Tag: goals

Goals Revisited

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Before I turned 30, I had the goal of 10 stories published. While I didn’t achieve it, I still hit that number before my 31st birthday.

So what was next?

As I write this, I can’t remember. And I’m too lazy to go back and check what I wrote about it. However, in the last month, I have been making myself think and decide on a goal for the rest of the year. There are five months left in 2022 and I’m going to make it count.

So I think my end-of-year goals will be;

  1. Self-publish one story.
  2. Have a completed first draft of a second story.
  3. Have the plan for a third story (mostly completed).

I’ve got a few ideas from back in 2020 that I still need to get around to. So maybe they can be the other stories. But I also have this one little gem from the beginning of this year that I’ve started.

One Month In

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Been in the UK for a full month now. In the meantime we got a new place, I got a new job and just had my first covid jab. In the next few days we’ll be moving our stuff into the new place and settling in. It’s hard to believe that in just under a month how much life has changed and not changed at the same time. I’m not sure where we’ll be in 6 or 12 months, maybe we’ll still be in Edinburgh, maybe we’ll be back in Australia.

I have a few goals that I want to compete by the 6 month mark. I want to:

  • Finish a new first draft.
  • I want to publish that story.
  • I want to build up savings of over a thousand pounds.
  • I want to hit the gym and get down to my goal of 55kg.

I am hoping to have all that done by January 1st 2022.

Another Edit Complete

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What originally started as a 6-ish thousand intro to my longest manuscript ever, has turned into a nine and a half thousand word prequel to the same manuscript.

Every time I finish an edit I think to myself, good it’s almost done. But then I go back and edit it again and I’m like wtf? Why am I seeing all these mistakes and poor writing? I thought I got rid of it last time.

I guess the saying you never really finish a work, you just get tired of it, rings true (or there abouts).

Well, I have finished my latest draft and I think it’s pretty decent 🙂 Maybe I might even bring up my publication date 🙂 I had actually forgotten that the date was April 30th. I thought it was the 1st of April so I rushed through another edit and cover creation. But when I realised I was like ha! At least I’m up to date. So I think this story will be out by then or even sooner.

First Project of the New Year: Becoming Stardust

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I’ve got my first project underway. It’s related to my YA sci-fi that I had written in 2016/17. I’ve taken the first 7,000 words from it and turned it into a prequel short story. It’s called Becoming Stardust, and the novel is being re-titled Stardust as opposed to theThe Cadetship. It was always felt a little out of place with the rest of the novel because of a time jump. Anyway, I’m editing it now and holy moly, it’s all a sea of red. I must have leveled up somewhat since I last touched this piece. I know that Stardust is going to be needing the same level of input which is why it won’t be published for a long time. Becoming Stardust is going to be free and I’m hoping for it to generate interest for Stardust.

I making a hard date of having it done and dusted on April 30th. So that is 107 days or 3 months and 17 days 🙂

To do lists

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I’ve set goals in the past. Done things like post them to this blog as a form of accountability. I’ve usually achieve some but not others. In the last year I’ve pretty much been lazy about it. I’d list everything on piece of paper and then forget all about it. But I got the genius idea to actually find a goal check list on word templates and see what pops up.

So I found something that might fit me and put in my goals for the next six months. I’ve added the expected completion dates in hopes of pushing me along. Maybe if I view everything as an assignment then it might change how I see it.

The immediate things I want to complete this year is to publish Matt and Rose, hopefully within the next six weeks 🙂 I want to complete the manuscript for my other story, so far titled, Those in the Forest, by the end of January.

Days 81 – 90

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I haven’t done anything related to writing or editing at all. However, I do not feel bummed out. I think that is an improvement. In the last few days, I have however thought up a third story during this pandemic. It’s a portal fantasy and I have only the bare bones of what I want to happen. But I’m going to have a fun adventure with it.

I’m not productive enough and I feel shit about it

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I’ve been in the Netherlands for six-ish weeks now. I literary arrived the day before everything shut down, so it should have been a paradise for me. I was already going to have some time off work so I had been psyching myself up to it.

And then I get here and my ability to perform fails.

I’ve made some progress editing the beginning of a novel (which I gave up on). I also started a novella that’ll I have done by the end of this week. I’ve been keeping track of what I’m doing and I feel terrible about all the days where I did nothing. All that lost potential. Why can’t I make writing and editing a 9 to 5? It’s almost like I have burnout again, but I’m not sure if I do. It doesn’t help that I’m having a lot of negative thoughts that have no relation to my life at present. They are taking up a lot of time in me. Maybe it’s because I can’t socialise in person anymore.

It’s not a good day unless I’ve written more than 1k and I hardly ever do that. It’s not a good day when I spend hours playing computer games, even if I do manage to write. That’s still time spent elsewhere. From memory, I used to be so efficient at writing. But now my body and brain says no 😦

So where do I go from here?

I’m slowly getting things done, but not to my liking. Do I just keep chipping away at it? Maybe I have to as I can’t seem to do anything else. Maybe having a day job was something that improved my writing. It gave me some eustress about my finite time and made me manage what I had. Now I have all the time in the world I have no immediate rush to do anything 😦

31 – 40 Days

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Digital-artistic-Sketch-of-a-Dragon-1146713332_2092x1438My writing is slowing down mainly because I don’t know where I’m headed. I had a decent beginning and now the sagging middle has set in. I also don’t know where and how this story will end. I’m on the fourth chapter and 14 000 words in. I still planning on this being a novella but because I don’t really have a plan, I’m not sure. Once it hits forty thousand it becomes a novel, though I don’t think it will be that long.

I watched a video for people unsure about their stories to write out a synopsis to pin down what they want to happen. Maybe I should do that. It’ll clear up the white pages in my mind.

 

  1. Nothing.
  2. 1200 words.
  3. 1200 words.
  4. Nothing.
  5. 1500 words.
  6. Nothing.
  7. Nothing.
  8. 800 words.
  9. Nothing.
  10. Nothing.

2020 two book goal

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I’ve decided what my two stories are for my 2020 goal are. It’s the witch story and Tune In (landing page TBA). I’ve already got my prequel Jumpstart almost completed and are now working on the next book in the series. I have no idea where about the story will end, but I think I will have a lot of fun with it.

I’ve given myself the goal of writing 500-1000 words a day on either story so I can at least finish it. I have no idea how long either is and I’m mostly winging it by planning a couple thousand words ahead each time.

New goal

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My original plan of having self-published 10 stories by my 30th birthday will not come to fruition. I’m a little put out, but I’ve already got seven out and I’ve got more stories. So I’m planning to change my goal to publishing two stories by December 2020. I think that’s a manageable goal for me. I’m not too sure which stories I will publish, as I’ve got a bunch semi-completed. Maybe I should complete some novellas before starting the first draft of a full-length novel, but it’ll depend on where my energy lies.