October Goal Wrap-Up and November Goals Defined

Each month I go through a goal setting and measuring process. Today I'm looking back at how I did in October and looking forward to November.

First,the October results:

1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - Barring something unusual happening in the next few days, done.
2) Write and submit one brand-new story. - Done. And it's already been rejected from its first market, too. Yay?
3) Revise and submit one pending story each week. - Two and a half for four. I'm tempted to call it three for four, but the third story didn't get out the door all the way yet. A fellow writer agreed to give it one final look-over before I submit it for the first time and what I got accomplished last weekend was "just" getting it to that stage. However -- and perhaps her opinion on the story will lead me to rethink this opinion -- I feel very good about the changes I made and suspect it will only need minor further tweaks.
4) Submit a story for the Codex Halloween contest. - Done.
5) On 10/31 have two non-time-sensitive blog posts written and ready to post on a day when I'm not otherwise able to post something "new." - Didn't happen. I'm semi-abandoning this goal in general for the moment. As part of my early-2013 goal to reformulate my blog strategy, I'll probably revisit how I go about stockpiling blog post "inventory" for busy times.
6) Read thirty short stories. - Nope. #storyeachnight totally fell off my radar around mid-month and I also got pulled into reading a novel.

Another decent but not outstanding month. Still, put enough decent months together in a row and you'll have quite a lot accomplished.

Now for my November goals:

1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - Standing goal.
2) Write and submit one brand-new story. - Another standing goal as part of my Write 1/Sub 1 monthly commitment.
3) Revise and submit one story from my backlog. - I'm going to chip away at that backlog until it's all gone, one way or another!
4) Finish a draft of my story for the Codex Novella contest. - The goal is to write 20,000 or more words. If I do so successfully, it will be the second-longest piece of fiction I've written. I wish I had a better sense of whether the idea I have for my story will carry the weight of that many words but based on similar stories from within the genre, I think there's a decent chance it will. Either way, I hope to have fun with it.
5) Enjoy myself at PhilCon. - One of my goals for this year was to go to one or more genre conventions. I went to Pulpfest back in August and then attended Context in September. Next month will be my final 2012 convention - PhilCon in Philadelphia. I'm very excited about the trip and the opportunity to meet some more of the writer friends I've made online.

I hope that October has been a good month for my fellow writers and that November will be excellent as well!