Hi all,
Apologies for the delay in getting this list to you Irene, I jotted it down on paper, and am only getting to type it this morning. There's a heck of a lot on it, I'm a bit nervous as I tend to put a lot on myself as we've discussed. But I also am getting better at managing my expectations and my time, and forgiving myself when I don't get stuff done that I wanted to.
There's been a bit of a development in my family and I want to try and ease the pressure of money. So this month is partially about looking for paid work, kicking off what I hope will become a revenue stream or two. I want to start earning (can I say 'again' when the money before was so small? ;-) ).
I also want to start subbing work again. I've a novella that could find a home if only I looked, I've short stories that are healthy-ish. Might need a few hours' work each, but they've never gone anywhere, and I want to start sending them and seeing if they yield any cash.
Anyway, here are August's goals:
Top priority goals:
- to write on DiMauro novel
- to write every day, first thing.
- to treat myself well, practising kindness, flexibility, and compassion to myself.
- each weekend, to spend 30-60 mins planning (life and writing and family and meals etc)
- to finish Act I of DiMauro novel and write first 2 scenes of Act II.
- to write on DiMauro during family vacation, 1 hour per day.
- to enjoy my family and our vacation time.
- to spend 2 hours a day (on kids camp days, they have just 4 such days) on work that could pay me.
- to schedule an uninterrupted August Sunday or a Saturday to allow me work on stuff that could pay me.
Second priority goals - I'd be delighted to complete even 1 goal in each of the subsections below:
Children's fiction
- to outline 3-5 stories of my idea for a children's picture book series
- to read August's lectures from Irene
- to think about and jot down what kind of Children's writer I think I am (Will think about my parenting style for this and what kind of kids' book I get a kick out of, or my kids enjoy)
Adult novels
- to read the 10-page outline of NLB novel
- to read the draft of NLB novel
Articles
- to spend some time thinking about freelance opportunities, jobs that will pay me.
- to contact the editors I worked with before to offer my services (the company we worked for is now bust, but I am guessing the two ladies are working for someone else, and I want to network and find out if there are any paid writing jobs where they are).
- to brainstorm 6-7 ideas for a post/article I want to sub to an online writing magazine (unpaid gig but it may give me some exposure and professional networking, I met the woman in charge of same a few months ago and asked if I could write a piece for her, she said yes, and I've not contacted her yet. She's a literary scout, so probably little chance of any paid work, but I think this could be a good opening) - STARTED THIS
- to pitch my best 3-5 ideas above to aforementioned writing mag. Proposed wordcount 500-800, so it's not taxing time-wise.
Short fiction
- to submit July's short story to UK magazine The People's Friend
- to line up another submission home for July's short, a fall-back if TPF pass on it
- to tidy up another short story I have drafted (Majella and Una story, 5 hours' editing needed)
- to review the dozen or so shorts I worked on a few years back, to see if any could be fixed and sold.
- to find a publisher for an erotic 15k word novella I have and sub it to them.
Lowest priority goals
- Think about how my September-December mommying and carpooling will go, and whether (and how) I can insert early morning writing into it
- Have a Word document or two open for ideas and concepts that come to me. I do have paper notebooks, I write ideas into them, but somehow rarely seem to go back to them for writing. Instead I go to the Word docs and see what pops out, what juxtaposes together, and that seems to work well for me. My laptop has been living in the kitchen this summer and it's not gotten smashed or spilt on, and I've managed to throw random ideas into a few different Word docs these past few weeks. STARTED THIS
- draft workshop ideas for the chairwoman of Writers' week, a contact I made at an annual writers festival here in Ireland. I asked if I could send her some ideas and she was keen. That was June.
Gee, that's a lot, but it's all been in my head, and it's nice just to get it down somewhere. As I say, I'm not expecting to get it all done, I guess these are August and September things really, October too I guess.
Thanks for reading - Nikki.
