Today I revisited my March Writing Goals to realize I hadn’t submitted anything for this month yet. Actually, since I’ve been in revision mode, I’ve only subbed 3 ms over the past year. So today I dug out my old flash drive and opened 3 PB stories I knew I had ready to go. I intended merely to print them out and zip those babies out… as in, getting them in the postal or emaild today. Then I read them, each of them. Did you hear my forehead ka-thunk onto my keyboard? First in embarrassment at such poor writing, then in realization that I had hours to go before any one of them would be submission-ready. I know they are good story ideas, but anyone can come up with good story ideas. The good news in this stinky process is that my writing craft must be improving — right? — if I am able to recognize need of improvement all by my lonesome. Although, there are some days when I wish I had an editor like Hemingway did, and only have to write about 2/3 of any story.
For now, I think I’ll focus on a couple of my other writing goals for this month — like my write three raw/new chapters by the end of the month (got one done), or like my thinking up 10 things I’m thankful for each of 10 days without repeating anything. Then there is my Personal April Challenge to tackle the whole-novel critiques from my critique group and rewrite that little baby, too. Maybe I’ll have things ready by May to get back out there into the slush piles.
Now, wouldn’t you agree that the writing life is never dull?
Author Sandy Carlson 
I do agree: the writing life is never dull. I like lists. I perhaps overdo lists. So, I always have a list going of at least 6-7 projects that I’d like to work on each week. It’s a good week if I get 2-3 things done.
I like your ‘thankful’ goal. In my journal, I write one thing that I’m grateful for everyday. Good luck with your goals and your submissions in May!
A few weeks later, this comment is finally approved. No, Suzanne, I was NOT doing a background check on you. Somehow your response got lost in my msgs, and I just now found it. Blame it on the poison ivy <– I've been giving that stuff credit left and right!
Ooh-poison ivy. That’s not fun. Hope you feel better soon!
Thanks (re: poison ivy). Time heals is a correct addadge for this stuff.
Are your weekly goals WRITING goals? If that’s the case, mark me as very impressed.
They are writing goals, but my “projects” could be things like working on revisions, writing a chapter, doing some research, reading a book, etc. I’m certainly not finishing 2-3 full manuscripts every week!
In fact, I’m still trying to create a habit of making writing a priority, so my 2 official goals are to do something writing-related for 6-8 hours/week and to write 1000 new words/week. That’s going okay.
Nice, disciplined, consistant plodding — writing 6-8 hours/wk & 1k words new/wk. You are an inspiration.
Ooh–I’m blushing. Thank you for the wonderful compliment.
‘Welcome.