Sunday Evening Post #86
It’s the first day of Daylight Savings Time! While I do hate “losing” that hour of sleep, I am actually happy we’re back on DST because it makes it much easier to get to the dog park after work.
Blogging
The purpose of these two goals is, yes, to grow my blogs, but also to support and highlight blogs and bloggers I enjoy. Just like I will be posting 2 new to me blogs every week in my round ups, the point here is to draw attention to blogs that others might not be familiar with. (Blog swaps will not count toward either of these goals.)
Write one guest post per month.
January- yes
February- yes
Publish one guest post per month.
January- yes
February- no
I need to get better about asking people if they want to write guest posts. I have to be as proactive about that as I am in writing posts.
Writing
Writing fiction is my side hustle, though I have yet to make any money from it. I’ve found that I devote much more time to the blogs than I do my fiction, though, because I am on a schedule. I feel accountable to my readers to get posts up when I say I will. And because I am a procrastinator, deadlines are a must for me. I get the energy I need to work on something from an impending deadline.
I am hoping to transfer the power of those two things- accountability and deadlines, to my fiction this year.
Submit at least one piece to a paying venue per month.
December: Yes (rejected)
January: Yes (rejected)
February: Yes x4 (1 rejection)
Complete the first draft of my novella and start edits. I wrote a little bit today, and read a new scene to my critique group, and they all really liked it, so that’s a bit of a win.
Finances
A lot of financial goals will actually end up as floating goals- ie they will be things I expect to complete well before the year is out. But I do have some long term financial goals that I think will work for year-long tracking.
Create and track a practice stock portfolio. Look for an update this week.
End the year “on budget” in the categories I’m tracking.
March Numbers
|
Category |
On Budget |
|
|
Month |
Year |
|
|
Groceries |
Yes |
Yes |
|
House |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Eating Out |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Allowance – E |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Allowance – C |
Yes |
Yes |
The joy of being early in the month- everything is on target
Floating Goals
Rebuild savings to $5-10k. I managed to put $100 in savings this week. It’s not much, but it did make me feel a little bit better.
Replace all the windows in the house. We got the information for the vendor Direct Buy contracts with for window replacement. Next step will be to get someone out to give us a quote.
Fix the plumbing issues. We have a number of little plumbing issues all of which we really need to get fixed.
Publish new photography/flash fiction book. My artist is in. Now we just need to start working out the logistics.
Refinance the house. DONE.
How do you like your critique group? My latest one was just so-so. I miss the camaraderie, but the actual advice I received wasn't anything great.
Well, considering this summer will mark 8 years that we've been meeting every other Sunday morning, I'm going to say I like it a lot.
We have had some personnel changes- a few people have come and gone, though our core remains strong and stable. These are some of my closest friends.
Here's the thing about the value of critique- like so many other things, you have to do it on a regular basis to become good at it. Over the 8 years this group has been together (and 10+ years that I've been writing and critiquing with one of the other members), not only has our writing improved, but so has our critique. It also helps when you become almost as familiar with someone else's writing as you are your own. You know their strengths and weaknesses, what to listen for, and what they'll clean up on their own in their next draft.
For example- I am very bad at getting grounding details into my first draft. I'm concentrating on the action and the dialogue. My group knows when I'm reading them a first draft not to harp on the missing details because they know I'll fix that later. They instead focus on what I need now- does the action flow and make sense? Does the dialogue sound believable, etc. As a piece progresses, we get pickier and pickier.
But throw a new person into our group, and while we still offer good critique, it's not as personalized, at least not for the first few months.