Goal Stretching

So remember on Tuesday I said I’d have my in depth look to my September goals today because I honestly wasn’t quite sure on them yet?

Yeah…

I’m still not quite sure on them.

I think part of my problem in deciding on a goal is because I’m unsure how much more of my time the publication work is going to take up. I know there’s some work I still need to do on it, and I haven’t gotten it back yet to know what other suggestions I may have to edit yet so it’s really up in the air how long this back and forth is going to last.

Some of my goals from last month simply need to carry over, which, I think that’s just mainly going to be what September is about: finishing what I didn’t do in August because I got sidetracked on the submission.

I did manage to catch up on all blog hops earlier in the week so I’m back on track to that. I really need to start keeping up with them as the comments come rolling in on the thread. Which means starting on Saturday night/Sunday. Which could potentially start to become a problem when the holiday season sets in. I didn’t have to figure that out last year because I had no computer during that time last year. We’ll see how this starts to go soon.

I had put off the final two catch up Shards I had to write because of a tight deadline I was on so I need to do them. I’m thinking I can knock those two out tomorrow and get updates for Shards of Imagination caught up on Wattpad. Then whatever else little things I want to do tomorrow.

Then there’s also all those camping journal entries I need to write that I still have yet to get to. (I actually think I started the first one at some point and just never finished it. I think. I have to look.) There are five entries I have to write, and three sets of notes I have to finish. (I was apparently wrong when I said two on Tuesday.)

Obviously, to do all of them on top of writing and any publication work yet this month is going to be a lot. I could probably do it, but I’m also sure I’d be stressing myself out in my attempt to get it all done.

So what I’m thinking is this:

If I shoot to write at least three of them this month, then I’ll only have three left to write next month. (There’s one last trip this month then the season is over. Sad face.) That at least breaks it in half for me.

Next month I shouldn’t have to worry about the publication other than it’s release date and doing my own promoting of “Hey! I’m published! Come buy the book and read and support me!” so that’ll free up some of my time to focus on other writing obligations.

I can also finish the notes this month. They aren’t hard. My hardest part to them is looking at the attractions around the campground, giving a few details of them, then using Google Maps to estimate how far they are from the campground. (Oh yes, I am that detailed. One of these days I will write a blog post on it, maybe in a week or two.) I say that’s the hardest part because sometimes campgrounds don’t have attraction brochures in their office so I have to Google things anyways, which takes me more time. Like the last trip.

Here’s what I’m thinking on these camping goals then as a sort of time frame for pacing myself and leaving room for other writing. (Fated to Darkness is really starting to feel neglected.)

There’s four full weeks to September, and if I count all the notes as one thing then I have four things to accomplish this month in my camping journal. The notes and three written entries. That’s one a week.

That’s doable. I did it at the start of 2016 when I neglected 2015’s entries as well and it worked well for me. (I really need to learn to keep my ass on track with these things and write them before the next trip comes around. I used to be so good at that.)

So next week I am going to focus on finishing the three sets of notes. It’s more like two and a half but close enough. One is just finishing attraction notes. One won’t be so bad because it’s a same campground I went to last year but I have to add a little because they expanded since last year. And the last full one is a really small, simple campground so there won’t be too much to record on it.

Then after that I’ll write the first three entries of 2016’s camping season one a week. It’s something I can do on a day off and be done with each week, even though my writing them can take about an hour or so depending on how much the campground had and how many attractions are around. Some entries are easy, others seem to take forever.

If I stick to that thinking and schedule that’s what I’ll do for those goals. But I still need to get some novel writing in there.

Last month I had opted for a 20k goal on Fated to Darkness. Thanks to the submission, I only got about 5k written. I had wanted to be able to finish the book this month but I know that’s not going to happen now so I’ll have to push that back another month and aim for it next month.

(I really want to have this first draft finished before the holiday madness in retail hits that way I can focus on the easier concordance notes side of the book during those stressful months. So by…mid-November, even a little earlier, I want to be writing the end of the epilogue.)

But then what word count goal do I settle on for this month if I want to manage that?

I don’t know how many words I really have left to this novel. I’m horrible at estimating that as well but I’m thinking it’s under 50k, maybe under 40k. I hope.

A friend told me I should carry over the leftover of my goal from August, which is 15k words, and I’m starting to think that’s a good idea.

It’s not a huge goal in case I get swamped with submission work or the dreaded day job yet, but it’s also enough that I’d be back to where I wanted to be this month. More than 15k would be great, the less I have to write next month then, but I think I need to aim a little lower than I’d like just in case things pop up.

I guess I’m shooting for 15k at the least then.

And I guess that then wraps up what my goals are for September, now that I’ve literally figured them out by rambling to all you folks.

Two Shards and catch up updates to Wattpad, two and a half sets of camping notes, three camping journal entries, and at least 15k words to Fated to Darkness. Among whatever other submission work pops up.

That should be doable. That better be doable.