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Posts Tagged ‘writing goals]’

Review of 2014 and Moving On!

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on January 2, 2015| 4 Comments »

I was thinking I only published Fire Wizard this year. But then I realized I actually published Hearts of Evil in 2014, so it was two books instead of one. So I guess I accomplished more than I thought. I did start writing Hearts of Evil in 2013, though, so I didn’t actually WRITE two full books in 2014. Although, since I wrote part of Hearts of Evil in 2014 and ALL of Fire Wizard in 2014, PLUS I wrote some words on a novella and a novel in 2014, it probably adds up to two books. 🙂

Here’s my plan for 2015.

1) Finish and publish the novella written under my other pen name for the anthology I’m doing with another author. Goal to finish: January 31
2) Finish the mystery I’ve started and publish under that same pen name. Goal to finish: Mid to Late March
3) Write and publish at least one title under my Lauralynn name. I have three ideas and don’t yet know which one I’m going with. Goal: Sometime this year.

This is a big thing for me because it will involve a lot of discipline to write that much. No more slacking for me. I have to go into my office and write. That’s the only way I can produce words. No more trying to write with the laptop on my lap while hubby is watching TV.

My PERSONAL goal for this year is to gradually cut down on my insulin until I’m completely off of it by the end of the year. This is a goal I may or may not be able to control. I’ll get to my proper weight by eating better and exercising more. If my diabetes can be controlled this way, that’s great. But sometimes it’s too late for that. I’m going to try, though. We’ll see what happens.

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Oops – A Little Late with my Update

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 21, 2014| 4 Comments »

I totally forgot to post yesterday. There’s not a lot going on anyway. I’m still working on a couple of other things that need to get done. I finished one and am almost finished on another, then one more. I’m not writing as many days as I want to (one day this past week), but I seem to be writing more at each session. I remember back when I could only seem to write about 500 words per day. But I wrote more days. On Friday, I wrote almost 2000 words in one session. So that’s like 4 days worth back in the old days. LOL. I’m hoping to get back to writing 3-4 days a week. Work is slowing down just a bit here at the full time job, so my brain power won’t be as depleted at the end of the day. Our church is doing a food thing for the homeless shelter this week, and I’ve never served at a shelter before, so that’s going to be an experience. That’s going to take up some of my time, but I think this is something that will be well worth it. As important as writing is to me, my spiritual growth is MORE important to me. If I strive to be a better person, I think life will improve in all areas. 🙂

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ROW80 Round 1 2014 Goals

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 6, 2014| 14 Comments »

I often list other goals besides writing goals on these ROW80 posts. This round, I’m going to focus on my writing goals. I might share some of my other successes from time to time, including weight loss, but my STATED goals are going to be writing related. I’ve been too lax on writing, which caused me not to publish anything but a short story for an anthology in 2013. If it’s in my power, I will publish this year. So….

1) Work on edits for Hearts of Evil based on beta readers’ suggestions. I have two beta readers who are VERY good editors AND proofreaders. I’ve heard you should never mix those and that you should have different people for these three jobs. However, this is working for me. Two of my beta readers are authors. One is an editor in her day job. The other is a well-known “seasoned” author. They kick my butt (in a kind way), so it works. My other two beta readers are, well, readers. One has the unedited version. The other will get the edited version. This last one catches typos that others sometimes don’t. Which is odd since she’s 79 years old and doesn’t see well. LOL

2) Work on plotting Fire Wizard starting today. I have a lot of questions already answered based on Susan Bischoff’s Story Toolkit. She’s a little more detailed than I want to be, but I use what works for me. I now just need to write out what will happen in every chapter.

3) Write 5,000 words per week. I’m not going to specify which days I’ll write like I did last time, I just need to make that 5,000 word goal.

4) Publish Fire Wizard by June 30, 2014. I downloaded a simple publishing worksheet set up by Ruth Ann Nordin. I’ve already filled it in with my projected timeline for this book, including word count goals and first draft. The 5,000 word per week goal won’t necessarily be all about First Wizard, although some weeks it might be. I have another project that I abandoned a while back that I might take back up. More on that later.

I hope your eyes haven’t glazed over yet. I tend to skim when people write blog posts that are really long (unless it’s really exciting!), and I try not to go overboard, but these are my goals, and I needed to talk about them. Now I’m going to pop over to some of the rest of my ROW80er’s blogs and see what they are doing this round. You know, in between doing what I’m supposed to be doing here at work. 🙂

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ROW80 Update 11/10/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 10, 2013| 15 Comments »

I feel really good about my progress last week. My word count goal has been 3,000 words per week, but since I set November 30 as the deadline for finishing my WIP, then I realized I had to write more like 5,000 words. The good news is that this week I wrote 5,777 words! I’m really close to finishing this book, and it’s getting exciting. I just wrote, Saturday, an action scene that I’m pretty pleased with. I’m really liking how this book is ending, but I’m almost afraid I’m going to end it a little too early. I need to flesh out some of the scenes, but that can be done during the editing process. I’m glad I’ve finally gotten excited about this book.

My other goal was to visit several of my fellow ROW80er’s blogs. I visited ten last week. I’m glad I got that goal done, too.

I’m really pleased with the way last week went. 🙂

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ROW80 Update 11/3/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 3, 2013| 16 Comments »

My goal is to write 3,000 word per week. I did it this week. I wrote 3,875 on my current WIP. It’s getting really complicated and twisty, but I think I’ve got it under control. I think I’m just within a few chapters of finishing this thing, so I’m really hoping I’ll have a release before Christmas. It’s going to depend on beta readers.

My other goal is to visit several of my fellow ROW80ers each week. If any of you saw my apology post recently, you’ll know I’ve been very neglectful of that lately. I don’t know when I’ll get those visits done because I have a full day tomorrow after church. We’re going to a baby shower and to visit our son and his wife, and we’re going to church with them tomorrow night. They live about an hour away, so it will be kind of late when I get back. But I’m going to try to pop in on some people’s blogs Monday while I’m at work.

So how are the rest of you doing? Who’s doing NaNo? Not me! 😉

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ROW80 Check In 8/28/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 28, 2013| 12 Comments »

In my last blog post, I stated my three main goals for this week. They were:

1) Write at least three hours this week
2) Do at least 15 minutes of housework per day using the FlyLady challenges
3) Get back to my healthy eating habits. (I’ve been doing great on exercise, but my old eating habits are sliding back into my life.)

I was a miserable failure at 2 and 3. No housework to speak of. I’m still struggling with the eating habits. Not TERRIBLE, but not that good, either.

Let’s talk about that first goal. Honestly, I can’t say I succeeded or failed since the week isn’t over. However, I’ve been reading all of Susan Bischoff’s notes on plotting (using the term “notes” is putting it mildly) and figuring out how to apply them to my current WIP. So I HAVE been working on writing stuff, but not actually writing. I’m planning on doing the actual writing on Thursday and Friday, when I’ve got some things sorted out. I usually write more on Saturdays, but since hubby and I are doing our anniversary trip on the weekend, I’m going to try to get my three hours of writing in on those two days.

More writing news. I’ve been tossing around a paranormal romance idea (no vampires or ghosts this time!) for awhile, and I think I’m going to start doing a little plotting with that. I want to see how I do with Susan’s method on something I’m just starting rather than something I’m halfway through. I’m excited about this idea because, like Soul of a Vampire, the title came in my mind before the story. And the cover for this one can be awesome considering the subject matter. Curious yet? 😉

So, how are the rest of you doing so far this week?

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ROW80 Update – Regrouping

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 25, 2013| 25 Comments »

Yesterday, I spent several hours with Susan Bischoff. This is always fun, not to mention that she always inspires me to write. We talked about a lot of things. First, she helped me expand on the plotting I was trying to do, giving me lots of good advice about plot points and where they should be in my story. And I finally admitted to someone (Susan!) that I had been finding excuses not to write because every time I thought of my WIP, I got this scared feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’m AFRAID of my manuscript. (And Susan GETS this.) There, I admitted it to all of you. Honestly, this is very new to me. I used to be able to churn out words with no problem, they all made sense, and I wasn’t afraid to publish them. This fear of my own work is SO not me. But I guess it IS me, isn’t it? I’ve never understood writers that were afraid. Now I get it. You know what, though? I’m not going to let myself be held back by that fear any longer. I’m tired of it, and I’m stronger than this. So there! *blows raspberry at the fear*

So my goals for this week (baby steps, no long term goals):

1) Write at least three hours this week
2) Do at least 15 minutes of housework per day using the FlyLady challenges
3) Get back to my healthy eating habits. (I’ve been doing great on exercise, but my old eating habits are sliding back into my life.)

After this week, we’ll see what needs to be done next.

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ROW80 Sunday Update 7/7/13

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 7, 2013| 18 Comments »

I hope everyone had a nice 4th of July holiday. If you’re not in the US, I hope you still are having a great weekend! I had a lot going on the last few days, especially since my boss decided to close on Friday (unpaid day off) instead of just Thursday. We were able to fill those days with food, family, and fun.

I missed my three days a week writing goal, only writing two days. But my word count was 2831, so that wasn’t too shabby. I would really like to hit over 3000 a week, but I’ll take what I got. It’s been a busy week. 🙂

I haven’t walked on the treadmill for the past two days. I have a problem with my foot sometimes where a sharp pain will shoot through the top of it when I’m walking, and it’s so bad, I almost fall. This is a problem that usually lasts two or three days. The odd thing is that this time, it’s the other foot. I didn’t go to the gym, either. I have no excuse except that the gym is about 20-25 minutes away. I live out in the boonies. The reason I use that gym is it’s conveniently close to where I work, but I haven’t worked the past few days. I’ll get back on track tomorrow. Hopefully, my foot will be well enough to walk on the treadmill today.

How did the rest of you do last week?

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Wednesday ROW80 Update 7/3/13 & Quinoa

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 3, 2013| 7 Comments »

I had gotten into the habit of only checking in on Sundays, but I’m going to try to do better. Part of the reason for that, though, is that many times I wanted to blog about something else that struck my fancy. But, you know, I can always write that and schedule it for the next day. 🙂

I managed to write one day so far this week, so that’s a third way through my weekly goal. During that session, I wrote 1717 words. I look at it this way. I used to have a 500 word a day goal, so that’s more than three days worth. 🙂

I’ve been trying to find a quinoa recipe that looks appealing to me. None have really got me excited about eating quinoa, especially after I tried a boxed quinoa dish. Bleh. Our local health food store sells both white and red quinoa in bulk, so I could get however much I needed. I would like to try both since the taste is supposed to be different, the red being more “earthy” or “nuttier” according to what I’ve read. Anyway, I found this recipe on Pinterest. Looks yummy. Garlic and Thyme Quinoa Patties. I just placed an order with Mountain Rose Herbs, and now I wish I had included thyme and paprika. 😦 Also, here is the link to the whole article 32 Ways to Eat Quinoa and Succeed in Life. I haven’t read the other recipes yet, but I will.

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ROW80 – Round Three Goals

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 1, 2013| 14 Comments »

I’ve thought and thought about what I want my writing goal to be. I don’t want to set a goal that I’m not likely to achieve, but I also don’t want to make it too easy. There has to be some challenge. Although, last round, writing at all was a challenge. So here is my writing goal. I know I can change it if I have to, but for right now…my goal is to write at MINIMUM three days a week for one hour. Those three days don’t have to be any particular days, just three days sometime in the week. And then we’ll see if I need to change that later.

I want to continue my healthier lifestyle. I don’t set weight goals, because our bodies don’t always cooperate, even when we’re doing the best we can. But I want to continue to work out with weights four days a week and walk on the treadmill 15 minutes in the mornings and 45 minutes or more in the evenings.

There is an announcement I need to make today, but I wasn’t sure it was appropriate on my goals post. However, I don’t particularly like to post twice in one day, so I’ll be brief. Smashwords is having a sale in the month of July, so some of my books there are free and some are half-price. HERE is my profile page and you can find my books from there. The coupon code to use is listed at the top right of each book page.

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