First Quarter 2018 in the Books

So I haven’t written a blog post in a really, really, really long time. For that I apologize. But I feel like I just have nothing much interesting to say. That and, let’s face it, I’m in a rut. The rut of all ruts.

Do you remember All in the Family? Archie Bunker says, “I go to work, I come home, I go to work, I come home.” That is so me but that’s okay. I like boring. I like consistency. And symmetry. And routine. (Sometimes all that wars with the Gemini who wants to be the wild, adventurous, LET’S GO HIKE THROUGH THE AMAZON side but I can’t have it both ways, now can I?)

Today, I want to talk about…

GOALS.

I have this Best Self Journal I’ve been using for a while now (you can get your own by clicking the link in the sidebar!). I’ve wrapped up my third journal and started my fourth. What I like about this is that I can map out three goals I want to achieve in 13 weeks. This seems much easier to swallow than looking at the entire yearly calendar and wondering WTF I’m going to do with the writing business for the year. I’m such a “let’s wing it” when it comes to the writing. That’s the Gemini. “I’m sick of writing this series, LET’S START SOMETHING NEW!”

But at the end of 2017, when my writing career was/is really going nowhere, I decided to throw caution to the wind and write exactly what I wanted to write. I wasn’t worried about sales or what I was going to do with the books when I was done.

Some people think writing to market is the way to go and maybe it’s the right decision for them. But I know me. I’m stubborn. If someone tells me to do something, I will move mountains NOT to do it. My inner child screams, “Don’t tell me what to do!” I had a publisher dictate to me the exact story they wanted me to write and when I came back with my version of that, they had me rewrite it. Not once but three times. I was all:

That book still isn’t published to this day because I hate it. So be it.

ANYWAY.

My goals for the first quarter of 2018 were to:

1. Finish book two in the urban fantasy series
2. Stitch 8-10 ornaments for the Etsy shop
3. Pay off a credit card.

Now, let’s see how I ended up.

Goal #1 – Finish book two
I’d been sitting on a particular book for five years. I decided it was time to blow the dust off, get it rewritten. I finished the revision of book one in fall 2017 and started book two. There were days I didn’t want to write. Days I was stuck. Days I couldn’t wait to get to the keyboard. I persevered. In January, I wrote a total of 21,393 new words. In February, I wrote a total of 26,003 new words. All this added to book two which was already in progress. I finished the draft of it on February 23 while also doing tweaks and edits on book one.

My overall goal is to write all five books. It’s actually really fun because as I wrote book two, I could go back and make tweaks in book one with some foreshadowing and stuff. This is a continuing story for my characters, so continuity is really important.

Goal #1 – SUCCESS

 

Goal #2 – Stitch 8-10 ornaments
I launched a new Etsy store in November 2017. (In case you’re interested, you can find it here.) I really hadn’t intended for it to be a huge ordeal. I just like making these little ornaments and wanted to sell them and maybe make a little extra cash on the side. This was not going to replace my income, not by any means. Honestly, I didn’t keep track of how many I made, but I do know for sure I made at least four new ones, plus I sold five. One was already done, the other four had to be made. Total eight altogether? I think it’s safe to say I met this goal.

Goal #2 – SUCCESS

 

Goal #3 – Pay off a credit card
OOF. Okay this did not go so well AT ALL. I wanted to pay off a card I’d used at Christmas and for some other little things. It had less than a $1000 balance. Easy, right? WRONG. Let’s just say I am a person who has little control when it comes to things I want. I’m a “right here right now” kind of girl. I want instant gratification. I suppose I can blame it on the fact I learned in my 20s credit cards were the way to get stuff you wanted and pay for it later.

This is so not the case. People, credit cards of fucking EVIL. I’m pretty sure the devil was the one who invented them and whispered sweet nothings to bankers to get people to apply for these monstrous things and put people in debt literally for the rest of their lives. I hate them. Despise. Detest. There isn’t a strong enough adjective to describe how much I fucking hate these credit cards.

Anyway. All this to say I didn’t pay off that one credit card. So help me, I will this quarter if it’s the last thing I do.

Goal #3 – FAIL

 

My new goals for the next quarter will be something along the lines of:

1. Finish book three in the urban fantasy series
2. Stitch 8-10 ornaments for the Etsy shop
3. Pay off that credit card!

Yeah, so not much of a deviation from the previous three goals. But it’s what I really want to achieve.

Here’s to new goals and a new quarter!