April Goals

I am officially declaring that March was the worst month EVER in my entire freelancing career. Sure, I landed some great assignments (most of which paid quite well, too) but darn was that motivation missing. Ask April. The poor gal's been listening to my whining all month! (I love you, April! )

So from April, I'm jumping back on the motivation wagon. I've done a lot of thinking the past month, done some heavy-duty office cleaning, and made a whole lot of lists and schedules. April's the time to implement them. Here are my goals:

1. Send 10 queries weekly.
2. Set up and design my new website.
3. Finish all pending assignments (currently 4 in the bag).
4. Write 4 short stories (one per week).

Good Luck, April!

April Goals:

1) Finish first draft of Star Trek novella
2) Update web site
3) Add anime.nightwolfgraphics.com to my site (for the anime enthusiasts I've been meeting at conventions this year)
4) Get novel back from editor and make revisions so we can go to press.
5) Start working on my original novel again
6) Pad resume at work to try and get promoted this fall

1) Finish health book entirely
2) Get two chapters done on covered bridge book so that I can make deadline
3) Sell $1000 worth of articles, whether its one or 100.
4) Begin new book proposal
5) Send out 20 queries.

I love writing them down now thanks to AW. Seeing them makes them all the more real.

I decided today to start making goals for myself every month. These are just a few that I've come up with. If I come up with anymore, I'll be sure and add them to the list.

My April Goals:

1. Start building my website.
2. Relocate my blog
3. Revise short stories
4. Submit at least two stories
5. Donate money from first sold story to AW (that is if I earn any money and/or even have one published this month).
6. Improve my crit group.

Okay, accomplished those 2 goals I mentioned earlier. The subs are in the mail. Feels good to get that done.

Now I'm going to research a couple more markets, then see what existing material I have and what new material I must write to meet their needs.

Arisa81 said:

Sthrnwriter, I really like your #5

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I made a promise about a month or so ago and I tend on keeping it. Good luck to everyone on accomplishing all your goals for the month.

Okay, here are my goals for the next week.

1. Write/submit 10 ideas to Snafu.

2. Write/submit 10 ideas to Paramount.

3. Write/submit 10 ideas to P. S. Greetings.

4. Write a book review (it's a self-published poetry book. Nonpaying, but I get to keep the book).

5. Write a piece about the movie The Forgotten from the POV of a bereaved parent (don't get paid for this one either, but this is one of those situations where I "give back").

Okay, that should be enough to get me started. I'm still waiting on my Writer's Market to get here. I'll really have some 'things to do' when it arrives and I start using it.

My April Goal...

Send something out. My worst habit is not submitting. That goes for poetry, articles, short stories and novels. I am going to submit 3 things this month if it kills me!

Oh, yeah--March was not a good month for me. I just couldn't get into the right frame of mind. So--April is bound to be better. I've already started off better than I finished in March. My goal is to continue the momentum.

Good luck to all of you, let's make our goals this month!

Melina

Goals help me to accomplish what I want, though I often fail to set them. What a waste of time not to be heading towards my dreams.

This month, I plan to:
complete 4 chapter revisions in book1,
back up and organize what I have done,
go through the filing cabinet and make sure that I'm not overlooking previous comments of things that needed to be fixed in the chapters I've put to bed,
write a new sample piece for my website,
update my blog,
write a piece suitable for submission to Cup of Comfort,
write and submit at least one magazine article,
make time for fellowshipping at Absolute Writes,
figure out why the site won't let me post new replies or use regular reply option

1. Re-read first 100 letters of *Letters Home*
2. Brainstorm parallels
3. Tab significant events
4. Create glossary
5. Create timeline
6. Send Writer's Digest Entry
7. Write five chapters of *Letters Home*

Oh boy, this is the biggest and most complex writing I've done. Baby steps Lavinia...baby steps!

1. Write/submit 10 ideas to Snafu. - complete

2. Write/submit 10 ideas to Paramount. - in progress

3. Write/submit 10 ideas to P. S. Greetings. - incomplete

4. Write a book review. - incomplete

5. Write a piece about The Forgotten. - incomplete

One more goal I've added to the list is to write and post a piece for the Just for Fun thread in the Absolute Idol forum. I have until Sunday to do that.

So there's my progress, or lack thereof, but the week isn't over yet.

An update on my progress:

1. Start building my website Started
2. Relocate my blog Done
3. Revise short stories Started
4. Submit at least two stories not yet
5. Donate money from first sold story to AW (that is if I earn any money and/or even have one published this month). not yet
6. Improve my crit group. Done

So far, as you can see, I've completed some of my goals for this month. It's a start.

Hi Everyone,

For good or ill, posting my goals for all the world to see inspires me to achieve them. So, here we go:

Rose's Goals for April 2005

1. Send 25 queries, with at least 12 going to markets that pay 35 cents/word or more.
2. Get organized! In April, (a) buy magazine holders and file/prune magazines, (b) set up filing system for contracts and such, and (c) scan corporate copywriting stuff for use as clips.
3. Write the 5 articles due for an academic publisher (not due until May, but why dilly dally?)
4. Finalize research on two articles due in May and write first drafts
5. STAY POSITIVE


I'm also a glutton for full disclosure, so here's a recap of my March goals and the outcomes:

March 2005

1. Send 25 queries with at least 8 going to markets that pay 35 cents/word or more (my ultimate goal is 100/month using Mridu Khullar's 5 queries/day method) - NOT EVEN CLOSE, FELL FLAT ON MY FACE, ER, KEYBOARD
2. Write and submit the essay due to an academic publication - ACHIEVED
3. Begin research on an article due in May - ACHIEVED

Here's an update from me as well.

1. Send 10 queries weekly. So far so good.

2. Set up and design my new website. Coming along okay.

3. Finish all pending assignments (currently 4 in the bag). Yep, done. And got a few more, too. Cha-ching.

4. Write 4 short stories (one per week). Um, no.

I am going to carry my unfinished goals from last week over to this week. Actually, I'll just make them my goals for this month. Maybe taking some of the pressure off will help.

Lavinia said:

1. Re-read first 100 letters of *Letters Home*
2. Brainstorm parallels
3. Tab significant events
4. Create glossary
5. Create timeline
6. Send Writer's Digest Entry
7. Write five chapters of *Letters Home*

Oh boy, this is the biggest and most complex writing I've done. Baby steps Lavinia...baby steps!

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1. 50% done
2. 50% done
3. 50% done
4. Working on it as I go.
5. Started.
6. Haven't started yet.
7. Not yet.

Overall, I've had a very hard time this month. This is such a huge project and I don't think I realized how huge it was! But I can do this! Right? Lavinia

I'd like to weigh in my goals if I could...

I've never posted on this particular forum before, but now that I have some goals for April, I definitely would like to post them here, if I may.

I have two April goals, basically:

1) Start working regularly on a new WIP to which I've given the working title 'The Knight.'

2) Send out a submission to a major house for my now-completed work, Kindel the Changed. I have the submission guidelines to a company called Tor Books -- they've published a couple of my favorite SF/F authors -- but actually sending the first three chapters like they say to do so in their submission guidelines is very intimidating to me, because I'm told they're a major house. I'll see if I can't complete the work for the submission by the evening of Monday the 11th.

Thanks for letting me post here and I will keep you up-to-date -- as seems to be the way things are done on this particular forum -- as to my progress.

Hey, Sean! Welcome, we're happy to have you here!

Good luck on your WIP, and congratulations on your honorable mention for AW Idol. I have to tell you, your entry was on my top 10 list.

Keep us posted!

Melina

Melina said:

Hey, Sean! Welcome, we're happy to have you here!

Good luck on your WIP, and congratulations on your honorable mention for AW Idol. I have to tell you, your entry was on my top 10 list.

Keep us posted!

Melina

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Thank you kindly Melina, for the well-wishings and congrats. I definitely will keep you all posted.

Starting with right now: I found a good envelope to use in submitting the first three chapters; now I have to check a cash I have with me and prepare for the rather large amount of postage. I'm going to send it via metered mail. I still have to, though, work on a cover letter and synopsis for the work today. I think I have one previously prepared on my hard drive; I'll be looking that up probably later today. Like I said in my previous post, I'm going to try to have all this done by the end of the day today.

I just got up and it's already 1:47 in the afternoon, so I guess I'd best get on the ball.

I'll talk to you all later.

Well, it didn't quite work out like I'd thought it would...

My second goal, that is. I got to the Bank very late, (thanks to the Bus System around here,) and though I had enough postage to mail the manuscript, it presently is still sitting on top of my filing cabinet, but at least it's all prepared to go. Hopefully I'll be able to go to the Post Office tomorrow and take care of its mailing. It's just a short walk up the street and I'd imagine a few dollars of metered postage.

Goal One is coming alone quite nicely, though. The inspirations for my new WIP seem to be plugging right along. I've already written a couple of short vignettes for the work -- I'm wont to start a WIP with vignettes and then put the ideas together into outlines -- and I can already feel the characters' emotions and the words just seem to flow right out of my mind and onto the paper. I haven't had an inspiration this good in a long time. It's great to see the muse in me coming back to life; the feeling is awesome.

Everyone have a great week! Talk to you all later.