Boldly stating my #ROW80 goals, Round 2

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that, in the process, he does not become a monster.”~Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

Welcome to Round 2 of A Round of Words in 80 Days, running April 2 – June 22, 2017.

This round overlaps the hopeful finality of our house purchase and moving, so I have to be realistic here.

I miss writing. I haven’t made time to work on my memoir or any short stories. I focused on blog posts, catching up on what I’m behind with. A binder clip full of half-written or almost-edited pieces fill my writing bag. Writing these days feels like work, yet I enjoy writing. Do you feel the same push-pull of productivity?

A Round of Words helps brings things into focus, wrangling a few key tasks, I see people who post updates that are monumental: write this story; edit that book; edit this blog piece; budget personal finances; plot this story; exercise 5x week; outline story ideas; and so on. I’ve seen more than one person list ALL THAT as their ROW80 quarterly goals. Impressive, admirable and insane. I couldn’t do all that. When would I breathe? Looking back, my Round 1 Goals were achievable, but I did not follow through on them. These are my focus areas for April through June:

1–Buy a house.

Easier said than done, but it’s Priority One. In the spare time I have between house hunting details are these goals:

2–Catch up on social media, not catch ’em all.

Set up a schedule for posting and replying. Make it a ritual somehow. I don’t want it to feel like work. I want it to be light, a celebration. I could go very deep with this philosophical outlook and examine what I want each social media presence to present, but right now, I want to maintain current connections. Let’s take it from there.

3–Establish a blog post schedule and keep up.

For every new post I write, I will write/revise an older one. This will keep me focused since I’m behind in my post-every-odd-numbered-day blogging. I will maintain that schedule, but I need to control the madness.

4–Create a blog focus/direction/editorial calendar

This is something I have been cloying with for some time. I began this blog to have an Internet presence to showcase my past published articles and demonstrate my current writing style. This would eventually showcase my published books, and I would become a world-famous, best-selling author. I never had a focus, so my ideas muddle together in an unfocused mess. What do I want to do? What service am I providing? Some people write just to write. I write with a purpose, which has changed over the years. This goal ties into Goals #2 and #3, so it seems that my blog is the key focus this quarter. Completing that/this/these tasks will set me, I can set myself up for a strong Round 3.

6–Work on my memoir.

Edit chapters. Write new chapters. Organize chapters. Learn Scrivener. This is a rambling goal, listed here to remind myself what I’m working on.

7–Play around with short stories.

I’m writing snippets of stuff based on intriguing prompts from Montclair Write Group’s monthly “Penny University” Free Write Workshop. I have them organized in a special, separate journal, so I can easily refer to them anytime. Some of these I can see turning into stories. Some are just fun exercises.

8–Read books.

I actually made time to read while I was in Miami this week. I chose a light YA book that has been on my TBR list for a few years. I don’t want to make reading a defined goal like “one book a week” or “10 books each month.” That sets expectations and guilt if the challenge is not met. I don’t need that stress in my life. I want to read more now than I have been, which has been none. This is a time luxury I have not made for myself.

That’s the best for me right now. It’s not a bad list to work from to break down into good tasks. Gotta get started.e