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Debra reviews a goal she set back in November.
Back in November I posted about a resolution/goal I wanted to accomplish with my writing. The excerpt from the post is this:
So, my resolution/goal is to do a read-through to refamiliarize myself with the intricate ins and outs of the story, add to the word count, polish up the mss again, and submit it to my editor at TWRP right after the first of the year. The Press closes for a couple of weeks over the holidays, so I figured that was a good time frame. It also gives me time over the upcoming holidays when I'm off for two weeks to actually spend time with it.
Now it's a little over a month later and two days into the new year, and I am happy to report I am actually making very good progress on my goal!
I printed out the mss and did a read-through to refamiliarize myself with the story. Check.
I've done some polishing and editing. Check.
And I've added about 2500 words to the story, which means I'm about halfway to the 5000 I need to add. So, half a check.
All in all, I am feeling pretty positive about the progress I'm making. It's nice to be in a writing groove again.
Things left to do are:
Bring the word count to the 65,000 required for print at TWRP.
Finish edits and polishing.
Submit to my editor when the Press reopens next week.
Then I'm hoping that even though it's a busy time of year for me in my 'real' life, now that I'm in a groove again, my muse will continue to speak to me and I can make some headway on my WIP "One Great Night".
I wrote down from somewhere the acronym SMART. As in you need to be SMART when making goals. They need to be:
S - specific
M - measurable
A - action-oriented
R - realistic
T - timed
With my first set, I think I've met all of the SMART requirements. For right now, the work on the WIP is a bit more open ended, but worth putting out there in a motivation sense. Hopefully I can tighten up that goal and apply the SMART tactic to it as well.
How about you? Any writing goals for 2014? And do you have a system you follow for making your goals and checking them off when you're done?
Until next time,
Happy Reading and Happy New Year!
Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
Sounds like you've made great progress, Debra. And I love that SMART goal setting key, although I do think sometimes that's hard to maintain with creative things.
ReplyDeleteMy goals are not as defined as yours yet, Debra, but I just got back from a week in NYC where I helped my daughter plan her 2014. (It's 30 below here and one of our two house headers broke so I am typing in gloves.)
ReplyDeleteClients ad friends are emailing for 2014 astrology updates, and I'll do those. I need to order garden seeds for this spring.
I have ideas for marketing my soup mixes.
I will finish my WIP and send it out. Then start another.
It's going to be a great year!
Congrats on the progress you've made, Debra!
ReplyDeleteMy goals:
to complete 'Different Worlds' which I feel as if I've been writing forever!
to take part in a blog tour in Feb/March to promote 'Irish Inheritance' which comes out in February
to do some research about the start of the 1st World War and decide whether my 'Ben and Louisa' story idea is feasible.
Yay, Ladies! Looks like we've given ourselves something to strive for in 2014!
ReplyDelete