This Week’s Wrap-up

I set new goals about two weeks ago, and I’m taking this opportunity to reflect on how I’m doing in achieving them.

I haven’t met my 2,500-word goal for each writing day. I’m not ready to lower that word count because I know I can meet it if I focus. I haven’t met that goal because I allowed other things to intrude on my writing time. This is a good reminder that if I want to be a serious writer, then I need to put writing time on my schedule and guard it like Smaug did his treasure.

This will be my second Friday blog post in two weeks, and that meets the goal of at least one post each week. (I’ll pause now to pat myself on the back.)

While I didn’t make my word count, I did submit a short story to three writing contests this past week. I hesitate to submit my work to these contests because I’m convinced it doesn’t measure up. This year, I’m trying to be bolder and take more chances with my work. I’ll count that as a win, even if it means I didn’t make my word count for Wednesday.

Waking up earlier and restricting myself to email and social media before taking Jen to the train has been mostly on track. I slept in a couple of days and looked at email in the evening after work. I’ll keep improving on that with practice.

On the negative side, waking up earlier only helps if I get to bed earlier. I haven’t done that, and I ended yesterday with a whopper of a migraine. In 35+ years of getting migraines, I’ve come to see them as my body’s internal circuit breaker. When I’m not taking care of the system (eating junk, not sleeping enough, worrying too much, etc.), a switch flips and the whole system loses power.

Writing more only works if I’m mentally and physically healthy. I’ll work on a better balance this weekend and into next week.

Next Tuesday will be the first session of a writing class I’m taking. My goal for this class is to improve some core craft skills like POV and voice. It meets for eight sessions, which should give me some good practice.

Here’s hoping you meet your goals for this upcoming week, whatever they might be.