Tag: Goals

My Strategy Plan for 2022 (Making It Your Business)

Erin Penn

Photo by Jeriden Villegas on Unsplash

For this month’s Writer’s Exercise, I discussed Ms. Klansky’s strategic plan implementation postings and then challenged people to create their own. Strategic Plans are great to have, especially if audited because you haven’t made a profit three out of five years on your tax documents. Having Plans on hand helps prove an INTENT to make money.

I wanted to do the writing exercise myself to shake things up that have slid because of the pandemic. With a strategic plan in hand, I can focus on my writing.

Mission Statement:
Create entertaining and marketable stories which show healthy relationship choices, present educational items, and challenge people to do better.

Setting Goals:
1. Increase sellable words volume.
2. Get blog up-to-date by December 2022. (Edit: According to a reasonable production amount, goal changed to March 31, 2023)
3. Produce novels regularly, setting up a successful production line by December 2022.
4. Stay healthy.

Developing Strategies (Brainstorming):
1. Increase sellable word volume

  • Write Daily – showing up / Butt in Chair (BIC); Daily word goal (worked before for about two months); Daily time goal (never worked). Prime the pump mini-stories to kick-start the day (distracting for me). Control doom scrolling and internet time – so BIC is focused properly. Ritual to set the mood and drop into writing quickly.
  • Writing day/”Date Your Writing” – A day set aside for writing or a time set aside specific to writing, like a date which cannot be superseded.

2. Blog up-to-date – Approach by doing one type of blog at a time. Or maybe a year at a time. Keep up on the now and do a couple extra daily. Figure out how much I need to do so I can figure out how to split it up.

3. Produce novels regularly – Focus on getting a series out at a time. Focus on singles because easier to complete. Is series or singles better? Outline – draft – or jump in? I’ve always thought of myself as a planner, but I seem to be working better as a pantser with the blogging. What process? Which stories?

4. Stay Healthy – Movement, Doctor appointments, keep health insurance $$$, and eating. Walk / collect litter every day; yard work, work for post office two or three days a week, buy healthy food to eat at home. Dentist and doctors visits.

Specifying Actions:
1. Increase sellable word volume

  • Write daily through one flip of the hourglass.
  • Caveats – missing one day a week is allowed.
  • Evaluation – Review monthly to see if this habit is still working for me. (Note: It has been working okay for a week now (March 2022)).

2. Get the blogs up to date. – Make December 1 to March 30 “Blog Season” to keep writing skills up during package months and tax season, but acknowledging not having the energy for bigger works.

  • During Blog Season – Write at least two blogs a day until caught up. (Edit for evaluation: Fourteen blogs weekly)
  • During Novel Season – Do three blogs a week to maintain blog so don’t fall behind
  • Evaluation – Make sure reach weekly requirements.

3. Produce novels regularly – Create two genre novels a year while working for post office and doing taxes.

  • “Novel Writing Season” – From April 1 to July 30 (novel 1); From August 1 to Nov 30 (novel 2) – four months each.
  • Tuesday is “Novel Writing Day” – All day for the novel and only the novel. Flip the hourglass at least three times. (Morning, afternoon, evening) Not allowed to schedule against it, unless moving the Novel Writing Day to another day.
  • Word goal per week for novel – 5,000 words for the first three months (65,000), fourth month is editing and cleanup. Aim on novel writing day is half the volume (2,500) and five other days of (500) each.
  • Evaluation – Daily counts, but more importantly weekly evaluation on Saturday. (Week counts will be from Sunday to Saturday).

4. Stay Healthy

  • Doctor appointments – Make and keep the four recommended doctor appointments: Eye Glasses (done in Feb); Dentist; General Doctor; Woman Doctor. Evaluation: Make one a quarter. Are they complete at the end of the year?
  • Daily exercise – On days not working for the post office, do yardwork or collect litter in the neighborhood.
    • Caveat forgive during tax season.
    • Evaluation: Reassess monthly and see if need to be redirected.
  • Healthy food – Plan weekly meals on Monday.
  • Overall Evaluation: Keep weight below 200. Happy goal would be 185 by the end of 2022.

Writing Exercise: Making It Your Business

Erin Penn

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Writing as a Business

If you are writing for fun or passion, you can skip this post. Today, we are talking about Writing as a Business.

Mindy Klasky, a best-selling author, wrote an amazing series about “Making it Your Business” for Magical Words back in 2011 and most of it still applies. Creating a Strategic Plan helps you focus your energies on what works.

I have a great example of why it works from when I took some business courses. Most businesses know their business – so they know the direction they want to travel. But accounting works from the tradition of keeping costs as low as possible no matter what (pulling the company a little to the right); and sales knows that they need to sell, so they promise whatever will make the sale (twisting the company hard to the left); and the custodian is totally turned around and been counterproductive because his instructions on OSHA cleanup requirements haven’t been adjusted to the industry specifics of the company (a U-turn every day, erasing about two people’s worth of effort). Everyone in the hundred-person company is mostly aimed in the right direction, but a little off here and there. Lots of swerving. Basically 100 people are producing 78% of the time what the company needs. Good, but not perfect.

A Strategic Plan gets rid of the swerves. A force multiplier, each part of the company is examined and re-aimed to shoot true, straight ahead. OSHA requirements are examined for best course. Accounting doesn’t nitpick everything because they know what the company needs to create the best product possible. Sales no longer making promises outside of the company’s core business. 100% from 100 people.

Same holds true for an individual business like writing. Writing for passion gets you words. Writing with a strategic plan in place – to direct that passion gets you income. The difference is “I feel like writing something romantic today” to “I feel like writing romance today, and I know a romance anthology is looking for fairy tale spin-offs.”

Making It Your Business isn’t ignoring the muse, but harnessing it. Muses ride the writer enough, turn about is fair play.

Ms. Klansky’s Strategic Plan implementation appears in the following Magical Word postings:

  1. Mission Statement (1/20/2011) –
  2. Setting Goals (2/17/2011) –
  3. Developing Strategies (3/17/2011) –
  4. Specifying Actions (4/21/2011) –

WRITING EXERCISE: Create your Strategic Plan for either your life or for your art (writing, editing, or other creative endeavor).

My attempt

Mission Statement: Make a difference in the world by creating more stories showing healthy relationship choices, while making half the income I need to sustain my lifestyle.

Setting Goals, Developing Strategies, Specifying Actions: Wow, this is involved, but exactly what I need to shake of the pandemic paralyzation … I will need a few days to complete. I will be posting it as a 5th week blog. Link will be provided once it is up.

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words – One thing at a time

Erin Penn

Photo by Desiray Green on Unsplash

One Thing At A Time

With the new year comes a hundred-dozen ideas of things that Are-Getting-Done-This-Year. And 2022 is compounded by two years of COVID burning down plans, but our energy is nearly adjusted to the “New Normal” so plans are beginning to look possible if not probable.

But All-The-Things isn’t possible. Multi-tasking, especially with the a world of worry still nibbling at the back of your brain, taking bits of energy and thought processing, produces suboptimal results.

Choose one habit to renew. Pick one thing to write. Concentrate.

A.J. Hartley, a New York Times bestseller, talks about “The Writer as multi-tasker” on Magical Words back on 1/7/2011 –

Review the article and some of the related comments.

WRITING EXERCISE: Choose one habit to renew or start.

Lots of good habits have been lost in the past couple of years. Now is a good time to flip through your old habits and dust one off to restart. Or start a new habit. Do it every day for a month.

Comment below on what you are trying to do and how it is working out.

***

My Restart is this blog. So far, so good. It hasn’t been easy with all the other commitments, but I am so much happier when I am writing and creating regularly. 

Blog: New Year 2022

Erin Penn

Meme created by Erin Penn

The year is 2022, and it has been a long two years. 

Taxes have ran long – like really long, for several years. Basically I’ve done three years of taxes in two years. Then I had to job hunt to qualify for the unemployment bonus, and unlike every other time I went looking for a real job when I hungered for one, this time, burnt out and just wanting a break after taxes, I actually found one in 2020 and started working for the post office on the weekends for all those packages people have been ordering. The result is lots of work and no free time.

The writing has suffered.

Editing, not as much, but not much is getting done either. I did some amazing editing in 2020, but everyone’s creative juices have been drained (including my own) dealing with the uncertainty of COVID life so very little was edited in 2021. Due to pipeline processes, the 2020 editing arrived in 2021 as published books. I need to update my book list to show the amazing authors I’ve worked with. I’m hoping to get back into the editing game again in 2022, but we shall see.

This year will be a digging out year. Cleaning house, keeping up with the bills, and, maybe, shaking enough of the tax and package delivery slog off to write a bit. I’m not going to set up resolutions this year, or beat myself up for failure if unsuccessful.

The big goal will be a simple 500 words per day and/or catching up with a blog posting per day. This post is the start. Hopefully not the end.

May the year bring accomplishment and contentment to one and all.

Dream Big – Don’t fit the box

Erin Penn

Dream Big, don’t fit in the box.

They say, “Dream … but not too big. Reach … but not too high. Shine … but not too bright. Think the impossible … as long as it is in black and white.”

I know I often talk about limits and taking into account reality. But also, REACH – DREAM – THINK!

Don’t break yourself, but don’t let them break you either.

Totally in love with this Todrick Hall song from his Straight Outta Oz series (yes, it features some of the members of Pentatonix) – the images created by the lyrics are perfect.