Tag: (business) Writing

Goals for 2023 – the Water Bunny!

Erin Penn

Original Photo 137492761 © Sven Hansche | Dreamstime.com

Words added by Erin Penn

Tax season is winding up for the last whirlwind, and then back to (only) the post office, editing, and reviewing taking big chunks of time away from the writing. They also give me focus to keep writing, and the physical labor to keep me healthy.

The 2022 Strategy Plan ended up with better results than I have had in the past, so I’m going to try them again. No change to the mission statement.

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

And I think the Goals are still good. Though I need to update the blog one since I am nearly caught up! (happy dance) The big thing is writing sellable material, which means getting better at writing long-form. But the task to develop the long-form writing skill is an action, not a goal. I need the skill for the goal of sellable word volume.

Setting Goals:
1. Increase sellable words volume. (Work on writing long-form.)
2. Maintain the blog going forward.
3. Produce novels regularly, setting up a successful production line by December 2023.
4. Stay healthy

Now onward to implementation:

Specifying Actions:
1. Increase sellable word volume

  • Write daily through one flip of the hourglass.
  • Caveats – missing one day a week is allowed.
  • Evaluation – Record word volume in calendar. Total the data monthly.
  1. Maintain the blog going forward.
  • During Blog Season (December (package season) – March (tax season)) – Write at least two blogs a day until all non-fiction possible is prepped for 2024 and have all fiction postings up-to-date.
  • During Novel Season (see below) – Maintain fictional postings and fill in any non-fictional holes.
  • Evaluation – Make sure blog posts drop on schedule.
  1. Produce novels regularly – Create two genre novels a year while working for post office and doing taxes. Bonus would be writing a Vella.
  • “Novel Writing Season” – From April 1 to July 30 (novel 1); From August 1 to Nov 30 (novel 2) – four months each.
  • Novel Focus Day – One day a week, focus on the novel and only the novel. Flip the hourglass at least three times. (Morning, afternoon, evening)
  • 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).
  1. Stay Healthy
  • Doctor appointments – Make and keep the four recommended doctor appointments: Eye Glasses; 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 2023.

Other Blogs: David B. Coe, Author of Fantasy

Erin Penn

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

January brings a host of resolutions and resolves – the biggest combo is work better and clean stuff. Strangely the work better often comes from cleaning stuff. Having room to work without the mental fatigue of seeing other tasks and duties can make a huge difference in attitude.

David B. Coe describe this dilemma and solution in his Professional Wednesday: Tending to Our Work Space (May 18, 2022). (The direct link is: https://www.davidbcoe.com/2022/05/18/professional-wednesday-tending-to-our-work-space/ – last viewed 12/12/2022)

Between package season for my post office job and tax season for my other day-job, my desk is buried in paperwork and project lists and I don’t know when I will get through it all. There are tasks years old that I still mean to get to someday. My honey-do list to myself.

When I did the yard hole-fill-in last year (see lawn leveling), I got rejuvenated. A task weighing me down was released to the ether. Hope raised and danced the jig for a time.

WRITING EXERCISE

Take two hours (or whatever the project needs) and clean one thing you’ve been meaning to clean. This isn’t a procrastination from writing, but an energy building project. Clean something bothering in the line of sight of your desk. Squeaky wheel – WD-40. Leaky pen – throw it out and replace. One stack of papers that keeps shifting – actually clear it. If it drains energy instead of putting a smile on your face when sitting at your writing desk, fix it.

Just one thing today.

Maybe you need to have one hour of your writing week set aside to maintaining your HAPPY work space. Think about it. If the mess is draining your writing, making it hard to start or to maintain, then something needs doing. Maybe an all out attack like Mr. Coe did over several days (he is a full-time writer, so take that into account on his ability to focus), maybe a happy tree fix once a week.

Comment below on what you did to make your writing space more pleasant to work in this week.

From the Internet hivemind

 

My Strategy Plan for 2022 – a review

Erin Penn

Photo by Scott Blake on Unsplash

Time for the last post of the 2022, and it’s the perfect time to do a review of the strategic plan I started back in March and see what tweaks are needed for 2023.

First off, success, though not a great success. I got a lot more done this year than the previous two years of the pandemic. And I’ve done some maneuvering in my day-job life this past month that I hope will drive me to do even better next year. Small steps in this marathon.

Goals were:

  1. Increase sellable words volume. — Did not happen, but I think it will happen in 2023
  2. Get blog up-to-date by December 2022 (adjusted to a more reasonable production of update complete by March 31, 2023). — Went from 257 blogs behind to only 72. Note that for 2023, another 157 blogs will be needed (72 + 157 = 229 … still ahead of where I started!)
  3. Produce novels regularly, setting up a production line by December 2022. — Did not happen, but I think it will happen by December 2023.
  4. Stay healthy. — No new injuries! Doc wants me to get on a better diet, so more work is needed.

Ditto the goals for next year. And release the Water Rabbits!