29 is the number

Yeah, I'm sharing that number. I'm now 29. It's interesting to reflect on things having turned another year older.

I started writing TT in 2007. That was 6 years ago... I now have an edited draft and test readers looking it over. So, the good news is I've made progress. Slow but still counts.

Health wise, my weight has fluctuated but not gone higher than it has ever been before, so in a way that is a plus but on the other hand it's not lower either at this point. Not close enough but as I get older need to focus even more on being healthier.

A few novels I have a finished draft of from the past few years. I don't have many plans for all of them. A couple are never going anywhere. However, I've started to divide things between the pen names I have chosen. I even got a secondary account on writing.com so I can have my romance/erotica on one account and fantasy/sci-fi/YA/MG and such on the other. Will be nice to separate the erotica from the YA and such. It's a good change. I also have a new blog under my other pen name for the romance/erotica stuff.

The rest of life right now is mostly work. I got a new car cause my old one died. Now I have to find a second job to help pay for things. It's hard but I still am focused on writing. I have actually searched and made a list of 10 agents to potentially query first, and I can't wait. After test readers and some adjustments, I get to submit. It's great to be at that stage with one book. Plus I have others I'm getting ready.

Right now my focus is:
TT results from test readers, potential fixes
Editing SG
Working on short stories
Writing.Com
and reading, work, sleep, etc


So, 29 is here (though people still think I'm not old enough to sell them beer....) and life continues forward.

Update/Goals/IWSG

Wow, I haven't blogged in over a month. I keep meaning to put up a post then get distracted. Lot happened over the last month. Went to a funeral in Wyoming, worked, spent a lot of time on a writing web site, worked... a lot yet not much going on at the same time. I have a novel at the end of an editing round and others waiting to go. No progress so far on weight loss despite walking more but haven't given up either.


I haven't even posted goals since June, that's unusual. Better get back to work considering some of my goals the past month or so has been to blog more.


August Goals
Finish reading 2 books.
Write short story (10-15k).
Research agents and rewrite query letter.
Edit 2 chapters in SG.
Get car soon.


Also, today is once again the Insecure Writer's Support Group (check it out here). So, the topic of goals actually works because I make goals all the time and part of the time I don't reach them.  I made it a goal to finish reading 2 books last month on a different site and I didn't finish reading two. I almost had one finished and instead started another but haven't finished reading the first yet. The issue of not reaching a goal set is something I've seen elsewhere too.

On this writing web site I'm on, there is a forum where we can post on Monday with goals for the week, and we get points for posting goals then and on Friday if we post how we did. Well, one posted this last week goals but also made a comment about how she was tired at failing each week on the goals she set.

Which is understandable. Especially if you post and read so many other people posting and it seems they are almost always reaching their goals. It's hard to then look at yours and go, why didn't I succeed when others have. Sure, we should focus on ourselves and not what someone else did, but it's hard at times.

However, another post replying to the lament over failing made a good point. Maybe we need to reconsider the word "fail". Because there are many levels of not succeeding when it comes to a goal and while it's not a success not all of them are a complete fail.  Did you try at all in the goal?

I mean, really, unless you had many opportunities and instead went to bed all the time or decided to watch Jerry Springer or such instead often, then maybe it's not quite a "fail". Like my book reading goals that I often don't reach. Is it a complete fail if I didn't finish two books? No. Why? Because while I didn't finish books I am still reading and that's something. Sometimes we forget about the something.

That's my tip of the day: Don't forget the little somethings when reaching for your goals.


Do you make goals?
What do you think about ones you don't quite succeed on?
August goals anyone?