Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Quick April Goals Update

[Normally this would have been a post for Thursday 4/19 instead of Wednesday 4/18 but I hit Publish instead of Save and there's no good reason to pull it back. Just pretend that Thursday came a few hours earlier tonight...]

Today's post is going to be quick. Things have been going well lately writing-wise and relatively calmly (though very busy) life-wise. I've got several ideas for more extensive blog posts, but need to sit down and work with them.

What I'm going to do today is a quick check-in on my April goals.

1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - As you might recall, I added an option to my Daily Writing Chain to spend 45 focused minutes on revisions. So far, having that certainly hasn't been a problem. In fact, I think I've only made that my sole qualifying writing activity for the day one time. If anything, I should be trying to spend even more time on revisions. I think at this point I'll keep this as an option for my Chain; it will replace the "personal journalling" option which I had never used and which -- at this point -- feels unnecessary. I've got plenty of other work I can be doing.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - Done. (And... shhhh... it's already sold, too!)
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. - This one may or may not happen. Other projects have taken priority both for myself and for the person I'm getting feedback from, so there's a good chance I won't get around to doing this in April. If not, it will likely show up as a May goal.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - I'm actually ahead of pace, sitting at 5224 words for the month as of yesterday. I also have two new story ideas beating down my mental "doors" so I've got to think getting those over 2300 words in shouldn't be too difficult.
5) On 4/30, have two non-time-sensitive blog posts written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - This hasn't gone anywhere this month. I still have two "almost-ready" posts like I had last month but that doesn't cut it. "Almost" ready doesn't do me any good if I have a day I don't have time to blog.
6) Relaunch the Dissecting the Short Story series on my blog - This one's coming along nicely. A week from today (or, at the latest, a week from this coming Monday) I'll be doing a DtSS post for Ken Liu's "Memories of My Mother." It's a fairly short story; if you have time between now and then, give it a read and join in the discussion!

I'm thrilled with how everything stands at this point. April is shaping up to be my best writing month in a little while, possibly even my best so far this year.

I hope that everyone else is finding things moving along smoothly with their goals!

4 comments:

  1. Wonderful goal achievement. And I'm quietly throwing confetti for your sold short story!!! YAY!!

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    1. Thank you! Hoping I can announce the details soon.

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  2. You are so organized, Michael! I sit in envy of your ability to stay on top of everything! And good luck with achieving your goals for this month. :)

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    1. Thanks, though I'm not always as organized as I'd like. There's that unfolded laundry, etc. ;-)

      I did make some time tonight to finalize one of those two almost-written blog posts, so that's something else that I'm a bit closer to than I was before.

      Thanks for stopping by!

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