Goal Check In - July

Acadia State Park, Maine

I started 2016 with seven writing goals:

1. Finish the three novels I started in 2015.
2. Write and submit a short story each month. (These can be separate stories.)
3. Edit a novel and send it out.
4. Do all the “homeworks” from season 10 of Writing Excuses.
   
5. All of the NaNoWriMo’s.
   
6. Join and continuously participate in a critique group.
   
7. Author visibility.

I have decided to add one new goal since then:

1. Listen to all of the currently getting posted Youtube video’s of Brandon Sanderson classes.

 
Progress so far this year:

1. I finished a rough draft of my novel Conwomen. I still need to finish Animal Companions and Mind Magic.
2. I have written three new short stories and have submitted two of them to different markets. One came back with a rejection. I suspect that the one that came back will need a radical rewrite, but it’s not going to get done this month.
3. It’s going. I’m progressing so quickly as a writer every time I look at a novel I see new things that need to change. As long as I don’t forget about the overall goal of publishing novels it’s ok. When I get something published I want it to be the best work that I can create at the time.
4. I have a handful of these done. I have not been keeping to my original goal of one a week. I should probably aim for two a week from this point forward to catch up.
5. I finished the first Camp NaNo with many new words written. This month is the second Camp and my goal was 50k new words. This has been waylaid by Pokemon Go coming out this month. Not only am I a huge fan, but it’s been a great game for the SO and I to play together.
6. The critique group was started in Jan and the group is phenomenal. We balance each other well and all give excellent critiques. We are going to be taking breaks for each Camp, official NaNo, and less official JuNoWriMo. (I did not participate in JuNoWriMo, but the other three members of the group did.) During other months of the year we’re each submitting 5k words for critique, and then critiquing everyone else’s submissions.
7. I finished this website!
8. I’m half way through the first class. They started to get posted two or three weeks ago, so I’m not too behind, yet.

 
Quantifying goals for the month:

1. Read both Animal Companions and Mind Magic, and then write an outline for the rest of each novel.
2. First I want to finish a second draft of my story about self driving cars. After that I’d like to put together a first draft of a story I’ve been brewing about medical pies. Stretch goal of a first draft of an undecided second short story.
3. I’m going to let all of my novels sit for the month. Brewing and growing needs to happen.
4. I aim to do two Writing Excuses Season 10 homeworks per week for the rest of the month.
5. Working on it. (I’m writing this at a Write-In actually!) My goal was originally 50k new words with a focus on finishing Animal Companions. Now I’m thinking about 35k new words with a focus on some new short stories and the Writing Excuses homework.
6. Break month. I posted one short story last month which will cover the first month of August when we’ll really be getting back into gear. (I thought I’d be nice and give it to everyone ahead of time so that they could fit it in when they can, but I don’t think that anyone will be getting to it early.)
7. I want to make a FB Author Page and Google+ Author page, and then add links onto this website. I should also add new pictures to each page on this website, and add at least one excerpt.
8. I want to catch up on all posted classes, and take notes on each of these classes.

 
What are your writing goals for the month?

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