Writing Goals and Weekly Goals

 

Image Credit: Startup Stock Photos on Pexels

At the beginning of the year, most writers come up with one or more writing goals for them to accomplish in the new year. I’m one of those writers, but sometimes, I will create a weekly goal for myself as well. These weekly goals don’t happen every week; just when there is a reason for them to happen.

 

Like this week. I usually have just ONE weekly goal, but this week, I had two.

 

I have a short story that I wrote some time ago which I wanted to submit to an anthology call. That deadline was coming up, so I knew I needed to spend some time revising that short story so that I could submit it in time. I decided that my weekly goal for this week would be to complete revisions on this short story.

 

I started working on the revisions for this short story on Monday and, because I worked on it every day, I finished the revisions on Friday. I was happy with this new draft of the story, so I considered the revision stage for it complete. After I fixed it up and gave it a final read, I submitted it and the story was accepted for that anthology. Yay! Not only was I happy to complete revisions on that short story and achieve one of my goals for the week, but I was also happy that the story was accepted.

 

My second weekly goal was to fill in all of the boxes for this week in my planner. To give you an idea of what that means, here is a random page with all of those boxes.

 

This may not seem like a VERY important goal to anyone, but it was important to me. After I had two VERY productive days of filling in those boxes at the beginning of the week, I decided, why not take on the challenge to fill in all of them for the whole week? So I did.

 

And I totally SMASHED it! 

 

 I’m so happy that I was able to achieve that goal this week. There were a few rejections, but also a few acceptances. Yes, those extra things may have been more of replacers and not so much a show of what other work I did on those days, but they ARE a part of my workday all the same, so they still count.

 

Having a writing goal for the year is great, but weekly goals can really help strengthen a yearly writing goal as well. Even so, my weekly goals sometimes hinge on deadlines and what needs to be done NOW. Writers can use weekly goals to help them achieve their yearly goal, or do what I do and use them to meet deadlines, complete activity on a writing project, or keep the writing going strong.

Making Time for You: New Ebook Shares the Simplicity and Necessity of Self-Care

 

This post is late because January ended on a good and bad note. Good because I was able to self-publish an ebook before the month was out, and bad because my aunt died and I learned that a friend who has been battling cancer for months was entering hospice.

 

I didn’t know it was possible to work on self-publishing stuff while crying until then.

 

Then, on February 1^st, I learned that another friend had passed away. I was too depressed to even think about the new ebook.

 

Yesterday, I was holding my breath, bracing myself for more bad news. Thankfully, 2-2-22 passed without anymore bad news. It wasn’t a good day for me, but it wasn’t a bad day either. So I call that a win!

 

Anyway, on to the news!

 

Sometime ago, a friend and fellow writer, Jenn Greenleaf, took on the challenge to write and self-publish an ebook for every month of the year. Of course, being the superhero that she is, she was able to pull it off! (Yay, Jenn!) I was so inspired by this that I decided to take on the challenge as well. That idea was renewed as the beginning of 2022 drew closer. Also at that time, I was reading ebooks that were available for free through Kindle Unlimited. I noticed that there were A LOT of writers publishing ebooks through Kindle Unlimited. I wanted to get in on that too!

 

So I took these two things – my desire to do the writing challenge and my desire to publish ebooks through Kindle Unlimited – and put them together!

 

Now, I have NEVER published through Kindle Unlimited before. I started dreading it, especially when another writer I know was dealing with a lot of headaches in trying to publish through Kindle Unlimited. But I was still willing to learn how to do it. I had to give it a try!

 

As to the ebooks I would use for this challenge, I already had a series of ebooks that I wanted to use for … SOME purpose or another! And since there were 12 of them, I thought, why not use it for this challenge?

 

Even so, the final list of books to use for this challenge was not the same as the original list of books I wanted to write for this series. The reason why is because I did research on the market for some of them and realized that some of them were not going to work. There was really no demand for them. Also, some of those book ideas were conceived on a whim, and I no longer felt they would have an audience. So I culled the ideas that didn’t work and turned them into ideas that would. For example, the book idea on ways to reward yourself became a book on self-care and the book idea for “my ghost stories” became “true ghost stories” that included stories from other people. The book idea on freelance writing was turned into an idea for a book containing writing challenges. Finally, an idea for a story collection was moved to another project and replaced with a different story collection idea.

 

The first book in this challenge was about self-care. I spent a lot of time before and during January doing research on this topic. By the time I was done, I told a friend I think I have read enough about self-care to last me a lifetime! That’s when I knew I researched the topic to death. Heh.

 

I managed to write the book in one week. I spent the weekend going over it – editing and revising as needed – then, when the time came, I sent it out for edits. When the edits were complete, I reviewed the file, finalized it, then got started on the self-publishing process. I already had the cover for this book thanks to my subscription with Shutterstock, so that was already taken care of.

 

I read and watched a lot of tutorials on how to publish through KDP. Getting the tip to use Kindle Create was a BIG help because I was able to get it ready to publish in the format of an ebook. My first attempt using Kindle Create took some time to get used to, though. I kept saving, reviewing, fixing, then doing that all over again probably a dozen times! But I finally got it just right and sent it in for publication.

 

Self-Care Suggestions Book was published near the end of January and I was so thrilled to finally get it out! YAY!! I am so happy I was able to figure out how to self-publish an ebook on Kindle and I am grateful for all the tutorials available online! I am also grateful that I am now joining the ranks of the Kindle Unlimited authors. Now I get to say that among the many ebooks I have available, I also have some available through Kindle Unlimited.

 

And because it was my friend Jenn who inspired me to take on this challenge, I dedicated the first ebook to her.

 

I am currently working on the next ebook for February.

 

Meanwhile, here is the blurb for Self-Care Suggestions Book and the link to where you can get it for FREE on Kindle Unlimited.

 

In today's busy world, it's easy to forget that while we are busy of taking care of everybody else, we need to take care of ourselves too. But when it comes to taking care of ourselves, what exactly do we really need? How can we make time for self-care in our already busy schedules? This book will answer those questions and more.

 

In this book, you will learn:

 

·        What is self-care?

·        Why is it important?

·        Do I need to pay for self-care?

·        What types of self-care are there?

·        What kind of self-care routines can I use?

 

 

By taking the time to arm yourself with the knowledge about what self-care is and why it is crucial to practice self-care routines, you'll start to feel better about yourself and empowered to take on whatever else life throws at you. Self-care is not selfish! This book will show you just how easy, affordable and practical self-care really is.

 

Check out this book and download it for free on Kindle here.

Fatigue and writer's cramp

There are certain daily habits which I try to follow. Reading in a book for at least 30 minutes. Reading the whole newspaper. Cleaning the house. Writing something (anything!). Getting fresh air. And taking a nap. (I'm one of those people who STRONGLY believes in the health benefits of naps.)

Well, I haven't been able to read the newspaper for 2 days. The only chance I had yesterday to close my eyes for a "nap" was for 10 minutes before I had to get busy again. Most of my reading was on the computer and on the Internet, when I was editing a manuscript and researching an interviewee to put together my interview questions. But, boy, did I do A LOT of writing yesterday!

In fact, I do believe that yesterday was my most productive day as a writer so far.

I started my day working on a new book. Yes, a NEW BOOK. I am writing ANOTHER nonfiction book, even though I promised myself NO MORE NEW BOOKS to work on now. (Everything I get ideas for goes on my project checklist. There are over 40 books on there!!) But I seem to be the only person best suited to write this book, since it DOES focus on something I follow as far as being a writer is concerned. (Sorry, I won't go into details at this point!)

Next, I started tackling the manuscript edits. In between that, I wrote a blog post on my MySpace blog. I wasn't able to do my allotted chapters in one sitting but I DID manage to edit all 7 before I went to sleep at night. (I was in bed with the last 3 of those 7, staying up until 1:35 a.m. to finish them.)

After that, I wrote an 8-page essay for one of my essay collections. EIGHT PAGES!! My hand SERIOUSLY had some writer's cramp after that! And even after I wrote those 8 pages, I later realized there were certain points I'd left out, notes which I jotted down in the margins. (Well, I only had an hour to write that essay, so I forgive the oversights!)

Now add that up. That's THREE DIFFERENT BOOKS I worked on yesterday. Three books!! (Wow, I really know how to rotate between them, don't I? LOL) I have NEVER done that before. Wow, what an accomplishment! I felt so good about it last night, but of course I'm not going to let that accomplishment go to my head. But, more importantly, I'm not letting that be my ONE accomplishment as a writer! No, sir. Time to aim for a new one!

(The funny thing is, as I was cleaning, I began to wonder if I would be able to pull off working on 3 different books in one day. How very interesting I ended up doing JUST THAT that very same day!)

And I STILL managed to do my mom stuff yesterday AND clean up the house. I wasn't, however, able to get much of any rest. Like I said, I only grabbed about 10 free minutes to just close my eyes. By day's end, I was soooo tired, yet I was able to stay awake to watch a movie like we do every night (last night's movie was "Memoirs of a Geisha." I have not YET read the book but I enjoyed the movie). I also still managed to write yet another blog post yesterday, this one on my Palms to Pines blog.

So all told, yesterday I did the following:

--Edited 7 chapters in a novel manuscript.

--Wrote an essay for an essay collections manuscript.

--Started work on a new book.

--Wrote 2 blog posts.

Wow. I am not trying to brag, or anything. I just really feel so taken aback that I managed to get so much writing work done in one day. Seriously. WOW! My muse was really on fire. I can't even begin to figure out how to tally up my word count for the day, but I am confident it is waaay past my daily quota of 2000 words.

Still, the writer's cramp I suffered from that essay-writing marathon still lingers even today. (And here I am, typing. I'm such a sadist. LOL) I am going to soak my hand today and hopefully that will help. I have 5 more chapters to edit today. We'll see how much else I do.

The week is almost over. Hubby will be home on the weekend. I am hoping this means I will be able to get some rest. I think I need it; I almost collapsed while standing in line at the store, holding a gallon of milk! (I think that weight was tempting me to lie down.) I was sooo tired when I was awakened by the alarm at 7:30 this morning. I almost fell out of bed because of that! (Haha! I kept chuckling over the image replaying in my mind; reaching to turn off the alarm then sleepily turning over to lie back down, only to fall OFF of the bed in the process. Well, I didn't fall off -- but I ALMOST did!) As I lied awake in the bed this morning, lost in thought (I do that instead of jumping out of bed right after the alarm goes off), I began to ponder just how much writing I will be able to get done today. So far, I have this blog post. What ELSE will there be -- besides manuscript edits?? The pain in my hand sure wasn't encouraging that I'll get much done, but what I managed to do yesterday is sure acting as a strong initiative that, just maybe, I will be able to keep it all up.