Moving Forward

The good news is, I reached my goal. The bad news is, I’m left trying to figure out “what next?”

I’ve finished my transcriptions. There, I said it. They’re done and polished and sent off to the contractor. I can pat myself on the back over the fact I was able to meet my goal (only slightly late, and that was because of something I had no control over). I learned what I’m capable of if I put my mind to it, which is a good thing. But now that the sigh of relief has been let out, I’m left feeling kind of meh.

Surprisingly, this is a pretty common feeling. When you set a goal for yourself you start out with an initial thrill of working towards something, then there’s the euphoria of reaching your goal, and then ... the inevitable emotional letdown. So why does this happen?

Sometimes it happens when we look outside of ourselves for praise. When that praise from others begins to wane, as is only inevitable, so does our validation. And while we should feel proud of ourselves, we just aren’t used to feeling that way, no matter how well we do. But probably the most common cause of emotional let-down is self-doubt. That little voice inside your head that says, “Yeah, it happened this time, but don’t expect it to happen again.”

The best way combat this is to set yourself a new goal immediately. Keep up those good habits self-discipline instilled in you and move on. Learn how to give yourself praise or a pat on the back. Personal goals are just that - personal. While it’s great if someone else recognizes them, that’s not the point. The point is to achieve this for yourself. And never, ever compare yourself to others.

Wordage Report

Blog Posts (not counting this one)
2839 words total
Up by about a thousand words from my last report, and almost twenty-five hundred from last week. While I may have been late with all but one of my posts last week, including this one, at least I got them written, so I have that much going for me at least. :-)

Reading/Reviews
0 words total
I started reading Lord of the Flies while babysitting, and Thursday I spent the entire day reading Inkheart, which was really good. And really long. But I didn’t have time to review it.

Editing
0 pages total
It’s been a while since I looked at An Elemental Earth, but I finally picked it up again this week and I’ve gone over the first 12 chapters. So far I’ve only had a little bit of tweeking to do here and there, but I’m going to take my time and get it right.

New Words
2,372 words total
Okay, so that’s not as impressive as I’d hoped. The transcription project was done Tuesday, the files were sent Wednesday, so technically I had from Wednesday afternoon on to work. So what happened? Well, somewhere along the way I picked up a really, really bad cold. And then Thursday I felt so crappy that I spent the day reading. Friday I was doing other things, so most of those words were done yesterday.

This Week’s Goals:

Continue editing Elemental Earth, reach Chapter 24
More words on Wandering Wizards
Update my Goodreads

My last goal was to make it through the week with my sanity intact, and I’d have to say the jury is still out on whether I achieved that or not. LOL


This week’s excerpt is once again from Wandering Wizards:

Howard woke with a groan. It took a few minutes for his memory to catch up with him and when it did he sat up too quickly.

“Ow, ow, ow!” He held his head as it threatened to explode with pain. “Jesus! Why didn’t anyone warn me about side effects?”

The pain receded slightly and the spots that had been dancing in front of his eyes lessened. It was at that point he realized he wasn’t alone. He was surrounded by a ring of heavily armed elves, all dressed in some kind of dark grey uniform, all with drawn swords pointed at him.

“On your feet, human,” the one with extra decorations on his tunic ordered.

“Okay, okay. Just give me a minute to catch my breath.” The pain in his head seemed to recede a bit as he breathed in and out slowly.

This was not how he pictured arriving in the Magical Realm, although he was grateful that at least that seemed to be where his transferral spell had landed him. A quick glance around showed that he seemed to have landed in someone’s formal garden. In fact, he was quite fortunate that he landed on the path and not in one of the flower beds with their ornate statuary or worse, in the fountain.

The soldiers, he couldn’t think of them as anything else, showed signs of impatience so with a supreme effort he got to his feet. Another quick glance around had him breathing a quiet sigh of relief. There was no sign of Ellen, thank God she hadn’t been close enough to get caught up in his spell - he’d have never heard the end of it.

“I don’t suppose one of you kind gentlemen could tell me exactly where I am?” he asked, a puzzled frown on his face. While he didn’t exactly expect to land at Jessica’s feet, he had hoped to be in her general vicinity. And when he last spoke with her, she and Dominic had been off of Ghren lands, just at the edge of the Darkwood Forest.

“Silence. You will come with us.”

As much as Howard would have liked to protest, he had a feeling it wouldn’t do him any good. The pain in his head receded to hangover strength but he was feeling slightly dizzy, so at first he focused entirely on staying on his feet. Gradually the dizziness passed and he began to look at the passing scenery with interest.

The path through the garden was made from something like flagstone, only this was no dull grey slate, but a white, marble like stone. On either side of the path were flowering shrubs and exotic blossoms, slender trees that bore unfamiliar fruit. They came to a finely wrought gate that appeared to be carved from the same stone as the shimmering white walls surrounding the garden.