April has gone by seriously fast. So fast, in fact, that it’s now ten minutes to midnight on the last Friday of the month, and I still haven’t sat down to take stock for my own bloghop.
Since quite a few of you are new here, let me just do a quick explanation. Basically, I have that huge goal stated at the top of my blog. When I discovered that I’m not the only person that ambitious/crazy, Beth Fred and I decided to start a bloghop for similarly-minded individuals. It’s open to anyone, though, so if you’d like information or just to see how everyone else is doing, please feel free to click here.
Honestly, I’m not really all that sure about what to say for my month of April. For one thing, it’s still not really over. We’ve still got a couple of days short of a week in which to get stuff done. On the other hand, the wheels fell off for me this past week and I decided to kick back a bit rather than to add to my stress.
I didn’t slouch around, though. But because I still have almost a week, I’m making allowance for what I’ll probably get done this week. (Especially given that Monday and Friday are public holidays. Yes, I know Friday’s in May already.)
My Goals for April:
Writing
1) Sort out covers for Wo6C1, Wo6C2 and BvB1
This one I did actually make an effort at, but it seems to be falling flat yet again. The reason will take up a whole post, though, which I’ll probably get to soon.
2) Proofread Wo6C2
Done.
3) Copyedit BvB1
Not done, and probably won’t this month.
4) Start Revising ES1
Planning to start this this weekend.
5) Write 50 000 words (rewrites included.)
Currently at about 30k words. Will probably add some over the weekend.
6) Start looking at the concepts for P and my Sci Fi projects. (I’m now at the point where I’m running out of draft projects where I know what I want to write about.)
Not done and won’t get to it this weekend.
Writing wise, this is what April looked like:
Reading
1) Start King Lear
Not done. Might get to it before the end of the month.
2) Start a French book.
Currently reading Les Justes by Albert Camus. I should have it done sometime tomorrow.
3) Read four other books.
Read 2 so far, but should have one more finished by the end of the month.
Social Media
It’s A to Z Challenge and I have two posts entered. However, I’m also doing Camp NaNo this year, and since I’m a writer first, that’s getting priority.
I’m way behind on Camp NaNo at the moment, but it’s not so bad that I can’t catch up. I’m pretty happy with what I’ve achieved, though.
I would, however, like to survive the A to Z Challenge for both blogs, while keeping up with the comments to every day’s post. Anything extra that I can add to that is extra.
This one I failed miserably, mainly because of Internet failure (again.) and the accompanying work stress. Not fun trying to write fun, upbeat blog posts every day when really you’re struggling just to get the simplest things done.
Also, I’ve been critiquing first chapters on Wattpad and I’d really like to keep that going.
The Internet ruined these plans as well.
Life
1) Find a good balance between my job, writing, networking and the rest of my life.
This one was kind of sweet and sour for me. I did well until last week. Of course, a lot of my writing, networking and job depend almost exclusively on my Internet connection. So not being able to function at those really puts a wrinkle on anything else as well.
2) Finish at least two skeins of wool on crocheting my blanket.
I finished one.
3) Edit my most recently taken photographs.
This I did. All 400 of them.
My Goals for May:
Okay, so the thing is, I set some really ambitious goals for April, but life really got in the way. The fact that I basically took a week without really doing anything (no seriously. I keep track), tells me that life’s stressing me out a bit more than anticipated. So with that in mind, I’m setting these goals only to see what I can get done, but I’m really not going to push myself too hard for the month. In fact, the astute ones among you might see that I’m giving myself a nice, month-long breather. My writing goals are only being stated because they’re on my timeline for the month:
The idea here is to do what I can without burning out.
Writing:
1) Write, edit and/or rewrite something every weekday.
2) Continuity edits between Wo6C1 and 2.
3) Copy edits for BvB1
4) Revisions/Edits for ES1 and the Untethered Realms Anthology story I submitted.
5) Finish rewrites to O1.
6) Flesh out concepts for P and my Science Fiction story idea.
Reading
1) Read King Lear
2) Read something by one of my blogging buddies.
3) See how close I can get to reading 10 books this month.
Social Media
This is assuming that Internet and/or my country’s electricity provider actually work like they should…
1) Catch up on blog visits.
2) Catch up on Wattpad Critiques I’ve promised.
Life
1) Mainly, my goal is to get back to my happy place this month. (Other than my continuing goal of getting my business back off the ground.)
2) Do something artistic or crafty that isn’t writing related every weekend.
That’s it for me for tonight. Just as well, because it’s well past midnight now. How was your April? Are you surviving Camp NaNoWriMo and/or the A to Z Challenge?
You are getting a lot done. Your plate is piled high.
ReplyDeleteI failed the A-Z challenge and had to drop out. You're right about needing to find the balance between hard work and burn out.
Once again, you've achieved so much, and having no internet really does make everything that much harder (how did we all cope without it, eh?)
ReplyDeleteGood luck for May, and please give yourself a few days off at least. You always sound like you're doing so much!
So wonderfully organised, I must try harder! :0)
ReplyDeleteAs always, you still got a lot done in spite your internet problems. :)
ReplyDeleteshahwharton.com
Elizabeth, sometimes, something just has to give.
ReplyDeleteAngeline, I keep wondering how people dealt without internet. Every time it gives me trouble.
Carole, small steps work best. I started out with much fewer things to do last year.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by, Shah!