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I've set myself ambitious targets for 2011, but hoping it's a good way of focusing my mind on the writing.
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My goals are the same, finish WIP in good time, finish third book for 2012 and get busy with books 2 and 3 for 2013 and ever onward. Another author turned up last night ... but on the brighter side, I think one or two who came forward have backed off, having seen how much work is involved and how much feeling I demand of them. It might all balance itself out in the end.
Hopefully. My targets for 2011 are not all writing related. I want to sell my house to be either mortgage free, or with a substantially reduced one; this will help to give me more time for writing as I could then work part-time. Get my mother's flat ready to be rented, in the hopes that not all the money she and dad worked so hard for will end up in the coffers of the nursing home. I DESPERATELY need to lose weight, as the extra slows both my mind and my body down! after all those biggies we come to the writing ones: edit both my completed NAno novels in the hopes that I may be able to seriously think about sending them off to agents; write final part of the trilogy this year in Nano; give myself a kick up the bum and start entering writing comps, instead of merely thinking about it. Will that do for now????????
I wish everybody the best for 2011 and may all our worries be little ones...
With you on the business front, BTW, we have come through two dreadful years but are at last seeing daylight and think we might survive, just.
I find regular swimming really helps (assuming your local council doesn't close the pool that is). Walking is good to help keep it off (the odd walk to the shops etc instead of always taking the car) but swimming to puff yourself out a bit speeds up your metabolic rate, increases muscle mass and helps you burn off calories. :)
Wont start until Spring, nobody wants to go out in the dark and cold.
What business do you have? I run a boarding kennels in ireland (www.happyhounds.ie) tells you all!
My writing targets for 2011 are:
1. Write/rewrite at least 10,000 words on Dreaming Death
2. Write at least another 10/15,000 words on Fragile.
3. Post something on my blog at least once a week.
4. Keep submitting to Static Movement or other presses.
5. Make an even bigger name for myself.
And my most important target for 2011 is to: Be happy, stay strong, nothing is impossible. (Even if the deadline is tomorrow)
So
1. Make some new friends
2. Complete my hypnotherapy course and start practising and making some money
3. Continue writing so I can a) put together a collection of poems
b) Finish my working in progress (well even if it is only the first draft)
c) Continue attending my weekly writing group
d) Take advantage of one day creative writing courses that are held in the area
4. Lose weight and get fitter
5. Stop smoking and stick to it
(There are a few other lists to do with work on the house or garden but I won't bore you with them, I probably have you snoring already. LOL)
1 - Write something every day, even if it's only a line (or a blog entry).
2 - Make inroads into the writing course, which hasn't really started yet as I haven't had the time with builders in and everything.
3 - Lose weight, Pixie I understand exactly what you mean about eat more and lose weight as I have to do exactly the same.
4 - Promote myself a little more, there are galleries around here that I can get work into, I just need to get the work together to do it.
5 - Look after myself, have spent so long looking after everyone else I am in serious need of some TLC.
Think thats about it.
For me it's the number of articles to get accepted, and the number of magazines they're accepted by. Also the number of short stories.
1) Edit first draft
2) Continue researching...maybe that is just a given as I forsee that I will probably never finish researching. Even if I had a time machine and went back to the Victorian period for a while I would still have to do further research on my return.
3) Complete the weekly writing challenge that I have set my self on my writing blog...strangely it involves writing.
4) Complete the reading challenge that I set myself on my general blog - 52 books in a year.
And there are no doubt some other targets floating about somewhere that I've forgotten about...or that I've not realised that they are even in existance yet
1) Read more.
2) Write something everyday, aim for doing it and making progress to a rewarding end.
3) Make time available everyday to do this - no matter how busy I am.
4) Do research and make time to do this.
5) Lose weight.
6) Have goals no matter what they are so at the end of 2011 i can look back at progress with satisfaction.
Think thats all for now.....
I also resolve to declutter - regularly.
Thank you!
My vagabond lifestyle means keeping my 'targets' flexible.
I haven't totted up my 2010 successes yet because I'm still waiting for an editor to send copies of the magazines she used my articles in. (Payment will come in due course.)
Provided I match 2010's successes I'll be happy, and I know I've already exceeded 2010 for short story acceptances.
Noted in my diary which hours of which day I have allocated for writing.
Now I know just how much (or how little depending on how one looks at it) time I have to write, I know I will use it wisely.
:)
I am a mature student now doing my Diploma in creative writing. Two days before Christmas I received results for my Script writing and was deflated, my Formatting had let me down.it just wasn't perfect. My problem being that I am a last minute writer, meaning that all that we learn in the six weeks semester I have to put into my work/exam.
My point being I can't begin a piece of work at the begining , and then learn the next week and the next week that I need to put in other things that I have learned. is there another way to work? all proposals gratefully received. best new years wishes to all , mollyem
I hope you don't think me pushy, Gina, but I think you have little chance of succeeding in this one unless you make it No. 1. In fact if you scrapped the rest of your aims until you had succeeded with this one, because it's got to be the most important. It would only take a month of concentrated effort, and by that stage (this happened to me) you probably won't want a cigarette because they make you feel dizzy and sick: no pleasure. It also helps if you have a real reason for stopping.
Then you can focus on your other great aspirations :) .
That is the only way anyone will ever give up anything. Unless the reason to stop an activity is deeply meaningful to the person giving up, they may as well not bother.
A lot of people who say they want to give up, do actually like smoking, just don't like the effects it has on perhaps their health, or their bank balance or whatever. Until they find a reason within themselves that is more important than the enjoyment of smoking, they're on a non starter.
My next target is to have another cuppa tea.
Yes indeed. I sympathise. I get intermittent trouble with my ears as well and I hope it doesn't eventually stop me swimming. I hope your cough improves.
I agree. I'm at an age now where I'm not going to be able to change the habits of a lifetime and keep New Year Resolutions instead of breaking them. This year I have made one and I shall focus on that one.
[quote=dora]Except when it's in your bed and it bites you.[/quote] OH I NEVER has them sort- I keeps a clene house I duz
Actually, I have had a blitz today, looks rather nice in here, even if I do say so mesen.