw that’s no longer a thing. So this may seem a bit disjointed, but I’m kind of ready to get off the computer and eat some breakfast, and don’t feel like making it smoother. 🙂
First off, I finished the first draft of THROUGH CLOUDED EYES and I did it early, even! Wahoo! I finished it on March 29th, two days early. The word count is definitely low, but that’s always the case with my first drafts. I’ll layer in more introspection and detail as I revise. Plus, I need to add at least one more chapter. But I’m not thinking about that for now because I have a completed first draft!! And it feels soooo good! I’m going to let it sit for at least a month, though I’m still submitting chapters to my writing group on occasion, so I’m not getting a completely clean break from it.
I was supposed to get to ILLUMINATE THE NIGHT as soon as I finished TCE, but we started the month with lots of sickness in our house. I’ve been napping every day with Turbo, instead of writing. And I don’t feel bad about it. That’s how life is sometimes. But I need to buckle down. I thought I could go ahead and start writing, but I realized the changes I made are negating some aspects of the existing plot, so I need to do more tinkering before I can get to it. The thought was really discouraging me last week, and I told my writing group I was wondering if that means I should just give up on it, but they emphatically told me that NO I shouldn’t give up. That was encouraging to hear. I’ve been working on this story in some form for over 6 years now, and it’s hard to know if I’m too close to be subjective.
In January, I set some goals for the first quarter of the year. Let’s see how I did:
-Finish the first draft of THROUGH CLOUDED EYES. I’m currently at 30k of a projected 80k. Totally doable. SUCCESS!!! HUZZAH!!
-Decide what to do about the currently-drawered ILLUMINATE THE NIGHT. I love that book and I believe in it, and I need to figure out its future. SUCCESS AGAIN!! HUZZAH X2!
-Get a rough draft of my publishing plan. More on that later. Another success! I’ll post about this soon–promise!
-Decide about my super secret idea. Obvs, more on that later. So, I was thinking about offering editing services, but have decided against it for the time being. My life just isn’t in the right place right now. And that’s okay. But–this is a success! Yay!
-Blog every week. Start blogging about mental illness too. Fail. Not even close. But I’m not stressing about it.
Some non-writing-related things I want to do this year:
-Send birthday cards. I’ve never really done this, but I want to change that. Because everyone likes real mail. Success so far!
-Cook dairy-free, grain-free dinners. The Mister is mostly paleo for bike racing, so I’d like to make dinners we can eat together as a family. And it’s good to end your day with a healthy meal. Fail! And I don’t care! It’s been a stressful first 3 months of the year, and I’ve been in survival mode for much of it.
-Get back into couponing. I’m actually starting that this week! Fail! Hah!
-Budget on a weekly basis. Gulp. Another fail!
So, I got 5 out of 9 goals. That’s over half. Not bad! I haven’t thought about any for the next quarter, so I’ll ruminate on that the next week and come up with some for next week.
#yafiction #youngadultbooks #fantasybooks #creativewriting #youngadultauthor #garthnix #youngadultfiction #yafantasy #fiction