Goals What Your Goals for the Week of November 25th, 2019

[Sunny Irene Roth]

Hi ladies!

Guess what?! We are on the last week of November already!! I hope you are completing your writing goals as you planned. If not, please be sure to reach out to me and I will definitely ensure that I get you back on track. You can either let me know under this thread, or email me directly at [email protected].

So, what are your goals for this last week of November? Please post them under this thread.

Also, what are your goals for December. The Holiday season will be starting in December for a lot of us. So, plan what you will do for a few weeks in December now so that you don't get carried away with all the flurry of activity that December has to offer. Don't forget, you are a writer whether it is the Christmas season or summer. Therefore, you must get some writing done every week in order to be a self-confident and productive writer. You don't necessarily have to write a lot necessarily. But you must write SOME. I usually set a goal for a few hundred words a day for myself for the week leading up to Christmas. That way, every morning for about an hour or so, I do my writing for the day, and then I join the festivities. Decide on what that word count is for you. It could be as low as one hundred words a day or even fifty words. Just do SOME writing.

Don't forget, you can participate in the WordWonders Modified NaNo and even track your numbers every day. If you have written a few thousand words and haven't posted the word count yet, please do so anytime. This challenge will be going until January 30th, 2020.

That's it for now!
Have a great and productive week!
Irene S. Roth

 

[Nikki Weston]

Thanks for this Irene. I think it's an important point you make, about making it a priority to do even a little writing over the holidays, I know it will be a critical part of my sanity as Christmas here in Ireland is always bananas and in general it negatively affects my mental health and sense of well-being.

So I will for sure think about December and make out a plan (I will post this tomorrow if you don't mind, my brain is tired after an intense few weeks of what feels like non-stop work).

My goals for this week are:
To get my paperback version of Safe Hands corrected, formatted, and uploaded.
To get a physical proof of same and proofread it.
To take a much-needed break from the Safe Hands project and write something else instead ;-)
To have a morning of self-care.
To apply fixes to the already-uploaded e-book manuscript.
To jot down the lessons I've learned from this paperback-pubbing process (and pitfalls I need to avoid next time).
To read up on how I can set up an email newsletter signup post in Facebook.

The first goal is done. There's been a healthy demand for the paperback version of Safe Hands, and there have been several offers and opportunities to promote and market same (I need paperback for things like this - the e-book is exclusive to Amazon and almost all of the opportunities are in the real world), hence the importance of getting it done. I worked hard the past 5 or 6 days to get through the various formatting and uploading problems. I am tired now but it is done and it is a huge weight off my shoulders.

It makes me more confident leaving a this has been a big project that will call for a lot of promo and marketing but writing it all down allows me stay calm and patient with myself, and also allows me to move confidently onto a new writing project. I will have to get used to having several published products that sometimes require time from me even while I'm working on something new. For the first time in the last few months, I feel confident that I can move on to my next writing project without leaving too many unfinished tasks, and that is really reassuring. This whole process of self-pubbing is something I've had to take slowly and carefully, and today was the full realisation of this.

 

[Kashmir Kitty]

Hi, Irene.
I have just one goal for this week, which is to write at least 3 days this week, at least 30 minutes each time. I just finished my first of three days now.

Beth

 

[Jennifer Evelyn Hayes]

First, my main goal this week is to get better at posting my goals here! Hee hee!

Second, my goal for this week is to attempt to finish 50,000 new words for November for the first draft of Book #2 of a contemporary romance novel series I'm writing. I am farrrrrrr behind with this particular goal by November 30th, but I'm still going to do my best to get as close as possible! If I don't meet that goal by the 30th, I'd really love to finish this first draft the first week of December so I can get back to editing Book #1.

My writing schedule for this week of Thanksgiving can't really handle more than that, so I'm going to keep plugging away on this NaNoWriMo project with gusto!

 

[Mel Corbett]

My goal for this week is to continue chunking along with my revisions. I’d like to revise through Book 1, Chapter 11 (I’m on Chapter 6 today). Again, working at minimum of 15 minutes a day.

 

[Lauren Watson]

Hi Irene, you are so right!! Prior Decembers I've been so busy with activities that I regretted not getting enough writing done. It had a negative snowball effect on my sense of accomplishments. I won't allow that to happen this December. I have held off being a vendor at fairs most, leaving just two in December for holiday sales. Wouldn't you know it, there's a snow storm prediction on Sunday, December 1st, the first fair. Could this be the universe speaking to me?

Making it my top priority to do a little writing every day, especially over the holidays feels really good about its importance. Ditto with Nikki, I feel it will be a critical part of my sanity with Christmas preparations, gift wrapping, putting the tree up, cooking and the like can have a negative impact on my mental and physical health and sense of well-being. That's why I'm officially joining the fitness center today, Black Friday, and will continue working out on the treadmill 3 days a week. If I can do more, yeah for me! The physical activity will also help me get to bed earlier and sleep more deeply at night.

My goals for this week are:
- Friday 11/29 - Write 2 hours (eta 1:00-3:00pm) , enjoy blissful 1 hour Massage (self-care)
- Saturday 11/30 - Write 2 hours morning and squeeze in 1 more hour in afternoon.
- Sunday - jury is out, based on latest weather forecast we'll decide if it's safe for me to drive 1+ hours out to sell at holiday fair that may end early due to snow storm.
- Read about e-book publishing (Irene's handouts) and decide on a topic to write for online publication. I need to get experience with this venue and see how I do. I will be looking for your wonderful guidance on this, Irene!!
- Future: learn how I can setup a Facebook page to draw people in on topics of how religion and science can work in harmony together; start a following for my soon-to-be traditionally published book series !!
- Future: learn about really good publicists, what they'll do, the costs, which NY Times #1 best selling authors have had great success with specific publicists. Track all of this information in a spreadsheet.

I'm feeling more confident that I can move into traditional publishing by pitching to agents and publishers on a regular weekly basis with the vision of receiving contract offers and a bidding war commences. I LOVE THIS VISION.