Lecture WEEK OF JANUARY 25TH, 2016 LESSON AND ASSIGNMENT

[Sunny Irene Roth]

Hi all,

Here is your lesson and assignment for this week.

Have fun with the lesson!

~ Have a GREAT week!
Irene

 

[miesje1984]

I think I am confused at the living document journal. Is it where we write a to do list of shorts that we hope to get to or is it more like a vision/dream board?

 

[WorkingBackwards]

Lesson Week of January 25, 2016
Savvy Authors

What’s missing from my writing life and life in general that will help me achieve my goals?

I may be at a disadvantage because I haven't done the previous lessons, but…I honestly don't know what this question means.

Regarding people to help me:

As far as the writing goes. I have good critique partners, but I'm always looking for new ones. They are hard to come by and I treat them well. I work with graduates of Lawson Writing Academy. We all speak the same language, use the same EDITS system and understand story structure. So our critiquing sessions are efficient. We meet regularly.

My husband is a big support. He takes care of supporting us, so I'm free to write.

My daughter is always willing to provide an objective read of large swaths of my work. She's an avid reader and studying to be an English teacher. She always provides thoughtful commentary.

I've hired PR people for my book launch. Don't know how that's going to go, but I'm hopeful.

Living document journal.

??

Not sure what this is.

1. Fill out the reflective assessment sheets in this lesson. Submit them for assessment.

Done.

1. Start a living document journal. Let me know what you are going to use.

??

1. Start a writing diary (if you haven’t already) and let me know what kind of system you will be using.

This may be something from a previous lesson. You mean like a word count journal? Or 'what I did today?'

1. Create your yay me file (if you haven’t already). Let me know how you will acknowledge your yay’s this year.

I think this is in a previous lesson.

 

[greta-g]

What’s missing from my writing life and life in general that will help me achieve my goals?

I’m really embarrassed to say many of the recommended tools are missing from my writing life. I have begun a social media presence, and my website needs to be updated, but is currently free. I never thought about who I needed to help outside of professionals such as editors, agents, or publishers. Now I see a bigger picture, and how these other professionals could help me. So I think I need to start with the business tools, all of them, and build into the training and the people as I go.

Which of these do your currently have? Which do you need? What roles will they fill in your goal setting and business growth? Do as much reflection about this as possible.

Person

I need a person. While my husband and my girls are very supportive of my writing and motivate me when I want to just give up, they are not able to really help me be accountable or help increase conversions, or brainstorm for ways to increase sales. I would love to find a writing person or mastermind group to work with.

Role

I think I would need their role to be just someone to bounce ideas off of, someone I could trust to tell me to get my ass moving or be honest about what they think is not working and not sugarcoat things for me. Someone I could help and support as much as they help and support me.

Create a Living Document

Okay, so I’m understanding that the Living Document has to do with writing about the business tools, etc. that I use and then revisiting it every quarter and writing about what works, what doesn’t, the new things I want to incorporate, etc. If that’s the case, then I already have some social media tools, but I’m thinking about revamping them a bit. I love Twitter, but I’m not too sold on FB and my target market really isn’t there anyway. Other things I would add would probably getting a professional website created, something that will incorporate some of the other tools, like a shopping cart and the ability to capture information for a mailing list.

Greta

 

[caren gallimore]

What's missing from my writing life and life in general that will help me achieve my goals?

-Support and self-confidence. I'm not sure when I lost both or when I stopped looking for it but I have very bad habits as far as looking for support. I have become a closet writer. I no longer tell ANYONE that I write. I'm just now realizing how detrimental this is to my writing.
-The ability to focus on one project at a time.
-Sticking to a plan once I create one. I think this ties in with the first one. If I don't honor what I do, it's hard to expect others too.

Person:

My support comes from WordWonders. I would like to get more support from friends and family, possibly in the future.
In the meantime, I am entertaining joining southwest Florida chapter or Colorado chapter writing group for when I move or visit there.

Role:
Again, WordWonders seems to meet all the criteria I can handle at the moment.

Living Document:
I have decided to go into a larger planner than the one I have used. It is a Franklin covey classic size with the season planner by Planner pads that I put into 1 planner.
I have been having trouble focusing lately so I plan to keep everything in this planner except for my journal, which will be online in the life journal.
But, back to my living document, if I understand this correctly- I will use it to self evaluate each day, kind of like a inventory of my day. I will set solid goals for the day and then evaluate at the end of the day to see if I met them and if not- why.
My life is made up by my days. So- if I account for my days and make adjustments daily, hopefully I will keep my life on course.

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

I think I am confused at the living document journal. Is it where we write a to do list of shorts that we hope to get to or is it more like a vision/dream board?

Hi there,

No, a living document is much more like a quarterly statement on how you are doing. You can write in your living document more often if you wish, but it is there to help you improve and to let you assess how you are doing.

I will present a live chat on what a living document is soon this month.

So, stay tuned for that.

Try and answer the rest of the question, okay?

~ Irene

 

[Lisa Creane]

What I have

• Ideas
• Supplies
• Reliable computer
• Support (husband and family)
• Guidance (this group)
• Peer group (my local RWA is great)
• Time
• Financial security
• Aspirations
• A body of (mostly completed!) work to polish and submit
• Ability and energy to improve craft and productivity
• Insight into weaknesses
• Tech skills (website, blog)
• Vision of myself as a published author (including realistic understanding of different demands, challenges, distractions)
• Requests from editor I want, agent I want (both without a timeline, of course )

What I need:

• Deadlines (in terms of writing completion. I almost think of a "Finish File" on this forum to just post the damn thing somewhere and then set goals on what to do next)
• Quiet (a very hot commodity in my house, though I'm gearing up for 4:45 wake-up for Bootcamp. I'm on Day 3, relatively okay with that)
• Division between home and work life (ongoing challenge)
• Sense of urgency
• Plotting group (mine has drifted away)
• Beta readers (the comments I'm getting aren't all that helpful to me; still pondering here)
• Less staff for my son, which I know is counter-intuitive but hiring, training, supervising and managing the 5 staff I have (I manage them through a Dept of Developmental Services budget, with a fiscal intermediary) takes up huge chunks of my week. I started counting a couple of weeks ago and it's upwards of 20 hours a week. This is for 40 hours or so of services, because they need my help more than I need theirs sometimes. I'm thinking about consolidating the hours into one position to simplify my life and free me up during daytime. I'm thinking "au pair" but that's not really on the table. Still, it's one of those "gifts" that has a constant, high cost. I'm going to think more about this over the next month.

Thanks for this assignment Irene. I printed all this out for my Living Journal

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

What I have

• Ideas
• Supplies
• Reliable computer
• Support (husband and family)
• Guidance (this group)
• Peer group (my local RWA is great)
• Time
• Financial security
• Aspirations
• A body of (mostly completed!) work to polish and submit
• Ability and energy to improve craft and productivity
• Insight into weaknesses
• Tech skills (website, blog)
• Vision of myself as a published author (including realistic understanding of different demands, challenges, distractions)
• Requests from editor I want, agent I want (both without a timeline, of course )

What I need:

• Deadlines (in terms of writing completion. I almost think of a "Finish File" on this forum to just post the damn thing somewhere and then set goals on what to do next)
• Quiet (a very hot commodity in my house, though I'm gearing up for 4:45 wake-up for Bootcamp. I'm on Day 3, relatively okay with that)
• Division between home and work life (ongoing challenge)
• Sense of urgency
• Plotting group (mine has drifted away)
• Beta readers (the comments I'm getting aren't all that helpful to me; still pondering here)
• Less staff for my son, which I know is counter-intuitive but hiring, training, supervising and managing the 5 staff I have (I manage them through a Dept of Developmental Services budget, with a fiscal intermediary) takes up huge chunks of my week. I started counting a couple of weeks ago and it's upwards of 20 hours a week. This is for 40 hours or so of services, because they need my help more than I need theirs sometimes. I'm thinking about consolidating the hours into one position to simplify my life and free me up during daytime. I'm thinking "au pair" but that's not really on the table. Still, it's one of those "gifts" that has a constant, high cost. I'm going to think more about this over the next month.

Thanks for this assignment Irene. I printed all this out for my Living Journal

Hi Lisa!

Wowzer! A 4:45 wake up!!!!! You are serious lady! GREAT!!!!!!!

I love your list of what you need and what you have. It is great to know what we need isn't it? I really do think that it can take our writing career to the next level!

And yes, do write this in your living journal!

Take care, and talk to you soon!
Irene

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

What's missing from my writing life and life in general that will help me achieve my goals?

-Support and self-confidence. I'm not sure when I lost both or when I stopped looking for it but I have very bad habits as far as looking for support. I have become a closet writer. I no longer tell ANYONE that I write. I'm just now realizing how detrimental this is to my writing.
-The ability to focus on one project at a time.
-Sticking to a plan once I create one. I think this ties in with the first one. If I don't honor what I do, it's hard to expect others too.

Person:

My support comes from WordWonders. I would like to get more support from friends and family, possibly in the future.
In the meantime, I am entertaining joining southwest Florida chapter or Colorado chapter writing group for when I move or visit there.

Role:
Again, WordWonders seems to meet all the criteria I can handle at the moment.

Living Document:
I have decided to go into a larger planner than the one I have used. It is a Franklin covey classic size with the season planner by Planner pads that I put into 1 planner.
I have been having trouble focusing lately so I plan to keep everything in this planner except for my journal, which will be online in the life journal.
But, back to my living document, if I understand this correctly- I will use it to self evaluate each day, kind of like a inventory of my day. I will set solid goals for the day and then evaluate at the end of the day to see if I met them and if not- why.
My life is made up by my days. So- if I account for my days and make adjustments daily, hopefully I will keep my life on course.

Caren,

Awe...my heart goes out to you. I know how hard it is to have no one who appreciates your writing in your private life. I've been there...

For myself, I joined a group of writer friends locally, and I find that I can celebrate a lot with them. But I have also found this group especially helpful and also the friendships that I made in this group! I am sure that you have found the same.

I love your goals of working on one project at a time. That will build self-confidence and help you to build on your manuscripts done.

Your living document is coming along too! GREAT!

Have a GREAT week and I hope you will join me in one or two sprints this week!
Irene

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

What’s missing from my writing life and life in general that will help me achieve my goals?

I’m really embarrassed to say many of the recommended tools are missing from my writing life. I have begun a social media presence, and my website needs to be updated, but is currently free. I never thought about who I needed to help outside of professionals such as editors, agents, or publishers. Now I see a bigger picture, and how these other professionals could help me. So I think I need to start with the business tools, all of them, and build into the training and the people as I go.

Which of these do your currently have? Which do you need? What roles will they fill in your goal setting and business growth? Do as much reflection about this as possible.

Person

I need a person. While my husband and my girls are very supportive of my writing and motivate me when I want to just give up, they are not able to really help me be accountable or help increase conversions, or brainstorm for ways to increase sales. I would love to find a writing person or mastermind group to work with.

Role

I think I would need their role to be just someone to bounce ideas off of, someone I could trust to tell me to get my ass moving or be honest about what they think is not working and not sugarcoat things for me. Someone I could help and support as much as they help and support me.

Create a Living Document

Okay, so I’m understanding that the Living Document has to do with writing about the business tools, etc. that I use and then revisiting it every quarter and writing about what works, what doesn’t, the new things I want to incorporate, etc. If that’s the case, then I already have some social media tools, but I’m thinking about revamping them a bit. I love Twitter, but I’m not too sold on FB and my target market really isn’t there anyway. Other things I would add would probably getting a professional website created, something that will incorporate some of the other tools, like a shopping cart and the ability to capture information for a mailing list.

Greta

Hi Greta!

Yes, we all need that kind of one-on-one support. I hope that this group will help you in that way.

But I think in time I will try and create groups of people who would like to join up with another person one-on-one. That way you will have someone to connect with. So, stay tuned for that.

I love your idea for your living document. That is precisely what it is.

Take care, and have a GREAT week!
Irene

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

Lesson Week of January 25, 2016
Savvy Authors

What’s missing from my writing life and life in general that will help me achieve my goals?

I may be at a disadvantage because I haven't done the previous lessons, but…I honestly don't know what this question means. That's okay. Work backwards when you have time.

Regarding people to help me:

As far as the writing goes. I have good critique partners, but I'm always looking for new ones. They are hard to come by and I treat them well. I work with graduates of Lawson Writing Academy. We all speak the same language, use the same EDITS system and understand story structure. So our critiquing sessions are efficient. We meet regularly. I am SO glad for you! This is so important!

My husband is a big support. He takes care of supporting us, so I'm free to write. That is tremendously important and very uncommon for writers in that quite a few of us have unsupportive spouses on some level. So, GREAT!!!!!

My daughter is always willing to provide an objective read of large swaths of my work. She's an avid reader and studying to be an English teacher. She always provides thoughtful commentary. That is wonderful.

I've hired PR people for my book launch. Don't know how that's going to go, but I'm hopeful. That is wonderful!

Living document journal.

??

Not sure what this is. Stay tuned! I will do a part of a live chat on this topic.

1. Fill out the reflective assessment sheets in this lesson. Submit them for assessment.

Done.

1. Start a living document journal. Let me know what you are going to use.

??

1. Start a writing diary (if you haven’t already) and let me know what kind of system you will be using.

This may be something from a previous lesson. You mean like a word count journal? Or 'what I did today?'

1. Create your yay me file (if you haven’t already). Let me know how you will acknowledge your yay’s this year.

I think this is in a previous lesson.

 

[Sunny Irene Roth]

I think I am confused at the living document journal. Is it where we write a to do list of shorts that we hope to get to or is it more like a vision/dream board?

Hi there,

It is a bit more like a vision or dream board.

But stay tuned and answer the other questions for the assignment. I will be presenting a live chat on living documents.

Take care,
Irene