Friday, October 30, 2015

Update Day: Spooky Edition

I can’t believe that it’s the end of the month yet again. The time’s just flying and it’s almost terrifying to think that New Year’s Eve is two months away.

But for now, it’s Update Day, which means it’s time for me to take a look at what I’ve achieved and what I want to do in November. I’m doing this as part of my Big dreams/crazy goals bloghop. Basically, we’re a group of people who’ve set ourselves some big goals and then get together every last Friday of the month in order to post updates on how we’re doing. The idea is to share accountability, celebrations and sympathy as needed in order to keep moving in the direction that we’re aiming to go.

Anyone who’s looking to join is more than welcome to do so. All you need to do is click here for more information and the list of participants.

Right. Enough talk. Let’s see how I did…




My goals for October:

Writing:

1) Edit BvB1
Done.

2) See if I can finish the Wo6C3 rewrite.
I wrote 28k words at the time of writing this, but might add a few thousand more. Also, I finally managed to put the rewrite of the book into a planned structure, and now know that I’m about 30% of the way through. Yes. Turns out the book will be… hefty.

3) Get back to the BvB2 rough draft.
Didn’t get to it.

4) Find critique partners for ES1.
Done. I also gave this another editing pass before sending the ms out.

5) Prep the DM1 rewrite for NaNoWriMo.
I still feel like this isn’t quite falling into place the way it should, so I’m postponing this to next month. Hopefully I’ll be in a better head space to work on it then.

6) Start StW. (Or…end up postponing it yet again.)
Hahahahahahahahaha. Poor StW.

7) Work on the CdW concept.
Didn’t get to this.

Writing-wise, October looked like this:



Reading:

1) Read four books.
Eh… Depends on how you look at it. Roughing It by Mark Twain is technically one book, or seven separate books. So I either finished no books or three books, depending on your point of view.

2) If possible read some more of Les Trois Mousquetaires.
Didn’t get to this. I’ve been stealing minutes here and there, and reading a classic in French is a bit too involved for that.

3) Since I’m giving myself a break on the number of books I’m reading, I’m upping my average time a day spent reading to 20 minutes.
I managed the huge average of 7 minutes.

Social Media:

As disheartening as this is, start again to build up some sort of a presence.
This I did to mixed results, but I think I can call it done.

Life:

1) Be prepared to chop and change my plans in the (unlikely) event of the film concept I’ve sent in being chosen.
It wasn’t.

2) Take deep breaths and try not to murder anyone. (Long story.)
Managed this. But only just.

3) Crochet.
Nope, and now it’s the time of year where I’m going to put the project away. It’s way too hot now to mess around with wool.

My goals for November:

Writing

As is tradition, I’m taking part in NaNo this year. As is tradition, I’m going to have to do so with some sort of complication. This time, it’s officially starting my new job post-merger. Also, I’m on a bit of a productivity kick, so I’m going to push for a bit more than 50k words.

1) Write 60k words or edit for 60 hours or some combination of the above. (Therefor 10k written and 50 hours of edits also count.)
2) Finish Wo6C3 rewrite.
3) Add words to BvB2 rough draft.
4) Start StW rough draft.
5) Edit ES1 if the critiques come in in time.
6) Prep DM1 rewrite.

Writing-wise, I hope my November looks like this:



Reading

Given that I’m in for a crazy month, I’m going to give myself a reading break.

Social Media
Do my part in Realms Faire.
Add to 100 Things Part 3 (my How-to book on writing. You can find the first two parts on Wattpad.)
Twitter, Google+ and Wattpad presence.

Life
Settle in with the new job, hitting all required performance goals.
Decide on the proportions I’ll save on my salary and devote to helping other people.

What about you? Making progress on your goals? Got a big goal that you might want to share?


Also: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

22 comments:

  1. Hi Misha, I like the idea of taking deep breaths and not trying to murder anyone.

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  2. Whew! Someone has been busy. :) I love the color-coded charts!

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  3. Wow, sure have a lot more in store. Glad you didn't murder anyone either lol

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  4. Happy Halloween! Good luck with your goals, Misha! You get a lot accomplished, even if it isn't everything you planned to do.

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  5. You have a lot of goals! That's great. I hope you achieve them. It's so hard to believe the new year is in two months. This year has flown by!

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  6. Good grief, you sure know how to make the rest of us feel like slackers, don't ya? Then again, when I was young, I accomplished a ton of items every day, too. Nowadays, I set the bar much lower. Get out of bed? Check! Feed my hubby, the cats, and myself? Check! Breathe in, breathe out? So far, so good. You get the idea. :)

    Good for you. Sounds like you're gonna have an extra-productive November.

    By the way, I responded to your second comment on my last post, where you said you couldn't find my email address. It's in the side bar, under the "Who I Yam" blurb. It says, "Email me. Click here." Either you never went back to see that, or you already have enough help. Either way is fine. I just didn't want you to think I ignored your comment.

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  7. Like Susan, I feel like a total slacker now. Congrats on the progress you've made and best of luck with NaNo! I hope November will be a great month.

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  8. I always admire you for how much you get done. You don't realize it, but the progress you have made on your writing is wonderful. I'm jealous now:) Best of luck with NaNo!

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  9. I have no idea how you get so much done! lol
    I do think it's great though!!! I'm going to do Nano this year for the first time, I haven't decided if officially or unofficially but I'm going for first draft in November either way ;)

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  10. Looks like, despite another trying month, you've still got heaps done. I don't know how you work on so many different writing projects at once; two is about all I can ever manage.

    Good luck with NaNo, I'm giving it another shot this year, but I've not managed to win at it since becoming a mum three years ago. But, hey, maybe this will be my year!

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  11. Looks like you got some stuff done. Way to go! Hope to see even more great accomplishments next month. You can do it! Thanks for being your wonderful self, I'm glad to know you.

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  12. Happy Halloween!!! Man, you are a busy person!!! Good Luck with your goals!!!

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  13. Good luck with the new job and have fun with Nanowrimo. You always write so much, it should be a breeze for you! Happy Halloween :)Funny that it is getting hot for you and all of us North Americans are starting to feel the chill.

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  14. Good luck with NaNoWriMo! It looks to me like you've made loads of progress this month - I'm going to have to get cracking if I want to achieve mine by the end of November! Good luck with your goals for this month too!

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  15. Wow. You're ultra-organised. We'll have to be NaNoWriMo buddies. As per usual, I only made the decision to take part on the 31st. I like doing things by the seat of my pants!

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  16. Good job on your accomplishments! You've got a lot of irons in the fire:)

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  17. Great on all your accomplishments! Well done, Misha!

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  18. Your goals are always very ambitious. Good luck with achieving them I'll be watching your NaNo progress with interest.

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  19. Misha I love that you go for big goals... you may not reach them every month but I love that you go after it ♡ xox

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  20. I'm tired just looking at this. We envy anyone who can participate in NaNoWriMo and not go insane from stress. We'll just stick to writing at our leisure, so our schedule looks like us flying by the seats of our pants.

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  21. Me too, Rachna. Too bad it's harder work than it looks. ;-)

    Thanks Carrie.

    Alex, I'm taking a bit more of a scattergun approach. I find that picking only one thing ends me with not doing it. So I pick a lot and do what interests me at the time.

    Me too, Pat. The sad thing is they're not even worth the effort.

    Thanks Cherie. Yeah I'm pretty happy with what I managed this month. :-)

    Sherry, it's crazy how fast time is going by.

    Thanks for letting me know, Susan! I'll go look again. ^_^

    Thanks Julie! I hope you have a great month too.

    Murees, I am quite proud of what I've managed to accomplish in October.

    Best of luck, Katharine!

    I went about it systematically, Angeline. First only worked on two rough drafts, then added a rewrite. Then added a project that needed to be edited... and so on. Best of luck with NaNo!

    Thanks J! I'm glad to know you too. X

    Thanks Cathrina.

    Funny thing, Shell, is that this is the sixth time I'm taking part and I've only won once. For some reason, November tends to be hell month for me. (Last year, the last remainder of the life I had imploded in November. The year before that, I moved house and had to edit a book by the 30th. You get the idea.) I keep trying, though.

    Good luck with your goals, Rachel!

    Ellie, I think we're buddied already... Will check. Best of luck! :-)

    Thanks, Sandra!

    Thanks Nas!

    Likewise, Ruth. ;-) Good luck.

    Launna, setting big goals I don't always achieve is the secret to my productivity.

    Hi Beer guys! NaNo's not for everyone. Flying by the seat of one's pants is fun. I like it. I also like doing so at high speeds. (Hence my participation in NaNo.) ;-)


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