Writing goals as #ROW80 Round 3 begins

“Only I can change my life; no one can do it for me.”~Carol Burnett, American actress

This Round 3 is all about writing focus and scheduling.

I was late to my Memoir2 group last week, so I couldn’t test my new 30-second elevator book speech. The summary intro writerly member Krista gave was more complete than mine. If I were grading it, I’d give it an A+ and write Excellent! at the top of the page. She first described her book topic, and then the part that stood out to me was her description something like, “Once chapter is the traumatic story and the following chapter is reflection and ways to heal.” Succinct. Explains to the reader the topic and what to expect. The format of her storytelling. In so many ways, Yowza!

That’s what I want from my short book description, but I need to think more about what my memoir is. Random stories that build upon a lesson, sure, but the non-chronological format has me tongue-twisted. Writing more of the book and editing the parts I already wrote would help. Sharing all these efforts and getting feedback will be useful. None of this will work without some direction and focus.

Which leads into my ROW80 Round 3 goals, not necessarily in any order:

1–Craft a succinct 30-second book elevator speech.

I will use my latest version at each Montclair Memoir2 critique meeting and tweak afterwards as needed or inspired.

2– Continue my 17 Writing Outlets in 2017 and follow through.

I have collected publications and local contacts, but I’m not contacting these folks. That’s a problem. Must be fixed.

3–Fine tune a regular social media schedule.

There are a few days that my social media outlets have regular postings and updates (Instagram Tuesday Tree Update, for one), but I need more of a presence. There are people I miss socializing with. I can’t promote my writing if all I offer is my book promotion. I miss reading blogs. The move from Michigan to New Jersey made me sloppy and weak. I will try one outlet or something every week in Round 3, tweak as needed. Instagram—Facebook Author Page—Twitter–reading blogs–Goodreads—LinkedIn—YouTube…keep all, focus on some more than others?

4–Catch up, let go of and/or publish old blog posts.

Still figuring out what to complete and what to let go of.

5–Email: read and act on one old day and one new(er) email each day.

Doing this completes almost 180 days, which would put a significant dent in my email inbox.

6–Schedule weekly myself-time to review all these goals.

Wednesday looks like it might work.

7–Work on memoir and other stories.

Again, gotta schedule the time.

And off we go….