Tag Archives: goals

January 19, 2024 · 7:26 PM

It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

“Snow days, snow days,
Good old ‘there’s no rules’ days…”

I’ll spare you any more of my singing. (I’ve been asked to sing solo – so low no one can hear me.)

Anyhow, I was off today, and had so many plans of things I was going to get done, and have I done any of them? Well, some of them. I haven’t been nearly as productive as planned, but I got almost half of my list knocked off and still have time before bed, so I should get over half of it.

(Casper the Wonder Pup howling at 4:30 this morning because he wanted out and fed hasn’t helped the “get things done” vibe.)

I did get my 100 words of writing in, and my laundry is done so that’s out of the way for the weekend, so maybe I can finish the rest of my list tomorrow. (I’m actually poking at the mess on my desk as I write this. So far I’ve found 27 cents and a dozen paperclips.)

It suddenly occurs to me that cleaning is a lot like writing. You start out with high enthusiasm and lots of energy, and end up poking at the project a little bit every day. But you’re still on track and getting somewhere, so that’s okay.

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February 28, 2022 · 8:16 PM

Weekend vs Weekday

Why are weeks so long and weekends so short? I swear there’s some sort of time warp involved: a weekday/workday lasts at least 36 hours and the weekend is gone in a blink.

On the other hand, I had a fairly productive weekend. I got all of the “must dos” off of my “list of things to do.” The rest of the things can be chipped away at during the week.

One of the “must dos” was something I was putting off – and it turned out to take no time at all. Isn’t that always the way?

The modem/router experiment worked so tomorrow I’ll call the phone company to cancel my service. (Getting through to customer service anywhere on a Monday is a lesson in frustration tolerance.)

And in the good news front, I got a call from my staffing agency and they may have a nurse to take my Wednesday shifts, letting me cut down to a four day week, at least until I get some health issues sorted. Here’s hoping she takes the shift. (If she does, it’ll let me schedule some appointments, and also have an editing day. At least, that’s the plan.)

Other than that, not much is going on in my life. I’m writing a hundred or more words per day still, and have decided not to increase the goal at this time. I usually get well over the hundred words, but some nights I’m just too tired and it’s a push to do the hundred.

And tonight might be one of those nights.

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January 31, 2022 · 8:15 PM

End of the Month

Well, the only goal I managed to attain this month was writing 100 words a day.

I think the problem is that I tried to start too many new habits at one time. (That’s a really bad habit of mine and one that I need to break.) So I think that for February I’m going to just focus on the writing and whatever else happens, happens. I’ll be happy if more gets done but not disappointed if it doesn’t.

It would help if my evil day job would settle into some sort of routine. I never know what I’m doing from one week to the next – and sometimes not from one day to the next. (Come to think of it, my job is kind of like the weather here in Pennsylvania recently.)

I’m going to cut this really short tonight and apologize for the more-disjointed-than-normal rambling. I’ve been feeling really chilled the last few days, with yesterday and today being the worst so far. I simply cannot get warm.

So, I think I’ll leave you with a quote from Pashevel from today’s 100 words:

“Once you’ve drawn your sword you’ve already lost.”

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January 28, 2022 · 6:32 PM

Changes

It’s been a long, cold, snowy week and I’m glad it’s over.

I’m starting a new assignment on Tuesday, which gives me a three-day weekend. (My regular assignment that I was supposed to go back to isn’t happening for at least another couple weeks. There simply aren’t enough van/bus drivers anywhere.)

I’m not sure how time is going to work out with this new assignment. I probably won’t be home as early as I have been, and I don’t want to take my laptop along and leave it in my car in the cold, but I’ll keep getting my hundred words in somehow…

And maybe the wait time between the bus trips will let me get caught up on some crocheting goals, as long as it’s not too cold to sit in my car. (And it has been too cold! I normally don’t mind winter but I am so ready for this one to be over, and it’s not even February yet.) Maybe I’ll be able to find a place to hang out inside for a couple hours between bus trips.

And if I ever find Onyx Sun so I can get the changes entered into Word, I can go to Staples and get a new copy printed for the next round of editing. (Eventually it gets so messy that I have to work with what I have, print it, and start a new round.)

What I really want is to find a work from home job, but those tend to be few and far between for nurses.

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January 14, 2022 · 9:15 PM

Overscheduled

I’m still making the hundred word a day goal, but haven’t touched a crochet hook all month, and Onyx Sun is still upstairs. I’ve pretty much been too wiped out after work to do much more than my hundred words, to be honest.

For those who don’t know, I’m a nurse (LPN) working through a staffing agency. My main assignment is to ride a school bus/van with a special needs student with a seizure disorder. Due to a variety of circumstances (holiday breaks, the bus company not having enough drivers, the student having doctor appointments, Covid-related quarantines, virtual schooling due to lack of school staff, etc.) I don’t think I’ve had a five-day work week since before Thanksgiving. I worked all five days this week (but not on that assignment – he’s still in quarantine) and it wore me out more than I expected.

But it’s the Friday of a three-day weekend, and we’re supposed to get a bunch of snow, so I’m thinking that crochet and hot chocolate just might be the theme of the weekend.

And maybe I’ll even bring Onyx Sun downstairs and see where I stand with that mess.

And see if I can finish the concordance for Book One of The Academy of the Accord.

*sigh* There I go again – scheduling more stuff to do than I have time to do it. Does anyone else do this? Please tell me I’m not the only one.

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January 10, 2022 · 6:55 PM

In Process

Today has somehow managed to get away from me, and I haven’t written my hundred words yet, but I will. So far I’ve managed to write anywhere between one hundred to two hundred words a day. I’m working on two different new WiPs, but since they’re not even close genre-wise I think I’m okay.

Meanwhile, it’s only Monday and my work schedule for this week has already changed at least twice.

In other news, I found more paperwork to sort out. Okay, “found” might not be the best word as it wasn’t really lost, but I gathered it all up and brought it down here from my room to my desk. (I should have brought Onyx Sun down here, but one thing at a time. Maybe I’ll bring it down after work tomorrow.)

Slowly but surely, I’m getting organized, not that you could tell from the looks of things.

(I’m in the process of turning my bedroom into a sanctuary of sorts, for meditation, ritual/worship, etc. And sleeping. So stressful things (like bills) are being evicted.) I’d keep my writing stuff up there but it’s cold in the winter. And the bathroom is too far away. (Our bathroom is in the basement. Down and up two flights of steps is annoying (one flight is bad enough), especially if you’re really on a roll with writing.)

So, that’s where my life stands at the moment. Just like my writing, it’s a work in process.

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March 5, 2021 · 8:18 PM

Glad That’s Over!

Today was my last day of the school nursing assignment that’s been stressing me out to near anxiety-attack levels and I am so glad to be done with it. What started out as a cold snowy grey morning turned into a bright sunny afternoon; it feels like the world is celebrating with me.

I’ve pretty much taken the last week off from doing much with any sort of writing or editing but I’m hoping to get back to one or both this weekend. (Come to think of it, I haven’t done much of anything at all this past week. Except cough. I’ve done a lot of that.)

Anyhow, one of the things I need to do this weekend is work on an entry for the QSF (Queer Sci Fi) flash fiction contest. I have a couple ideas kicking around in my head and I’m pretty sure I’ve decided which one I’m going with, but the problem is the 300 word limit. (And names. I need character names.)

It’s also going to be a little warmer this weekend than it has the last couple days so there may be some yard work in my future, clearing away some winter debris and getting ready for spring. (I have crocuses starting to bloom, so spring is on the way. Plus I saw a flock of seagulls on the Allegheny River this past week, and a couple early robins in yards in Pittsburgh.) The back yard is still a slippery mucky mess, though, so I’m trying to figure out how to put cleats on my Crocs.

I did get some crocheting done the last day or two. I gave up on the waffle stitch scarf; I had two different charts for it and neither one looked like a waffle when I did it, so I’ve switched to a V-stitch infinity scarf. It’s working up pretty quickly so I might get it done this weekend. (And it’s easy enough that I can take it on the bus with me during the week so maybe by the end of this month or next I can get caught up on my goal of one scarf a week. Then I can get to work on my goal of one prayer shawl a month.)

(How can I be so far behind when it’s only March? Procrastination.)

I have a long “To Do” list for tonight, so I’d better get To Doing.

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March 1, 2021 · 8:36 PM

Now What?

Have you ever finished a big project and suddenly found yourself feeling lost? You spend so much time and energy and focus on a project and then suddenly it’s done and there’s a huge void, no matter how many projects are waiting their turn.

That’s sort of where I am right now. Yesterday, courtesy of a wonky internet that kept disconnecting, I finally finished going through the last book of the Academy of the Accord series (not counting the very incomplete prequel) and now I’m sort of like, “What do I do now?”

I mean, there’s a long way to go on it yet – I’ve barely made a dent in the project but still…

What do I do next?

Do I keep working on the Academy of the Accord? If so, do I start by printing Book 1 and going through it and taking notes for the concordance?  Or do I go through the books that are already printed (from many years ago) and see what I might have changed in them and make the changes to the files before I print them. Or maybe do both, since the printed ones start at Book 5 or so?

Or do I take a break from the series to work on something else? I mean, one of my goals for this year was to release Onyx Sun and I pretty much haven’t touched it. (Yeah, I know. It’s only the first day of March.)

And a friend is not-so-patiently waiting for another Elven Bard novel.

And there are an unknown (because I’m scared to actually count them) number of Works in Progress and Plot Bunnies waiting in the wings. (Seriously, I could write and release a book a year and live to be a hundred and still have more to go.)

But will I even be able to work on something else since I seem to be on fire for it at the moment for some reason?

And I’d really like The Academy of the Accord to see the light of day before I die and I’m not getting any younger.

Of course, that goes for the rest of the Elven Bard novels, Onyx Sun, the Other Mages trilogy, and a host of other books and trilogies in various stages of completion, too.

*sigh*

But on a brighter note, I’m pretty sure I’ve just talked myself into continuing with The Academy of the Accord. I’ll get Book One printed soon and in the meantime I’ll start looking through what’s been sitting on my shelf for years.

Here’s to living to be a hundred and twenty…

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February 1, 2021 · 8:02 PM

February Goals

I’m still working my way through re-reading the Academy of the Accord series, and am up Book Six. Er… Book Seven. (I have to renumber them.)

Books Five, 5.5 (Six) and now this one are… a mess. Book Five is the one that I pulled a lot of stuff from to create Book 5.5 (because it didn’t really belong in Book Five).

The result is that Book 5.5 is a hodgepodge of stuff that needs to be tied together and finished. It has also somehow lost its plotline.

The one I’m currently reading through has a sequence of events that fail to fall into any semblance of a workable timeline. It should also win an award for the most plot holes in a single draft: two sets of wizards Warders in the same tower, one of whom is too young to have gotten her Master’s robes yet; one antagonist who has had something like three different names (and I still have forty pages to go); and a cadet who is there and then not there. (An overall timeline for the series would probably help a lot with that last issue.)

Anyhow, by the end of the month I hope to finished reading through them and have them either printed for editing or at least ready to print. I’m pretty sure they get easier after this one. (The next book might still be slightly problematic because of the timeline, but I don’t think it’s as much of a chaotic mess as this one is. At least, I sincerely hope it isn’t.)

I also need to get back to work on a concordance so I can pick up some dropped threads. (Book One has a couple dozen things that never got picked up again.)

Other goals are to get the changes done to Onyx Sun and figure out where I need to reinsert a scene that I cut and need to put back. (No, I don’t know why I cut it to begin with.)

And keep chugging away at Song and Shadow, although I may put that on hold until I work out an outline and start a concordance.

That sounds like an awful lot of stuff for four weeks

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January 25, 2021 · 8:22 PM

Over Booked

No, this has nothing to do with the overcrowding on my bookshelves. (Although it would be appropriate…)

It also has nothing to do with my ever-growing list of Works In Progress and Plot Bunnies. (Although it would probably be even more appropriate…)

No, this time it has to do with scheduling.

I know I always give myself a bigger list of things to do than any thirteen people could accomplish, but now I’ve gone and overbooked myself for Friday.

I had made (tentative) plans to go to my mother’s to get help with that damned waffle stitch scarf (that looks more like a lumpy pancake than a waffle), but then I realized that the month is almost over and I have to get my car inspected. No problem. Inspection, trip to my mother’s, done.

But when I was entering the inspection appointment into the calendar on my phone I realized that Friday is also the day of my second Covid vaccine and now I need to be in three places at once.

Meanwhile, as far as writing and such goes, I am making progress. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. I fixed up the scene that I thought I’d already put into Book One of the Academy of the Accord series and hope to get it inserted before the week is out.

I’ve also come to the conclusion that I make my goals too big sometimes, and then they feel overwhelming and don’t happen. Like “Enter changes to Onyx Sun.” That’s a big project. I think I need to reword it to “Enter changes to one chapter of Onyx Sun every day.” That’s a lot less scary.

I’ve also come to the conclusion that I really need to stop and make an outline of some sort for Song and Shadow. I have no idea what’s going to happen and only a vague idea of who the Big Bad is and even less of an idea about how the reveal is going to go.

And while I’m working on the outline I should start a series bible.

*sigh* Here I go. Overbooking myself again…

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