Have I really let go?

Well, here we are. Another week gone by and another Saturday night in which Chris doesn't know how much she has got done on her list of goals. I think that at least for now, until I figure out new goals, I have to scrap the points system and just plug away. It is so hard, though, to let go. Isn't it? 

Daily goals –

1-                           write for an hour a day, this could be working on my book, writing articles, short stories or poetry, or writing extra blogs (my assigned posts don’t count) – Sorry to say, but I didn't write at all this week except for an extra blog post on Friday. I had an extra day off during the week even; ok, I had a migraine that day, but I should have gotten something done. 

2-                           market my book or other current project for one hour a day, this could include researching markets for my articles, devotions, or other writing to various markets, as well as keeping my nose to the grindstone of getting my book sold – I think I really rocked on this one this week. On Sunday I met with another writer and shared marketing tips. On Thursday I set up a TV interview for next Thursday. On Friday I received a copy of the interview which will be in next week's local paper. And Saturday I took six books to a local store for them to sell on consignment. Of course, there was also the usual minor Facebook talk and stuff like that. 

3-                           comment on one other blog – I commented on a few blogs. Just can't keep track of this at all. Most of the rest of my work I do down here in my office in the dungeon, but I read blogs all over the house and at work (of course only during lunch) so I can never remember when I comment on one. 

Weekly goals –

1-     post to Dino Chronicles three times a week – I did that, plus that extra post on Friday. 

2-     post to Writing What I Can When I Can twice a week – I did that. 

3-     work on my social networks, by adding to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads and Pinterest each once a week – I did some of this. 

Monthly goals-

1-     Do research on my novel – I finally did start looking at more information on the Maasai on the internet. It's difficult though because some of the information I find on the internet isn't accurate, which I know by having worked with the Maasai in Kenya. I will keep hunting though. Ideally I need to find someone who was actually born and raised Maasai but who now has internet access so I can just email them all my questions on their culture.  

2-     Submit something somewhere – I keep thinking about this one. . .  

Year-end goal-

          Finish my novel – I still have a ways to go. 

Reading, Writing, Reaching, part 2

Last week I shared this wonderful plan of mine called the Three R’s for being a writer. Read, write, reach.  And I kind of left you hanging there.  So here would be my thoughts for the “reading” goal.

Reading. To be a writer, you need to read. If you don't like to read, I hate to tell you this, but you may not write anything which anyone else wants to read.

So what are the best things for a writer to read? The sky, so they say, is the limit. I think it is important to read a little bit of everything. Start by reading in the genre in which you write. That seems obvious. Unfortunately, I have yet to find my genre, or maybe my genre is main-stream fiction, well, except that my first and only book is a memoir. Good thing that I like to read memoir. But as you can see, reading what you write may not be as easy as it first appears.

How about just read what you enjoy. That’s a good start.

I think that you should also make an attempt to read things you maybe don’t enjoy. Like the classics. Uck, you say. Yes, some classics are horrible and I ask myself over and over again, why has this book stood the test of time and why does every freshman English teacher insist her students read it and worse yet , that they should know what this is about.

Big confession. I spent many years thinking I wanted to be a high school English teacher. Good thing God had a different plan for me. At this point in time, I cannot see myself as a high school English teacher. High school was scary then and it is no better now.

Ok, I digress. So, read what you like and read what you don’t like. And then try to squeeze in some books on how to write. Again, I don’t always get this one. Have you seen how many books there are on writing? Lots. And of those I have read, some are helpful and some are not. And that’s just how it goes. I think you need to read as many of them as you can, then take the information and sift it, keeping what is worth keeping and blowing the rest away. (To borrow a famous quote.)

I am usually reading an average of three books at a time. Usually a novel of some sort, a self-help book – often on writing, but sometimes on other things. I read from a devotional each night and I try at least a couple times a week to read my Bible. Here’s one little tidbit. Whether you are a believer or not, the Bible is really a great piece of literature. There is a lot for the writer to learn from the Bible. Plots, sentence structure, how to hook your reader, when to leave the reader hanging. Plus, there is an amazing amount of stuff in the Bible that is a part of our culture (again, whether you are Christian or not). An example. The saying “red sun in morning, sailors takes warning” comes from the Bible. Seriously.

So, these would be my reading goals. Something new, something old, something helpful, something scriptural. In no particular order and in no particular amount. 

Is anyone reading this post?

Just one more post on the numbers game. Does everyone else keep track of the number of views they get on each of their blog posts? Sometimes I look at those numbers and try to figure out why so many people saw that particular post. I've read that labels you attach to your post helps people find you, but some posts which I haven't labeled at all, get a whole lot of views. Or is it the time of day I post my blog? On the weekends, that sometimes seems to make a difference. But not always.

I don't know. I am generally happy with the number of views I get on my blog, but I just wish I could figure out the rhyme and reason of it.

But what did I accomplish this week?

Daily goals –

1-                           write for an hour a day, this could be working on my book, writing articles, short stories or poetry, or writing extra blogs (my assigned posts don’t count) – I actually have gotten back to working on my novel, but of course I was lousy keeping track of how long I worked on it this week. I know that it was at least three times this week and I know it was close to an hour and a half each night, so I am going to round that up to five points. 

2-                           market my book or other current project for one hour a day, this could include researching markets for my articles, devotions, or other writing to various markets, as well as keeping my nose to the grindstone of getting my book sold – I still think I need to better define this goal. I talked to three new people about my book this week; I didn't sell them one right then and there, but I planted the seed. I also have sent messages to a bunch of my new LinkedIn people. Oh, and I mailed out another book this week to one of the charities which I mentin in the book. I think that all counts, but time on it? Let's guess, three hours. 

3-                           comment on one other blog – I think I am getting pretty good at this, so six points. 

Weekly goals –

1-     post to Dino Chronicles three times a week – three points 

2-     post to Writing What I Can When I Can twice a week – two points 

3-     work on my social networks, by adding to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads and Pinterest each once a week – three points 

Monthly goals-

1-     Do research on my novel – five points per month - 0 points this month

2-     Submit something somewhere – five points per month - 0 points this month

Year-end goal-

          Finish my novel – 1000 points! - again 0 points

My Three R's

When I was a kid, there was a saying about going to school to learn the three R's: reading, writing and arithmetic. Ok, I know, I never really got it either. Even though they all have the "r" sound only one of them begins with an "r", so what does this really mean? And how did anyone ever expect kids to learn how to spell? I  don't know. I think all it really means is that I am giving away my age.

In the middle of the night one night last week, I had an epiphany. My own three R's for the writer.  Reading, writing and reaching.

So, I am trying to devise a new way to keep track of my goals and whether or not I am achieving them. I've been using this construed point system, but I keep muddying it up. I thought I would try something different.

Reading. To be a writer, you need to read. If you don't like to read, I hate to tell you this, but you may not write anything which anyone else wants to read. So, I should have a reading goal. I haven't figured it out yet, but it's coming along in my head.

Writing. To be a writer, duh, write, write, write. How much though? How often? And should there be variety? To which I would answer: write lots, write often, write all kinds of stuff. I can do that.

Reaching. To be a writer, you need to reach people with your stuff, you have to share your message and someone out there has to read it. If you don't want others to read your writing that's ok. But then I would say that you are a journaler and maybe not a writer.

So there you have it. The opening lines of Chris Loehmer Kincaid's crash course on setting goals for the writer. Check back in a week and see if I have finalized my syllabus. Also, I’m incredibly sorry if I have stolen these R’s from someone else. I don’t think that I am utilizing rocket science here; this is pretty basic. And if anyone wants to borrow it from me, I would feel honored. 

Have you ever stopped on the tracks?

Well, I have once again been doing some soul searching. I think I have come to the conclusion that I need to change the way I keep track of acheiving my goals. I seem to be losing track of things a lot lately and wonder if I need a new system. I hate to switch trains while I am already on one track, but I may just have to.

 In the meantime  . . . here is what I think I accomplished this week.

Daily goals –

1-                           write for an hour a day, this could be working on my book, writing articles, short stories or poetry, or writing extra blogs (my assigned posts don’t count) – I have actually returned to my novel, so I believe I worked on that three times this week. 

2-                           market my book or other current project for one hour a day, this could include researching markets for my articles, devotions, or other writing to various markets, as well as keeping my nose to the grindstone of getting my book sold – I always feel like I am cheating here, but who can keep track of this? Um, specifically, I sent my book out to two charities that I mention in the book. It would be cool if they could promote it in some way. I worked on my presentation that is the end of February. Oh, yeah, and this is exciting. I got an e-mail from a writer friend asking me to speak at her writer's conference. That was ubber exciting. So, I have started working on that. I also added to my media kit. (Do all writer's have one of those? Should I expound on that some time?). So, since I count five things that I did, I am going with five points. 

3-                           comment on one other blog – I noted five blogs that I commented on. And actually this morning, I got caught up on a friends blog and com'mented on like five posts right there, but I am not even going to count all of those. 

Weekly goals –

1-     post to Dino Chronicles three times a week – three points.

2-     post to Writing What I Can When I Can twice a week – two points.

3-     work on my social networks, by adding to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads and Pinterest each once a week – Ok, I did another stupid thing today; I joined another social network. Shelfari. I know, what am I thinking? I am thinking that I will see if it takes off without me doing any more work on it, coz seriously, and I just mentioned this last time, who can keep up on all of that. Anyway, so I added to three established networks and joined another one, so I would say four points. 

Monthly goals-

1-     Do research on my novel – five points per month - sorry, nope

2-     Submit something somewhere – five points per month - sorry, no again

Year-end goal-

          Finish my novel – 1000 points! Sure, right. Not quite.

Ok, so 22 points for the week. And counting.

How does you network grow?

Not to bore you with more of statistics, but you know my points system? Those are not the only numbers I tally each week.

Every Sunday morning, after I post my blog, I check to see how many people are following me on all the social networks. So here is how those figures have grown since I started keeping track in June of 2012.

Facebook   249 then 325 now
Twitter        191 then 529 now
LinkedIn       48 then  257 now
GoodReads  42 then 190 now

When I look at the numbers that way, it looks pretty good. When I look each week and have only grown by 20 or 30 between all of them, it doesn't seem like much. I still don't get much out of Twitter; I haven't felt as if I've promoted myself there at all. Too many people clicking through too many tweets. How does one stand out with all that input? I like LinkedIn and Goodreads because I actually have connected with people.

What social networks do you belong to and how important is it to you that your numbers grow?

My garden last May

My garden in July

What do my month-end points look like?

Daily goals –

1-                           write for an hour a day - oops, doesn't look like I really wrote anything this week, just two extra blog posts - 2 points 

2-                           market my book or other current project for one hour a day - this is always such a tough one to keep track of since I market constantly, but is it anything tangible? I wrote down four hours so will give myself – 4 points 

3-                           comment on one other blog - actually I wrote down that I commented on ten blogs, so can I give myself ten points or can I save some points for next week? OK, I will once again take credit where I can – 10 points 

Weekly goals –

1-     posted to Dino Chronicles three times this week – three points 

2-     posted to Writing What I Can When I Can twice this week – two points 

3-     worked on my social networks, by adding to Twitter, LinkedIn, and Goodreads – three points per week

Monthly goals-

1-     Do research on my novel – still have not gotten to this

2-     Submit something somewhere – still hanging onto those two things I submitted early in the month  - ten points

Bonus - I did post to one of my two blogs every day for the entire month of January, so I think that 10 bonus points is reasonable

Year-end goal-

          Finish my novel - right, obviously have not done this – 0 points

Sweet, so that means I give myself 44 points for the week and for the month, out of a total of 40 points. Awesome!

This is Fred. He thinks I am so awesome that he had to get really up close to me.