Schedule Update and Writing Goals

Having left off last time saying I was getting up at 4:45 AM and “happy” about it, I was thinking it was about time for an update, and a question from one of my friends accentuated the fact.

And the verdict is currently: I am still getting up at 4:45. And I am still at peace. Oh, there are moments – like last night, when I buried my head on Daniel’s shoulder and determinedly cried out that I didn’t want to get up at 4:45 because I wanted to stay up and watch another movie while (sort of) working on my book. Daniel just held me and reminded me that once we got up I would be happy for it and reminded me of my weight loss goals and – more especially – of the cruise we would be taking in a week, and I took a deep breath and reminded myself of my determination to look at it as a challenge, not an obstacle – and cleaned up and went to bed. And he was right; I woke up and, though it was hard, reminded myself that it takes actual work to get what I want – and after I actually did Calisthenics and was on my way to Starbucks to do devotions, I was happy I had forced my way through, as always.

So the long and short of it, it is going well. And I think, if only because of my purposeful integration of God-time into my schedule and my willingness to sacrifice my night-owledness, I might actually do it this year. I might actually meet my fitness goals. And, by default of a good schedule, might also meet some of my writing goals.

Speaking of which, I got a Scribbler box, which is – according to them – the only subscription box for Writers available. It was sooo much fun to unpack! But they had included what they called a writer’s challenge. And the challenge was to write down your writing goals for 2018 and then put it away somewhere to look at in December. And I wrote down the following goals:

• Get something (anything!) published in Writer’s Digest (really, anything would count, but I figure with their numerous writing contests, they are the most likely candidate.
• Finish Ethrill (I decided another 50,000 words ought to do it [I think], and did the calculations and realized if I wrote 220 words a day I could get to that by the end of the year no problem. I realized this last Monday. Want to know how many words I’ve written? None. I WILL catch up. I WILL!
• Finish editing and submit God’s Masterpiece for publication (realizing it won’t be accepted, but at least can say I’ve submitted a book in my life)
• I feel like there was a fourth bullet, but those are the only three I can remember offhand, so I must not care much about the fourth one.

My new calendar has a writing tracker calendar so I plan to use that to track Ethrill words – and catch up when I do thing like last week and avoid it because I’m afraid I won’t be able to think of what to write.

My husband came up with a great idea to help with this – he suggested I write a short story placed in Ethrill but having nothing to do with my current story to get to know my world better. I Love that idea. I always have the goal of writing a short story a week (because of that one quote that I will post at the bottom), but have only actually accomplished that – um – never. But maybe I’ll try again but this time make the short stories in Ethrill to acquaint myself with my own world. We’ll see.

Good luck all you writers as you try to meet your own goals!