Round 4 Begins

Time to get comfortable with your goals. 

Here it is October 1. Three months left in 2018. Three months to get some serious work done on my writing and personal goals.

The first of this year, I returned to a system I call the Four R’s. Writing and reading are pretty self-explanatory. Reaching means any kind of promotion, anything I do which gets me or my writing out there. Remaining is for all the other things I need to do in my life for balance and because I have stuff to do to keep that life rolling.

I’ve been posting all the goals for each Round, highlighting my successes each week. I decided to use a variation on that for the next three months, posting my goals for the entire Round as well as what I need to get done each week to hopefully make those three-month goals easier to conquer.  

Goals for the entire Round:

A. WRITING

1. Write nine chapters on my next novel, which I am giving the working title of “New Old Spies.

2. Finalize my book proposal and query for my novel “The Truth Beyond the River”.

B. REACHING

1. Find an editor for “The Truth Beyond the River”.

2. Submit three pieces somewhere.     

C. READING

1. Read four books, three fiction and one nonfiction.

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Lose five pounds. (I know I ended last Round by saying I was taking this off the list, but I really have got to cut back!)

2. Home fires

a. Scan 100 of my old pictures. 

b. Wash all of my house’s windows.

c. Do a major cleaning of three spaces in my house, whether closets, dressers or other areas.  

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Write the Policy and Procedure manual.

b. Host two merchandise sales.

c. Do a thorough inventory of our current merchandise at the end of the year.

d. Raise enough money($5,000) to start the first segment of the community center.

Goals for this week:

A. WRITING

1. Write two posts for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”.

B. REACHING

1. Promote myself or a piece of my writing (whether it be promoting one of my books, submitting a piece somewhere, saying something brilliant about my writing on my social media, etc.).

2. Contact three businesses about doing book signings or speaking engagements.

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible.

2. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”.

3. Read five other people’s blog posts and comment on two of them.

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake, averaging 60 ounces per day.

b. Exercise four mornings a week and three evenings.

2. Home fires

a. Wash the windows in my office.   

b. Clean the closet in my office.

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Promote TV on all of our social media.

b. Talk to our board about contacting American Family Insurance offices in the area. (My nephew works for American Family in Arizona, and his office doubles any donations their employees make to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. My daughter is working on a letter for each of us to take into our local AmFam offices to see if their employees would make donations to us. If any of you out there works for American Family Insurance, or knows someone who does, I’d really appreciate it if you would check this out in your office.)

One of the advantages of looking at weekly goals is so that I can tweak what I want to get done based on any extra activities that are on the schedule each week. In the coming week, I don’t see anything extra on the calendar, so I should be able to post lots of green next Sunday!

Wish me luck and best wishes with all of your new goals.

what does it mean to be between rounds?

This seems like such a minor thing, yet to me, it is still a God-thing. You know what I mean? When it looks as if the stars have aligned and is it possibly a coincidence or is God causing things to come together. And this is such a minuscule thing I can’t believe I am even mentioning it.

Here it is. If you follow ROW80, you know that we are between Rounds. If you don’t, this is how it works. Round of Words in 80 Days starts on the first Monday of the month in January, April, July and October and runs for 80 days. Prior to each Round, you write your list of writing goals (and other goals, because ROW80 is all about having a life), and then each Sunday and Wednesday for the next 80 days, you post on your blog how you are coming along with that. The third round of this year ended earlier this week, which is why we are between Rounds.

I was pretty stellar with my goals this Round, accomplishing most of them and giving it the old college try on the rest. Last weekend, I was at a writing retreat, and on the last day, we went around the room and shared our intentions, basically our immediate goals. Look, at that, built-in goals for the upcoming Round. Except that I stated I would have one of them already done before the first of the Round. Which is why I am posting them now and may or may not be posting them come that first Monday in October.

1)     By October 1, I will have contacted four places regarding doing a talk.

2)     By October 12, I will have contacted an editor regarding editing my latest novel. (Of course, this may already be defunct by my lack of funds, unless I get creative and this editor I find is generous.)

3)     By January 1, I will have written eight chapters on my next novel.

4)     This month, I will begin paying for an ad on Facebook once or twice a month to boost my reach. (I didn’t mention this at the retreat, but Hubby and I talked about this one and decided it was in the budget.) I already even accomplished this goal, having paid for a Facebook ad on my author’s page, boosting my books which my publisher was offering as free e-books. I think it was rather successful and will definitely keep doing this.

There are more goals, of course, bouncing around in my head, which you would realize if you have been following this blog and have seen my previous long lists. For now, I think, you need to hold me accountable to accomplishing that number one listed goal. I got two weeks and it doesn’t look too daunting.

A Successful Round

Around noon today, I got home from the writers’ retreat I was at since Thursday. It was an amazing time. Maybe I didn’t get all of my goals for the weekend accomplished, but I grew into a better place in my writing calling. I will expound on that in each of my goals below.

As always, green highlight is goal accomplished, yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted.

A. WRITING

1. Finish another edit of my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River.” YEAH! I finished it Saturday afternoon and still cried when I got to that pivotal sentence on the second to the last page. Thank you, again, to Beth Camp for being my beta reader and making all those wonderful suggestions on the manuscript.    

2. Continue tweaking my book proposal / query, as needed for each literary agent I intend to contact next. I worked a lot on the query and on the proposal this weekend. Kathy, the facilitator of this retreat, was of invaluable assistance with it. I still have a lot more work to do. Then, yesterday, I started thinking that with the way the publishing industry is, maybe I should really consider total self-publishing. Sure, there is so much work to doing that, a lot of cost up front and no guarantee of ever breaking even. But at least my books would get published in a timely fashion, and my time would be spent on something that would come to fruition, instead of chasing something that might never happen. I would have much more control of what my books look like and when they are released. Yes, I know there is a lot of headache in self-publishing, especially if a writer wants to do it correctly, but it may be worth it. 

3. Write nine chapters on my next novel, which I am giving the working title of “New Old Spies.”  I only wrote a chapter and a half, but I’m happy with that. The characters are starting to talk to me and tell me their stories, so I think it will start to flow better now.

4. Write two inspirational pieces for the page-a-day calendar at my work.  I wrote two.  

5. Write two posts per week for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. I only posted once this week, but that was because I didn’t have internet at this camp. I did write three, though, which is clearly what this goal states. Hmm? I was going to do yellow, but I guess I can make it green.

B. REACHING

1. Send proposals / queries to the next agents on my list.  See #2 above.  

2. Submit the two inspirational pieces to my work calendar.  I submitted the two that I wrote.    

3. Promote myself or a piece of my writing (whether it be promoting one of my books, submitting a piece somewhere, saying something brilliant about my writing on my social media, etc.) once a week. The publisher of my first three books is offering them for free this weekend, so I posted that to each of my social media. This weekend I also garnered some ideas for things I can post to promote my writing and the importance of continuing to grow my social media. Oh, and I also did sell five books while I was there.    

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Oops, haven’t been keeping up while I was at this retreat, which is shame-on-me considering this was a Christian event. 
2. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. Yes.

3. Read five other people’s blog posts per week and comment on two of them. I read three and only commented on one.       

4. Finish reading three books. I’ve read two and am a third done with the third. I am such a slow reader, I really need to pick up the pace.           

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake, averaging 60 ounces per day. I’ve been trying.   

b. Lose five pounds and three inches around my waist. Nope, I have to say this goal is a fail and will definitely not be on my next list of goals.

c. Exercise four mornings a week and three evenings a week. I only worked out three mornings and two evenings. It’s hard for me to work out when I’m not at home with my own stuff.  

2. Home fires

a. Scan 100 of the old pictures I have around the house. I’ve scanned 123 pictures.

b. Wash all of my house’s windows. Nope, but we did finish painting the living room.    

c. Do a major cleaning of one of my closets. Nope, but I’m giving that painting of the living room a second green here, coz that was a ridiculous amount of work.  

d. Host my brother-in-law’s wedding at my house on August 4. This should have stars and fireworks next to it!   

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Write the Policy and Procedure manual. Finally worked on it during the meeting last weekend. Since it will always be a work in progress, I’m giving this goal a green. Also, walking around the Camp where the retreat was this weekend, I thought wouldn’t it be cool to have a retreat for the Tumaini Board? Go away one weekend and spend the whole time banging out all our details, do some bonding over it, maybe even just some alone time. I messaged three of our board members and they agree it is something to consider.   

b. Host two merchandise sales. We had one the first Saturday in August, but we have also sold over a hundred dollars’ worth of stuff at a store in town, so I’m calling this goal met!  

c. Do a thorough inventory of our current merchandise. Yes, yeah!

d. Apply for grants. Not yet, we are going to hold off on this for now, hoping to get enough in donations.   

e. Raise enough money ($5,000) to start the first segment of the community center. Let’s be optimistic. We raised $585 in July, another $350 in August and I’m not sure how much yet this month, with over $6,000 in assets. At the meeting last weekend, we only came up with one idea for raising money yet this fall, but I think I’m going to start really pushing it on social media for the next few months and see what happens.   

I think this Round of ROW80 ends in a few days, so this will be my last post until next month. I am content with how my goals came out – there is a lot of green up  there and just that smear of red, which was a totally unrealistic goal anyway.

Are you happy where your goals ended up this Round? Do you know what changes you will make for the next Round?

One last thing – if you came upon this Blog post from elsewhere, ROW80 stands for Round of Words in 80 Days and is the writing challenge which knows you have a life. You can read more about it here.

Where I did a bit of my writing this past weekend. Unfortunately, the sunny weather and clear blue lake outside my window (in the picture above) kept me from sitting in this chair much of the time.

Accomplished Enough

Since I only worked one day at the day job this past week, I should have accomplished a whole lot more. However, painting the living room was a ridiculous lot more work than we anticipated. It took four full days, including the last day which was eight hours of putting the room back together again. In addition to that, we took a ride on Monday, and on Saturday we went to an art festival out of town and then to a wedding in the evening. Being busy never seems to end.  

Since there are only ten days left in this Round of Words in 80 Days, there should be more green and less yellow. Dratted busy schedule. At least the red is minimal. Green highlight is goal accomplished, yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted.

A. WRITING

1. Finish another edit of my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River.” I’ve been plugging away on it, through chapter 38.    

2. Continue tweaking my book proposal / query, as needed for each literary agent I intend to contact next. I have decided to put this on hold for now. I’ve got the writers’ retreat this week, and I will work on it then, when I have experts around to guide me.    

3. Write nine chapters on my next novel, which I am giving the working title of “New Old Spies.”  Nope, but hoping to this weekend.

4. Write two inspirational pieces for the page-a-day calendar at my work.  I wrote the second one!

5. Write two posts per week for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. I posted three times.

B. REACHING

1. Send proposals / queries to the next agents on my list.  See #2 above.  

2. Submit the two inspirational pieces to my work calendar.  I submitted the second one that I wrote.    

3. Promote myself or a piece of my writing (whether it be promoting one of my books, submitting a piece somewhere, saying something brilliant about my writing on my social media, etc.) once a week. Nope.    

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Yes.

2. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. Yes.

3. Read five other people’s blog posts per week and comment on two of them. I read five and commented on three, I think, I’m pretty sure.      

4. Finish reading three books. I’ve read two. Yeah! Finally finished “Emma” by Jane Austen. I’ve started the third, “The Last Savanna” by Mike Bond.           

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake, averaging 60 ounces per day. I’ve been trying.   

b. Lose five pounds and three inches around my waist. I’m still just disgusted with myself. Why do I just want to eat all the time? Definitely taking this goal off the list for next Round. It’s not worth fretting about. I may just have to go up a pants size. That’s the worst thing about summer, not wearing jeans for three months and then going, oh, nuts, these just don’t fit anymore..  

c. Exercise four mornings a week and three evenings a week. I only officially worked out two mornings and three evenings. But I am still giving this green as that paint job burned more calories than any of my work outs.

2. Home fires

a. Scan 100 of the old pictures I have around the house. I did it! I’ve scanned 123 pictures, from two of my mom’s photo albums and from one of mine. Got them edited and filed and even put on my external drive for all posterity!   

b. Wash all of my house’s windows. Done with just over half the house and don’t know when I’m going to finish. But we did finish painting the living room, so I’m going green on this one.   

c. Do a major cleaning of one of my closets. Still not a closet, but I’m giving that painting of the living room a second green here, coz that was a ridiculous amount of work.  

d. Host my brother-in-law’s wedding at my house on August 4. This should have stars and fireworks next to it!   

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Write the Policy and Procedure manual. Not yet.

b. Host two merchandise sales. We had one the first Saturday in August, but we have also sold over a hundred dollars’ worth of stuff at a store in town, so I’m calling this goal met!  

c. Do a thorough inventory of our current merchandise. Yes, yeah!

d. Apply for grants. Not yet, but I think we are holding off on this for now. Have a meeting today to discuss.  

e. Raise enough money ($5,000) to start the first segment of the community center. Let’s be optimistic. We raised $585 in July and another $350 in August with over $6,000 in the bank, so we are getting there. (That money in the bank has to cover our other expenses, so not all of it can count towards the five thousand, maybe half of it only.)   

This Thursday, I head out of town for that writing retreat. I’m not going to work on the writing goals until then, but, boy, I’m going to tackle that list come Thursday night. And since I will be gone until next Sunday, there’s not much I can do about the rest of the list.

Are you happy where you are at with your goals this close to the end of the Round? Are you thinking about what to do next Round?

Hubby and I starting the second coat of paint. I'll eventually post all the before, during and after pictures on my other blog.
I took 82 of them! I need to weed some of them out. 

once again, overbooked

So much for having a productive week. At least there’s not an outrageous amount of red. Green highlight is goal accomplished, yellow highlight is goal at least worked on, red lettering is goal not even attempted.

A. WRITING

1. Finish another edit of my novel, “The Truth Beyond the River.” I’ve been plugging away on it, through chapter 34.    

2. Continue tweaking my book proposal / query, as needed for each literary agent I intend to contact next. I have decided to put this on hold for now. I am going to a writers’ retreat next month and I will work on it then, when I have experts around to guide me.    

3. Write nine chapters on my next novel, which I am giving the working title of “New Old Spies.”  Nadda, still haven’t looked at it.

4. Write two inspirational pieces for the page-a-day calendar at my work.  I wrote the second one! Thinking about doing a third, but the deadline is September 15, so I best get on it.    

5. Write two posts per week for my other blog, “The Dino Chronicles”. I posted two times.

B. REACHING

1. Send proposals / queries to the next agents on my list.  See #2 above.  

2. Submit the two inspirational pieces to my work calendar.  I submitted the second one that I wrote.    

3. Promote myself or a piece of my writing (whether it be promoting one of my books, submitting a piece somewhere, saying something brilliant about my writing on my social media, etc.) once a week. Hmm? Nope.    

C. READING

1. Read the daily assignment in “Today’s Light” Study Bible. Yes.

2. Read the daily devotion in “Jesus Calling”. Yes.

3. Read five other people’s blog posts per week and comment on two of them. I read five and commented on three, I think, I’m pretty sure.      

4. Finish reading three books. I read one and am still working on “Emma” by Jane Austen. Still plugging away, but I might actually make it. There are 55 chapters and I’m on chapter 44.         

D. REMAINING

1. Physical

a. Increase my water intake, averaging 60 ounces per day. I’ve been trying.   

b. Lose five pounds and three inches around my waist. I’m feeling kind of fat again today. No idea how to melt that roll of fat around my middle. I don’t know what I was thinking when I posted this goal.  

c. Exercise four mornings a week and three evenings a week. I did five mornings and three evenings.  I also had a much-needed massage on Friday. Man, I wish I could afford that every week. It’s amazing how good one feels when one’s muscles are all relaxed for a change.     

2. Home fires

a. Scan 100 of the old pictures I have around the house. I had to re-organize the hundreds I already scanned, and then I did scan 51 new ones, half of those however I still have to edit and title and such. Easier to organize as I go along.  

b. Wash all of my house’s windows.   Done with just over half the house and don’t know when I’m going to finish.   

c. Do a major cleaning of one of my closets. Not yet a closet, but am working on painting the living room, so I’m counting that.  

d. Host my brother-in-law’s wedding at my house on August 4. This should have stars and fireworks!   

3. Tumaini Volunteers

a. Write the Policy and Procedure manual. Not yet.

b. Host two merchandise sales. We had one the first Saturday in August, but we have also sold over a hundred dollars’ worth of stuff at a store in town, so I’m calling this goal met!  

c. Do a thorough inventory of our current merchandise. Yes, yeah!

d. Apply for grants. Not yet, but I think we are holding off on this for now. Have a meeting next Sunday to discuss.  

e. Raise enough money ($5,000) to start the first segment of the community center. Let’s be optimistic. We raised $585 in July and another $350 in August with over $6,000 in the bank, so we are getting there. (That money in the bank has to cover our other expenses, so not all of it can count towards the five thousand, maybe half of it only.)   

Looking at this week, I only work at the day job on Thursday. We have to finish painting the living room and then I have to put it all back together again. We also want to take a ride one day and I have a haircut appointment out of town on Friday. On Saturday, we want to go to an art festival in the town 40 miles away. Uff-da! How do my days and weeks get so full?

How about you? Are you continually over-scheduling yourself? Or do you find a happy mix of busyness and down-time?  

One of my photo albums from when I was in high school, I dug it out to scan a picture to my niece, so while I had it out, I pulled out all the pictures and started scanning them.