Tag: Monthly Goals

June Results and July Goals

June has been the most amazing month for the first time in a long time. I’ve had several writing successes in the last month, along with successes in school and life in general. I hope I can keep it up as we roll into July.

Here’s how I did in June.

June Results

Write One Short Story/Finish the short story from May

I wrote one short story in the form of the Flash Fiction contest. I also finished the short story from May after waffling on it for a few weeks, and started another short story which I hope to finish in the next month or so.

NYC Midnight’s Flash Fiction Challenge

This year, I really enjoyed round one of the challenge. It has been so nice writing something short and sweet with a 48 hour deadline. I love the feedback and the opportunity to edit through and improve with every challenge. I’m excited I was able to get it done and submit a great story.

BONUS Result #1: NYC Midnight’s Microfiction Challenge

I actually forgot about the microfiction contest for NYC Midnight. I placed 13th, which meant I got to write in the second round the week after the Flash Fiction challenge. 100 words is a lot harder to write than 1000, as strange as it sounds, especially with a genre like romance, but I made it through and submitted a story.

Finish the 2021 NaNoWriMo Novel

Finally, after eight long months of working, I can finally say the first draft is finished! Writing a thousand words a day for nearly every day in June really helped push the story along . I was really able to enjoy the plot and the characters again and reach the finish line. Now it’s time to go back to book one in the series and get some edits done.

Bonus Result #2: 1000 Words of Summer

As a substack reader, I found out about Jami Attenburg’s 1000 Words of Summer, where the goal is to write 1000 words every day for 2 weeks. I was able to use it to work through the last few chapters of the 2021 NaNoWriMo novel. I was so inspired by the challenge, and felt so accomplished with 1000 words a day that I have a new goal for the rest of the year (once I’m done with editing).

Along with my other goals in June, I also finished another class for my Bachelor’s in English. I celebrated another birthday and I’ve begun to be more conscious about my health. Making the shift from writing new content to editing has been a bit difficult, but it’s getting easier the more I attempt.

Word Count: 31,934

July Goals

Write One Short Story

Even though I haven’t always finished the short stories within the month I make it a goal, I really am enjoying the process of writing a short story in a month. I’ve already done at least 8 for the calendar year if I count the submissions for NYC Midnight’s competitions, and I plan to keep it up for the rest of the year. Maybe I’ll even catch up and do more than one in a month.

Camp NaNoWrimo

For Camp NaNoWriMo this year, I want to edit the first book in the current series I’m writing. Now that I’ve finished the 2021 NaNoWriMo novel, I would like to go back to book one and get edits done. I’m over halfway through with hand edits and then it’s time to start typing it up and making it look pretty. My goal for Camp NaNoWriMo is 30,000 words edited, but as usual, I’m always pushing for more.

What goals do you have for July?

April Results and May Goals

April unfortunately was not better than March. There’s always a lot of heartbreak for me in April, and I’m sad to say there was only more this year. Even through all of the issues I had through the month, I still tried to accomplish my goals.

April Results

Finish/Write One Short Story

I finished the short story for March in April, way later than I had planned, but I am quite happy with it. What it came down to was sitting down and putting words on the page, as it happens with everything else! As for the second short story of the month, AKA the short story for April, I finished it with a day to spare, and surprised myself with a great writing streak like I haven’t had in a while. It was one of the darkest things I have written, but it was quite fun.

Camp NaNoWriMo

This year, Camp NaNoWriMo did not go as well as I had hoped. I had so many hopes for several works that simply fell flat as the month went on. While I did write a decent amount of words on several works, it simply wasn’t the year to be successful at Camp in April. I’m still writing and still pushing forward in several projects though.

Poetry

April was National Poetry Month. For the first few days, I attempted to write a poem a day, but it ended up falling off and I think I wrote a max of five poems. While I didn’t write a poem every day in April, I did enjoy thinking about words in a different way and experimenting.

NYC Midnight’s 100 Word Microfiction Challenge

Thankfully, the microfiction challenge went well this year. I was able to sit down and write something rather pithy for the challenge and submit it without any issues. It exactly the gentle nudge I needed to get excited about writing again.

Hazel the cat celebrated her last birthday (14!), but the next day we had to put her down. We gave her the best birthday and spent all the time we could on that Saturday, but we knew it was her time. Another class for school wrapped up, and I’m grateful. This class, along with all the circumstances around it kicked my butt, but everything managed to work out in the end. I also managed to finish reading another book and start a new one in the month of April.

April is always difficult. At the end of the month it was my mom’s birthday and the day right after is the day she died. This year marks nine years, and in certain ways it gets easier, but also more difficult. I don’t cry as much as I used to, but at times, it feels like the grief is getting deeper.

I’m happy to say that April is over.

Word Count: 10,869

May Goals

Write One Short Story

The goal is so far going well, even if there have been a few small bumps in the road. I’m hoping to keep the goal going and have a lot to show for it at the end of the year. I’m not sure what I’m working on this month yet, but I’m sure it will come to me soon.

Reach 100K or Finish the 2021 NaNoWriMo Novel

I have an outline, I know what needs to happen, but lack of motivation lately has been kicking my butt. I’m really hoping to buckle down and make some progress or even finish the 2021 NaNo Project. Currently I’m sitting at around 88K, so 100K is not a crazy goal.

Edit Something

I’ve had the itch to edit for quite a while, but certain projects are taking me longer than I have liked. I’m hoping that I can get back into editing a few projects and make some good progress that I’ll feel good about. I have a loose plan set up, and I hope I can stick to it and have some progress by the end of the month.

November Results and December Goals

Another month here and gone! I love November and the flurry of deadlines it brings, but now we’re in December and it’s time to start winding down the year. November was quite a fun month with the hectic rush of writing 50,000 words (or more) in the 30 days of November, plus school and working full time. It’s months like these that sometimes make me believe I thrive in chaos.

Here’s how I did in November.

November Results

NaNoWriMo

This year, NaNoWriMo went spectacularly. It wasn’t my best year by far, but I was able to get ahead and stay ahead for most of the month. I finished off strong and got more than 10K over the original goal and the good basis for the start of a novel. As it usually goes, I still have more project to write after November, but I’m thankful I left myself a few plot threads and a few rabbit holes to fall down in the next coming weeks.

Doodle More

Unfortunately this month, I didn’t doodle as much as I would have liked. My focus was almost exclusively on working on my NaNoWriMo project, but I did work on one doodle throughout the month. I created a calendar where I colored in the boxes based on how I wrote day by day. It got a little creative juices going and some excitement to keep up the momentum and not lose a good writing streak. Hopefully in December I can get back to more doodles.

Word Count: 61,510

Here’s what I hope to accomplish in December.

December Goals

Finish an Open Project

I have a few open projects I would like to finish as the year draws to a close. I’m excited to keep writing the novel I started during NaNoWriMo and hopefully to finally finish a novel I’ve been slowly chipping away at since last year. Some novels come out quick, and others take their time, but I’m hoping to get some decent words down in December and hopefully form a habit I can keep for the rest of this year and into the next.

Read One Book (That isn’t related to school)

I’m happy to say I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading over the past few classes during my bachelor’s program. I’m sad to say that it hasn’t really been the reading I enjoy doing. While everything I’m learning is quite interesting, I would like to sit down and finish a book that isn’t related to my schooling in December. I’ve started several books this year, so I really have my pick of the book I want to finish before 2021 ends. Hopefully I can finally get through a novel.