Procrastination

The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed.
– Steven Pressfield

Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.
— Adam Hochschild

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.
― Pablo Picasso

Overcoming procrastination is not, I repeat, not about cramming additional work into your day … overcoming procrastination is about simplifying your life to make space for the activities that matter most.
– Richie Norton

Procrastination is defined as the voluntary and unnecessary postponement of important action. It may surprise you to learn that there are many valid reasons for procrastinating, including low self-esteem, lack of interest, feeling overwhelmed, and fear of failure. Distractions like phones and other digital devices are also common perpetrators of procrastination.

But even without distractions, procrastination is detrimental to productivity. The worst part about procrastination is the stress and anxiety it leads to. Especially when you procrastinate over something that has a time limit. It creates worry that whatever it is won’t get done on time, which can cause tension, headaches, and stomach pain.

Another downside to procrastination is that when you wait until the last second to do something, whatever it is will get a rush job. There just isn’t enough time to do it right, so you do a rush job that isn’t quite your best effort.

Unfortunately, procrastination is simply more enjoyable that getting the work done. While we may feel more relaxed while procrastinating, we just cannot work productively this way. What we’re doing is building up a bad, unproductive habit. Continually giving in to the urge to procrastinate makes it harder and harder for us to be highly productive again.

So what can we do to break the procrastination habit?

I’m sure you’ve heard this advice before, but one of the things that helps is to have a milestone, or small target to achieve. Smaller goals can motivate you more that a larger goal, so if you’re facing a large goal, break it down into smaller chunks.

Find a "work and break" rhythm. Set a specific amount of time to work, followed by a specific amount of time for a break. You might need some trial and error to find the rhythm that works for you, but doing so can build your productivity.

Make yourself a schedule to guide you so you know what you should be doing during a specific time in your day. Break your day into time frames to accomplish specific tasks so you know what you should be focusing on, and when.

Use the reward system. Instead of beating yourself up for what you didn’t get done, reward yourself for what you did accomplish. Having a reward to look forward to can help motivate you. On the other hand, if you’ve been unproductive, you can also punish yourself.

There’s also a case to be had for procrastination to be a good thing. When you’ve got a lot of tasks to be done, it can be good to put off some of them to be done later so you can spend more time on the most important one. Sometimes putting off a task gives you more time to think about it and strategize. The increased pressure might create an impetus and create the motivation needed to start working.

Procrastinating can give you more time to think about the task. It gives you the time to seek out other opinions on what you’re doing. It can enhance your creativity – it gives you a breather so you can step back from whatever you’ve been struggling with.

But good or bad, procrastination is one of life’s challenges that we all must face at some time or other.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

The Kingston Writersfest is having what they call a Winter Writer’s Retreat. It’s in March, which I think of as spring, not winter, but who cares, it’s another chance to get away to do writerly things. I first heard about it just after Christmas and I’ve been checking their site once a week for details ever since.

Finally, the information on the masterclasses went up this week. Yes! And there are some really interesting workshops being offered. There are a couple focusing on poetry, one on writing dialogue, one on writing rom-coms, just to name a few. So I whipped out my credit card and paid for my four-day pass.

Ironically, the retreat is being held at the hotel I ended up staying at for the fall Writersfest. This time I wasn’t taking any chances and I booked my room right away so that I didn’t miss out on the festival discount. All total, the whole thing cost a little less than just my hotel bill for the fall Writersfest.

Now I can’t wait for March!

NEW WORDS:
1444+814+329+713=3,300
UP – 207 words from last week

Goals For Next Week:
Get all of my blog post up on time.

EDITING:
0 pages
I cannot tell a lie. I didn’t even so much as crack the file open on Elemental Spirit. Or any other file that needs editing.

Goal For Next Week:
Start work on An Elemental Spirit.

MARKETING:
Yeah, nothing new here.

Goal For Next Week:
Set up author page on Amazon; update book page on blog

TECH & TRAINING:
Nothing new here, unless you count fixing the wifi – again! I left the hubby in charge of the granddaughter (who had a P.A. day) and the kittens while I did a couple of errands, and when I came home again there was no internet connection. Even the phone was out. But I retained just enough knowledge from when I used to work tech support to get us back on line again.

Goal For Next Week:
Find external DVD drive so I can use it to install the printer software.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
I did get a new form and example done last week, but I’m not altogether happy with the poem I wrote as an example. The final verse in particular needs work.

Ironically, I chose that particular form because I thought it would be easy to write the poem for an example because of the repetition. It was not. If anything, it made it a little harder because of the second repetition at the beginning of the last line of each verse.

Goal For Next Week:
Find another new poetry form to share.

CRAFTING:
I fully intended to finish up the craft migration this weekend, but see the above post about procrastination and distraction. With one thing and another, it just didn’t happen.

No work on the afghan, but I did get some sewing done. This was one of those jobs I’ve been putting off for a while – hemming for the father-in-law. Some time before Christmas he sent over four pairs of pajama pants that needed hemming, and then a pair of dress pants he’d been given for Christmas. At least that monkey’s off my back now.

Goal For Next Week:
Work on the afghan – the person it’s for has a birthday coming up. Finish craft migration.

WHAT I’M READING:
Read Carnal Innocence by Nora Roberts. Then took a bit of a break for most of the week in an attempt to make myself do something besides read. Instead, I played more mindless games.

So then I started reading The Hungry Ghosts by Shyam Selvadurai, who ran the “Writing Vivid Characters” workshop at the fall Writersfest.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep up my good writing habits.

GOAL REVIEW:

I almost skipped the Monday post on my other blog because once again there wasn’t much interesting going on. But then I figured even miscellaneous type post would be better than nothing, and then I hit on the idea to share my misadventure making Guinness stew. So a failed experiment saved my bacon (so to speak).

Once again, I did no editing, no marketing. But I still say fixing the wifi counts as something techy. :-)

I did manage to do a new poetry form, even if I’m not completely happy with the poem I created for my example.

While I didn’t get any work done on the afghan, I am a step closer to finishing the craft migration, and I got the bag of hemming finished for the father-in-law. Big “Whew!” on that.

My reading slowed down last week, and I actually picked up something other than Nora Roberts, which is good because I have a whole stack of books in my to-be-read bookcase that were not written by her (and four books that were). And yes, I don’t have a to-be-read stack of books, I have a whole bookcase full. ;-)

I didn’t get back to my lists. Well, I made one list, but it kind of got buried under a pile of stuff and I forgot all about it. This week I’d like to make a new list and actually cross a few things off of it.

Mentally I’m in a better headspace than I’ve been lately, so let’s hope this translates into a more productive week.

And . . . That’s a Wrap, NaNoWrimo!

A deadline is, simply put, optimism in its most kick-ass form. It's a potent force that, when wielded with respect, will level any obstacle in its path. This is especially true when it comes to creative pursuits.
— Chris Baty

Your best friends are also the most likely to see this novel-in-a-month plan as another of your charmingly crackpot self-improvement schemes. Don’t be offended if you encounter some good-natured ribbing; the idea of writing a novel in a month deserves to be laughed at. When the chuckles die down, though, do your best to make it clear that, however ridiculous the whole escapade may sound, you plan on seeing it through to completion. Also make it clear that when you are a best-selling author you will use a portion of your vast fortune to reward your supporters and destroy those who scoffed at you.
― Chris Baty

I tend to celebrate crossing over with a meditative ceremony where I print the book out and neatly stack its pages on the floor. When everything has been properly laid out, I take a few steps back from the work, close my eyes, and offer up my thanks to the writing powers for another bountiful harvest. At which point, I get a running start and dive headlong into my word-pile, rolling around and snorting like a pig. And then I fall asleep for three days. How you celebrate is up to you.
― Chris Baty

Chris Baty, for those of you wondering, is the founder of the whole National Novel Writing Month event. It started in July, 1999 with 21 friends in the San Francisco Bay area. Why 50,000 words? Baty did a word count for the shortest novel on his book shelf, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and used that to set the standard.

Only six of the participants, including Baty, completed the challenge that year. The next year the event was moved to November, to give people something to do during one of the dreariest months of the year. They created a website, and a verification option. There were 140 participants with 29 winners.

It began snowballing from there. In 2006 (the year I did my first NaNo), it became a non-profit organization. There were 79,813 participants and 12,948 winners (I was not one of them). It supports many writing fluency and education programs. It has programs geared for young writers, and you can also participate in Camp NaNo, letting you tackle your writing project in the summer as well.

Last year there was over 400,000 participants, but I couldn’t uncover how many completed the challenge. A few years ago they stopped making you validate your word count to get your winner’s certificate – it’s purely on the honour system now. I remember the years when the system kept crashing because of the sheer numbers of writers all trying to validate at the same time, so I can’t blame them.

I know there are people out there who participate in the challenge without signing up on the official site, but where’s the fun of that? By signing up you can buddy up with friends, participate in the forums, and see what NaNo events are going on in your area. You can win fun little badges, share your project cover, and keep track of your stats.

What do you get at the end of the month? The satisfaction of setting a goal and meeting it, no matter what, and a nifty certificate you can print out for your wall. A sense of community and camaraderie with other NaNoers. And you have access to goodies like discounts to writing software like Scribner and Drabble.

I have completed the challenge 14 times so far, failing only the first year where I ran out of story about 20,000 words short of meeting my goal. To date, I’ve only published two of my NaNo novels. The rest are . . . incomplete, despite the fact they’re all over the 50,000 word mark.

But it’s left me with editing fodder for years to come. :-)

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

You know what’s more distracting than kittens? Pain in your jaw. And while the pain killers were great, they made me pretty sleepy, so the last few days of NaNo, plus the blog posting, were a little challenging.

But the pain is mostly gone now, except when I yawn, and NaNo is over. So the next batch of excuses will all be about getting ready for Christmas.

Take yesterday for instance. I was going to get caught up on all kinds of things, but first there was the craft sale my Guild was part of, so I had to go to that (and I had to park miles from the community center where it was being held and walk there in the pouring rain). The rain stopped and the wind came up, so naturally I had to go down to the waterfront and take pictures of the waves. The Santa Claus parade happened that night, despite the cold wind, and I’m pretty sure they “padded” the parade by throwing lights on every damn town and county maintenance vehicle there was because the parade was endless. Then after a really late supper, I remembered that I still had craft stuff to prepare for the granddaughter, who was coming over to do crafts today. And that’s why this post is so late. :-)

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1930+578+313+687=3,508
DOWN 478 words from last week

Goals For Next Week:
Finish my NaNo novel (only about another 1,000 words of story to go)

NANO
It was a kind of steady NaNo for me this year, mostly I kept chugging along. My best day was 3,352 words, and my worst was 175 words. But at least I wrote something every day. Many years I’d start out NaNo strong, then nothing for a couple of days, then catch up, then fall behind, then catch up again.

But obviously, slow and steady wins the race and even though I didn't end up with as many words as I did last year, I still crossed the finish line with words to spare. And also, I think for the first time, I finished close to the end of my novel. Usually I have plot holes, if not huge chasms, that I need to go back an fill at some point, or the story is far from incomplete. This year, I just have the dénouement and I’m done. Go me!

Week One: 1415+2097+1526+1677+1694=8,409
Week Two: 1385+2033+940+1252+1870+1303+175=8,783
Week Three: 1429+1258+3053+953+1034+2088+2064=11,879
Week Four: 3352+2674+2267+1585+2062+890+1226=14,056
Week Five: 1418+745+2960+2825=7,948
Total NaNo words – 51,075

Expected Goal – 50,000

EDITING:
X pages
I just realized that when I get An Elemental Spirit all polished up and send it out into the world, I’ll have completed both of my series. If it seems like forever since I started them . . . well, it has been.

I’m not sure if Spirit should be included under editing, or as regular words because it’s pretty much got to be re-written, especially the beginning part. I did it as part of NaNo a couple of years ago, mostly to force myself to get off the fence with it. And while I’m not thrilled with the results, at least it’s something to work with.

Goal For Next Week:
Start work on An Elemental Spirit.

MARKETING:
On suspension until after Christmas

TECH & TRAINING:
Dropbox is starting to become a “thing” with me. One of those good intentions the road to hell is paved with. I keep meaning to get to it, but I just haven’t yet.

Goal For Next Week:
Figure out how to set up the automatic back up for Dropbox. Set up external hard drive.

POETRY WEDNESDAY:
It was the last day of NaNo and I was already battling numerous distractions, and I suddenly realized, “Oh, this is Wednesday. I’m supposed to have a poetry post up.” So I dove into my archives and pulled out the Trolaan, spiffed up the post a bit, and threw it up there. It was pretty late, but it got done.

Goal For Next Week:
Share a new poetry form.

CRAFTING:
I wasn’t feeling up to doing crafts with the granddaughter last weekend, which was just a day after my dental surgery, but I was up late last night hot gluing hazelnuts to walnuts and then painting them so they’d be dry for this afternoon when she’s coming to make Christmas crafts with me.

The craft sale my stitchery guild was part of was yesterday, and I think they did pretty well. There was a nice variety of stuff, not only at our table, but for the whole sale. I think the person who did the best was the lady selling alpaca products – the blankets were just flying off the table, and one just happened to fly my way. ;-)

Goal For Next Week:
Figure out what other Christmas crafts to do this year.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finished Angels Fall, by Nora Roberts, and since NaNo wasn’t over yet so I couldn’t start my après NaNo book, I started reading The Cabin in the Woods, by Sarah Alderson.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep the reading to a slow and steady pace – I’ve got too much other stuff to do!

GOAL REVIEW:

Despite the fact that the only post that was up on time was my serial installment, at least I got them done, in spite of distractions like pain and tiredness. So I’ll take that as a win. And just an FYI, you don’t want to miss this week’s installment where you see how Izolda plans to deal with the last remaining obstacles keeping her from Nikolai, and set in motion the driving force for the rest of the story. :-)

Next up for publication will be An Elemental Spirit, hopefully some time next year. I haven’t looked at it in a while and I’m really hoping it’s not as in bad a shape as I think it is. I know the beginning sucks, but the rest . . .

Technically I should be putting marketing back on the table, seeing as Magical Mayhem is coming out on Wednesday. I have a couple of ideas, so we’ll see what happens with that.

I still haven’t mastered Dropbox, but now I’ve got some extra time so I need to get back on that.

Last week’s poetry form was recycled from a poetry post I did more than ten years ago, but at least it got done, when I finally remembered it was Wednesday. Funny how the days just seem to slip away from you.

No time for crafts, what with NaNo and all, although I did have a guild meeting to go to where I worked on my afghan. I’ll be doing more Christmas crafts in the week ahead though, because, you know, Christmas is coming.

So last week was a little stressful, but still pretty productive. This one should be even more so. Productive, not stressful.

Patience

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.
— Napoleon Hill

The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.
— Arnold H. Glasow

Only those who have patience to do simple things perfectly ever acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.
— James J. Corbett

Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.
— Barbara Johnson

How do you define patience? The dictionary defines it as: the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like; an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay; quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; diligence

Earlier this week I had a blue jay in the birch tree beside the pool, asking politely for some peanuts. Okay, he was basically in the tree shrieking his fool head off, but that’s what jays do when I don’t have peanuts waiting for them. I was too lazy to take extra peanuts and seeds down to the lower patio for the birds and squirrels, so I just opened the deck door and threw a few handfuls of peanuts onto the deck.

The jay flew off of course, it always takes them a while to get used to humans again. By the time summer rolls around they’ll be waiting in the tree and I’ll be lucky to get the peanuts down before they start diving for them. In fact, I can put peanuts on the rails of the deck and they’ll come for them even if I’m sitting at the table out there.

Anyway, the jay flew off, but to my surprise I had a crow come in his place. Then he flew off and came back with a couple of buddies. Now I have a thing for crows, I find them fascinating. So naturally my first impulse was to take a picture of them. They loitered on the deck, sifting through the peanuts, as I stealthily approached with my phone.

Unfortunately, they’ve got a sixth sense or really good vision or something, because as soon as I got within range they were gone. I waited to see if they’d come back, but they didn’t. Until I sat down again.

I tried sneaking up to the door, but they flew off before I could get a shot. We played this game for about half an hour or more, before I gave up. And I swear the one that was left in the tree was laughing at my frustration. I figure it’ll take some patience, standing as close to out of sight of the door as I can manage, but eventually I’ll get a couple of decent pictures of my crows.

And then I started thinking about this in relation to my writing. Some things you just can’t rush, whether it’s taking pictures of birds or writing a story. One thing I’ve learned while working on the edits for Magickal Mayhem is that sometimes I rush the story. When you rush, you leave out details that are important for bringing your story to life.

I think a lot of this comes from focusing on flash fiction the last couple of years. With flash you don’t want to be bogged down with a lot of detail. You write in a flash, you read in a flash, hence the name. But with anything longer you want to take a little more time, have a little more patience, and include details that will make the story richer.

I need to learn some patience with my writing. It’s not a race, and I’m not under any deadline (as a rule). I need to slow it down and take my time and add some detail.

It’s always easier to cut some out than add it in. :-D

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

I did my Monday post, so there’s a few more words for the week. I’m starting to think Mondays are going to be an every other week.

As for other writing . . . it appears I’m still in my slump. I’m getting my ten-minute words done, but that’s pretty much it. The weather hasn’t exactly been conducive to creativity – grey and dismal and up and down.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1326+726+816=2,868

Total words: 2,868 words

Three minute words – 130+93+103+96+81+93+86=682

Goals For Next Week:
Write something new.

EDITING:
I had a fit when I opened up Magickal Mayhem in Word 2019 – I didn’t see the lines that attached the comments to the place in the document where they belonged. Turned out you just had to rest the cursor on the comment to see the line, but still. It makes it much easier to edit when you know where the comments go.

Goal For Next Week:
Keep editing Magickal Mayhem.

MARKETING MONDAY:
*sigh* Nope, didn’t happen last week.

And I haven’t heard back about anything I’ve submitted so far, although the Toronto Star Contest is supposed to contact the winners this month, so there’s always hope.

Goal For Next Week:
Submit two flash stories and one poem.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
I don’t know what I did on Tuesday that kept me from setting up my Paperwhite, but it didn’t get done. Again. Part of it is because I don’t want to face all those books I’ve downloaded to my Amazon cloud. With my old Kindle I could do everything on the device. With the new one I have to sign into my cloud and do my organizing online, starting over, as it were. I know it’s a pretty lame excuse as excuses go, but it’s the only one I’ve got.

However, I did manage to figure out why my printer would print from my old lap top and not the new one, and I fixed it all by myself. Does that count for techno?

Goal For Next Week:
Set up the Paperwhite

CRAFTING:
I received the new transfers I ordered, but none of them really fit with my granddaughter’s dress so there was no progress on that. I finished the baby quilt squares, and now all I have to do is put it together.

I was really jonesing for something to work on while watching night time TV last week, so I broke down and started a new afghan. This one is a hexagon shape, just one big giant hexagon, and I’m using yarn leftover from the previous afghan. At least to start with.

Goal For Next Week:
Finish baby quilt. Start the embroidery on granddaughter’s dress.

WHAT I’M READING:
Oh, boy. Did I fall off the wagon or what? I didn’t do any reading on Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens, but I did do a crap load of other reading. I started with Key of Light, by Nora Roberts, and I was making it last like I did Whiskey Beach, but then Indigo delivered the first three of the Freakin’ Shifters series by Eve Langlais, and I only meant to take a peak, but next thing you know I read Delicate Freakin’ Flower, Jealous and Freakin’, and Already Freakin’ Mated in two days. Oops! Then it was back to the Key Trilogy and I read Key of Knowledge and I’m just about done Key of Valour by Nora Roberts. No wonder I didn’t get anything else done.

My Kindle saw no action last week, but I still have Curse of Christmas: A Collection of Paranormal Holiday Stories, by assorted authors up on it.

Goal For Next Week:
Fish or cut bait with “Crawdads” so I can pass it on, and otherwise get a handle on my reading. Which means no ordering any more Eve Langlais for a while, and stay away from Nora Roberts.

GOAL REVIEW:
My goals were pretty much an abysmal failure all around last week. Partially to blame was the crappy depressing weather, the other part was my weakness when it came to reading. I really have to get to work on the granddaughter’s dress, but the daughter was pretty vague on what she wanted and I really don’t want to screw it up.

Some books are easier to binge on than others, and I did receive a few of those books in the mail last week too, so maybe it’s time to crack one of those open for reading time.

As for the writing . . . I don’t know what to tell you. The three-minute words are easy enough, but my cave story seems to be winding down. When all is said and done, it’s not a great story, but it was an unintentional serial and it is what it is. I’ll be happy when it’s done so I can move on to other things.

Happy writing.

Pen and Pencil

I like the process of pencil and paper as opposed to a machine. I think the writing is better when it's done in handwriting. — Nelson DeMille

I prefer the pen. There is something elemental about the glide and flow of nib and ink on paper. ― James Robertson

I take pride in using fountain pens. They represent craftsmanship and a love of writing. Biros, on the other hand, represent the throwaway culture of modern society, which exists on microwave ready-meals and instant coffee. ― Fennel Hudson

After the fountain pen debacle, I switched to a ball point pen in my journal. I was still doing my three-minute words in long-hand (also known as cursive writing), but I noticed that the journal I was doing them in was already half full. These journals are supposed to last me a year and it’s only March.

So, I have since started doing my daily words in a lined, three-hole notebook. As you may recall, I have an abundance of notebooks. And, I’ve also abandoned my pens as I prefer using pencils in these notebooks.

I can remember a time when I did all of my writing in long hand, and believe it or not, my favorite writing instrument back then was a fountain pen. Apparently, I was more careful back then, because I still have many of those scribblings, and they’re in pristine shape.

When the writing isn’t going well, I’ll often default to writing longhand. I’ll also often turn to a notebook when I’m composing poetry. There’s just something comforting about using pen and paper. It slows down the process, allows me to think. And using the pencil allows me to make changes without having to scribble things out.

As well as an impressive collection of pens, I also have many pencils. My favorite to write with was a good old fashioned HB pencil, like the ones we used in elementary school. But of course the problem with ordinary pencils is that you have to keep sharpening them.

The dollar store and back to school sales provided me with mechanical pencils in bulk, but despite their convenience I never really liked them – they didn’t leave much of an impression. And by that I mean the leads aren’t as thick, so the writing is lighter.

Finally, I smartened up and stopped buying cheap mechanical pencils. A good mechanical pencil can cost you as much as a good pen, but it’s worth every penny. The leads come in varying thicknesses – my current favorite has a 0.9 mm lead. Anything less than 0.7 is too light for my liking.

The very best thing about using a pencil is that you can take it with you wherever you go and never have to worry about a charger or plugging it in. :-D

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

After having missed two weeks in a row, I figured it was about time I did a Monday post on the other blog. It wasn’t much of one, but it was something at least.

As for other words . . . yeah, not so much. I had a lot of things on my mind last week, and between that and the dismal weather, I had zero focus for anything else. No progress on my Christmas story, but at least I kept up with my cave story.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 95+107+138+122+118+99+95=774

Total words: 2,916 words

Three minute words – 127+121+141+145+122+133+131=920

Goals For Next Week:
Get back to wok on the Christmas story, work on journal entries for Elemental Spirit, maybe write a poem.

EDITING:
*looks around innocently, whistling aimlessly* Editing? What editing? Oh, that editing. If I didn’t have enough focus for writing, what makes you think I’d be doing any editing?

Goal For Next Week:
Start the final edits on Magickal Mayhem.

MARKETING MONDAY:
I received an invitation in my email to submit a poem for a local project. There’s no money involved, but it would be wonderful if the poem I sent in is included. I also submitted a flash story to an online e-zine.

I have not heard back regarding any of the stories I’ve sent in thus far.

Goal For Next Week:
Submit two stories and one poem.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
Yeah, this was once again a bust. I texted with one of my sisters for about an hour, and then we were tired of texting so she phoned instead and we talked for another hour and a half. I guess we had a lot to say. :-D

And then I had to clean out the pot drawer in the oven. Apparently, since the mice that have invaded our house can’t get into our new cupboards, they’ve decided to hold their parties in the pot drawer. Can you say ewwww?

So I thoroughly washed all the pots and pans from the drawer, and when they were dry I put them in a plastic bin on the dining room table. The hubby cleaned the remaining mouse droppings out of the drawer, and left a paper plate of mouse bait in their place. I don’t like using traps because it’s not a clean kill

Goal For Next Week:
Set up Paperwhite

CRAFTING:
Woot! I finished the afghan I was working on! And it looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

Goal For Next Week:
Start the embroidery on my granddaughter’s dress.

WHAT I’M READING:
My reading binge has slowed down considerably, although that has not stopped me from ordering a bunch of books from Indigo. I’m still reading Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens, and still not sure I like it.

On the Kindle. I started The Merman’s Kiss by Tamsin Ley and I’m liking this new twist on the whole mermaid legend.

Goal For Next Week:
Continue to stay away from Nora Roberts books so I can hopefully get more writing done.

GOAL REVIEW:
Well, I did great on the crafts and okay on the marketing, but the rest of the goals were pretty much a bust. To be fair, I had a few things on my mind that eroded my ability to focus, but I’m hopeful this won’t be the case for the week to come.

Happy writing.

Almost the End

2018 was a pretty up and down year, mostly down, and I can’t say as I’m unhappy to have it almost over with.

Now’s the time I take a look at my goals for year and how close I came to reaching them. And just so you know, I’m not feeling very optimistic. ;-)

The goals for 2018 and how I did on them:

1. Write every day - at least 500 words
Fail
Not only did I not write 500 words a day, there were many days when I wrote 0 words.

2. Less time gaming and checking social media
Fail
Both gaming and social media still take up a large part of my time – mostly doing online jigsaw puzzles and checking email and Facebook. It’s like an addiction.

3. Shut down by 11 p.m., 12 at the latest
Easy win
I went to visit my sister in New Brunswick in the spring and ever since I got back I’ve been going to bed earlier. So not only do I shut down by 11 p.m., I also go to bed around then.

4. Spend more time doing crafts
Fail
The idea here was to spend more time doing crafts in the evening instead of playing games and this just didn’t happen.

5. Make better use of my Neo
Win
I forget, at times, now much quicker the writing goes on the Neo, but I used it a lot more over the course of the year and I credit the use of it for my NaNo win.

6. Organize my poetry
Fail
I did, somewhere along the way, make a half-hearted attempt, but there’s so much of it and it’s so disorganized that I didn’t get very far.

7. Journal more often
Win
I’m very pleased with the amount of journaling I did last year, and it should be even better this year because my last Speculative Fiction class was all about keeping a journal.

So there you have it, the goals for 2018 and how I did. There were more fails than wins, but the nice part about the new year is it’s a good time to reset and start again.

Join me Monday when I lay out the goals for 2019.