Category Archives: goals

critique group, Documenting America, goals, Writing

Writing Progress and Goals: Aug-Sept 2023

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Time to work on a cover for the newest volume in this series?

It’s that time of the month—time for accountability of writing goals. How did I do last month vs. what I planned? First, the progress.

  • Blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. As usual, I achieved this. Only one time did I find myself late and have to throw something together.
  • Attend three writers meetings. One writers group is folding, so I’ll only have three most months henceforth. Attended all three, as well as an online social gathering of writers.
  • Begin serious writing work on Documenting America: Run-Up to Revolution. I don’t know how fast this will go—or how slow—so I won’t set a word goal. I actually began this on Saturday, and was able to complete the commentary part of Chapter 1—first draft, of course. This bodes well for future writing progress on this book. Yes! I made some major progress on this. As of 8/31, I had 12 of 31 chapters complete. The rest have the source documents fully edited and are ready for my words to be added.
  • Read more in reference documents for my new Bible study idea. If everything gels, get started on the study overview and outline. I didn’t read any more source documents, but I did spend a little time improving the outline.
  • Continue to work on digitizing/discarding of genealogy papers. Yes, I did this, though made less progress in the last week than previously.

Now for some goals. I’m a little hesitant to set any, because my mind has been too active on some potential new projects. But, if I don’t set some goals I’m just drifting to the future instead of steering a purposeful course. So here they are.

  • Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. I suspect my readers are tired of seeing that goal each month.
  • Attend three writers meetings, plus the online social gathering.
  • Complete the first draft of Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution. This is very doable, but I will have to be disciplined, especially in consideration of…
  • .. Decide on whether to post my new Documenting America book to Kindle Vella and, if I do, get the first chapter/episode published on Wednesday, September 6.
  • Tie down the new writing idea that came to me on August 28-30. Write all I can about the idea in manuscript. No, I’m not sharing what it is now. Heck, I don’t know when I would have time to write it if it seems viable.

Enough! I’ll also be working on the genealogy papers digitization project.  I have a very large notebook open on my desk that I’d like to get all the way through in September.

Bible study, Documenting America, goals

July Progress, August Goals

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Last day of the month, time to enter my progress for last month and goals for the next.

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. Did this. I think only one time did I do a somewhat minor post. The rest were all more meaningful.
  • Attend two writers meetings, one of which I’ll present at. A third meeting may happen and I’ll attend, if the library can schedule them. I was able to attend only one writers meeting, due to a change in travel schedule. It was the one I presented at.
  • Work on Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution. Last month, even though it wasn’t on the schedule, I managed to copy most of my source documents and load them into a Word document. The next step is reading and condensing them to the right length for the format of the series. I anticipate this will take all of July and possibly even longer. I was able to complete this. It was a fairly large task, cutting 130,000 words in the source documents down to 30,000 for my book. Happy to say I completed that on July 25th!
  • Write up my recent Bible study idea into a proper outline of what it would be. It turned out I wasn’t quite ready to write this up, except for some minor, handwritten notes. I continued to do more reading in some reference documents. Possibly I’ll get to it in August, or I may put it off until September.
  • Not an official goal, but I did a lot of scanning, saving, and discarding of genealogy papers. Having a good electronic filing system in place has really streamlined the process. That, and getting to the point of simply discarding stuff rather than scanning it.

So what about goals for August? Summer and family travel appear to be over, so maybe I can get some good writing time in.

  • Blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday.
  • Attend three writers meetings. One writers group is folding, so I’ll only have three most months henceforth.
  • Begin serious writing work on Documenting America: Run-Up to Revolution. I don’t know how fast this will go—or how slow—so I won’t set a word goal. I actually began this on Saturday, and was able to complete the commentary part of Chapter 1—first draft, of course. This bodes well for future writing progress on this book.
  • Read more in reference documents for my new Bible study idea. If everything gels, get started on the study overview and outline.
  • Continue to work on digitizing/discarding of genealogy papers.

That doesn’t look like much in the way of goals, but it’s all I can think of at the moment.

 

Bible study, Documenting America, goals, reading, The Forest Throne, Writing

June Progress, July Goals

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The Key To Time Travel is published.

How can I possibly have progress in a month that I was taking off from writing? Well, taking time off for me is different than for others. It’s hard for me not to keep up with writing even during my month off. So I got a few things done. I’ll list them along with the goals, then I’ll see what kind of goals I can set for July.

  • Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays, as always. Even with grandparent busyness, I was able to get this done. Each day had a real blog post written and posted.
  • Attend writer groups meetings as I can based on travel schedule.  As expected, travel kept be away from all but one of the scheduled meetings.
  • Proofread as much as I can of the four completed volumes of A Walk Through Holy Week. I proofread parts 4, 5, and 6 (which I didn’t remember proofreading last year). Part 7 will be a July goal.
  • Work on the cover for the AWTHW series. I don’t sell enough books to pay for cover creation, so I just have to do it myself. I have a concept I want to use, if I can do the graphics. Which leads to my last goal… This is done, sort of. I worked with my 10-year-old granddaughter, who shows some artistic talent, to go from my preliminary concept to a working prototype. Whether it’s a fully workable prototype, I’m not sure.
  • Work with G.I.M.P. on how to do more artistry in covers. I’ll have to find some tutorials.

Other things I got done were:

  • Catching up on correspondence, both new writing and filing all unfiled correspondence for 2023.
  • Publish The Key To Time Travel. I didn’t mention this as a June goal because I wasn’t sure of the timing for getting the cover. After dealing with some health issues, the cover designer finished her work, and the book went on sale this month.
  • Work on the source material for the next Documenting America book. See the July goals.
  • Do more reading than normal.
  • Brainstorm an idea for a new Bible study, and read some source material for it.
  • Made a few updates to my website—not major ones, but things that needed doing.
  • And one thing that wasn’t writing related, but which I feel like mentioning, was digitizing my genealogy files. No, they are not done—far from it. But I added to what I did in prior months and fine-tuned my filing system as I went along. At the end of the month I felt good about how much of this I accomplished.

Now, for some July goals.

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.
  • Attend two writers meetings, one of which I’ll present at. A third meeting may happen and I’ll attend, if the library can schedule them.
  • Work on Documenting America: Run-Up To Revolution. Last month, even thought it wasn’t on the schedule, I managed to copy most of my source documents and load them into a Word document. The next step is reading and condensing them to the right length for the format of the series. I anticipate this will take all of July and possibly even longer.
  • Write up my recent Bible study idea into a proper outline of what it would be.

That’s a good number of goals for a month after a break. Documenting America will be my main task for the month.

Bible study, Christianity, goals, The Forest Throne

April-May Progress, June Goals

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When I last posted about progress and goals, at the end of March, I said I wasn’t going to post goals for April due to uncertainty of my schedule and ability to work on writing. Slowly, my schedule clarified itself. I found more time to work in the midst of grandparent duties than I expected.

So here it is June. I didn’t have goals for April or May, but I need to give you some idea of the progress I made in those months. I can’t compare it to goals I didn’t make, so I’ll just give it, in the format I usually do, as if I had goals.

  • Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. I managed to do this. A couple of times I had almost dummy posts, but I got it done.
  • Attend writers groups as I can. I was traveling a lot, and missed a number of meetings. But I attended whenever I was in town.
  • Work on and finish Parts 4, 5, and 7 of A Walk Through Holy Week. I’m pleased to say that the time I spent on this was quite effective and efficient. I finished Part 7 a little ahead of the teaching schedule. I finished Part 4 just after that, and Part 5 on May 19. I’ll soon write a blog post about that progress.
  • On The Key To Time Travel, finish a final edit to make sure all editor’s marks are addressed, and all dates and ages are consistent. Then format and publish it by the end of May. Yes, I got this done! I learned yesterday I need to make a minor edit to the acknowledgements, which I hope to do today. The print cover has been delayed, as the cover designer has had a health issue. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I can get the print book published.
  • Update this website as needed. I did most of that. Possibly I’ll get it all done before this posts.

So, what about June? I’m not real sure. After five months of intensive work this year, I feel like I need to take some time off. Yet, time off doesn’t result in the writing that leads to publication. Therefore, I’m going to make a few goals.

  • Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays, as always.
  • Attend writer groups meetings as I can based on travel schedule. I was supposed to present at one of these in June, but have had to delay that based on my schedule.
  • Proofread as much as I can of the four completed volumes of A Walk Through Holy Week. I actually started that in May, doing a complete read-through of Part 4 and some of Part 5. We’ll see how far I can get.
  • Work on the cover for the AWTHW series. I don’t sell enough books to pay for cover creation, so I just have to do it myself. I have a concept I want to use, if I can do the graphics. Which leads to my last goal…
  • Work with G.I.M.P. on how to do more artistry in covers. I’ll have to find some tutorials.

Enough goals. Although, I’m writing this post on May 23 for publishing on June 2. I can always edit the goals before it goes live.

Bible study, goals, The Forest Throne

March Progress

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March has been a mixture of good and difficult days. Here’s a look at my progress during the month.

  • As always, blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. Got this done. A couple of times I almost forgot, but managed to post something.
  • Attend four writers meetings this month. I already attended the first one, held last Thursday. Got to all my writer’s meetings this month, including the Letter Writers Society, where I was the presenter.
  • Keep up with A Walk Through Holy Week writing simultaneously with teaching. You never know what curve balls life will throw at you, but, based on how this is starting, I think it is doable. By the end of March, I should be through Chapter 5 and have started on Chapter 6. I’m up to date, though the schedule is slightly different due to some reorganization of the book. I am currently working on Chapter 5.
  • Finish either Part 4 or Part 5 of AWTHW. I actually worked on this a little last month. Or maybe that was Thursday-Friday, which would be this month. I spent time reading where I was when I pulled of this last year, split and organized files in the new part designations, and put a few words down. Part 5 is farther along than Part 4, but I feel like I want to get Part 4 done first. We’ll see. I worked on Part 4, and made some good progress, but didn’t finish it. I decided that’s the one I’ll work on first.
  • Organize some writing ideas files. I began this last Thursday and presented them to the Scribblers & Scribes critique group. They liked one idea a lot, but not the other. A new idea came to me on Saturday and fleshed out a bit with brainstorming yesterday. I plan to document that on Monday—today—the put it out of my head until the time is right. I did some of this, but not as much as I hoped for.
  • Get any needed edits done to TKTTT according to feedback from beta readers. Alas, I haven’t received any feedback from my beta readers yet. I’m not sure when I’ll be getting that feedback.
  • Make a handful of edits to Letters Between Friends, and republish it. This is based on feedback from copyright holders. This is not really urgent, and I may put this off until AWTHW and TKTTT are further down the road. In a fit of effort, I actually got this done. It is corrected and re-published. Strange how the things you don’t expect to do take over.

I’m not going to, at this time, establish goals for April. Maybe I’ll do that on Monday, or maybe not at all.

Bible study, goals, letters, self-publishing, The Gutter Chronicles

Monthly Progress and Goals

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The sequel is done, and close to publishing ready. Hang in there, folks.

And, for the second month in a row, I forgot all about publishing my progress against my goals as the first post for the month and setting new goals. I should have done that Friday. What was I thinking? Well, a couple of days late, here they are. The progress first.

  • Blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. Yes, I did this. I liked the series I thought of, posting library memories.
  • I won’t be attending writers meetings this month. There was nothing to do about this goal.
  • Edit and complete A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 6. … Part of this goal is to, at the end of February, have a publication-ready book. I completed this! I was able to knuckle down, finish all chapters and sections, add the Introduction, and declare the book publication ready. I even figured out a cover scheme for the series.
  • Begin work writing AWTHW Part 7, simultaneously to when I teach it. I have been doing this. Fairly successfully I think. My co-teacher and I have now taught two lessons in the series. Chapter 1 corresponding to Lesson 1 is complete. Chapter 2 corresponding to Lesson 2 is close to complete. Last night, after doing other things and watching some Miss Marple movies, I spent a very productive hour on it. I think I shall be able to finish Ch 2 today, putting me ahead of where I usually am for this simultaneous teaching and writing.
  • Get TKTTT to beta readers and receive their feedback back. I did this. One of two grandchildren read it and gave me feedback. I also sent it to an elementary school teacher to give to students who will be beta readers. No feedback from them yet, but it will be coming soon.
  • Work with the cover designer of TKTTT. Yes, I got with the cover designer. I gave her my ideas, and she will work with it. Hopefully she is working on it now.
Gary is gone, but the letters between us live on. A few edits to this are possible this month.

So, here are some goals for March.

  • As always, blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday.
  • Attend four writers meetings this month. I already attended the first one, held last Thursday.
  • Keep up with A Walk Through Holy Week writing simultaneously with teaching. You never know what curve balls life will throw at you, but, based on how this is starting, I think it is doable. By the end of March, I should be through Chapter 5 and have started on Chapter 6.
  • Finish either Part 4 or Part 5 of AWTHW. I actually worked on this a little last month. Or maybe that was Thursday-Friday, which would be this month. I spent time reading where I was when I pulled of this last year, split and organized files in the new part designations, and put a few words down. Part 5 is farther along than Part 4, but I feel like I want to get Part 4 done first. We’ll see.
  • Organize some writing ideas files. I began this last Thursday and presented them to the Scribblers & Scribes critique group. They liked one idea a lot, but not the other. A new idea came to me on Saturday and fleshed out a bit with brainstorming yesterday. I plan to document that on Monday—today—the put it out of my head until the time is right.
  • Get any needed edits done to TKTTT according to feedback from beta readers.
  • Make a handful of edits to Letters Between Friends, and republish it. This is based on feedback from copyright holders. This is not really urgent, and I may put this off until AWTHW and TKTTT are further down the road.

That’s enough. If I get all that done this will truly have been a productive month. Also, my business partnership taxes are due this month, which will cut into my writing time.

Bible study, goals, Life Group lessons, The Forest Throne, Writing

Monthly Progress and Goals

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The sequel is coming, folks. Hang in there.

In the category of “what was I thinking–I wasn’t thinking, include my post on last Friday. That was the day closest to the first of the month, the day I should have been recording my writing progress for January and goals for February. Instead, I did the post that came to mind first. Ah, well.

Here’s how I did in January relative to the goals I set.

  • Edit The Key To Time Travel, at least once and hopefully twice. I’m happy to say I did three editorial reads of TKTTT, and am pleased with how it turned out. One of those reads was aloud with my wife.
  • Finish one pass through A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 4. If time allows (which it should), make a true editorial reading of it. Also, write whatever introduction is needed, and whatever ending makes sense. And I did this too. That is, I did a devotional reading of it, one section each day. The editor in my couldn’t keep from correcting typos, clarifying the text, making the occasional change. At least this allowed me to know the two places I need to give most attention to as I do my edits in February.
  • Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. I don’t know if I can claim this as done or not. Twice I had only what I call a “dummy” post, just a few words to let my readers know I was alive and kicking, but didn’t have time to write something beneficial.
  • Attend four writers meetings this month. The one I sometimes make, sometimes miss, is a lunch brainstorming session, which I plan to go to.  I was able to attend only two. The two others came during my wife’s hospitalization and I wasn’t able to attend.
  • Work on at least one other part of A Walk Through Holy Week, probably Part 3, which is already well along. No, I did not get this done.
  • Plan out the next part of A Walk Through Holy Week. I will be teaching that in February through April, and last year I found it was easier to write the current part than one from a previous year. Yes, this I did get done. I have a plan for the 10-lesson series and have discussed it with my co-teacher. It begins February 26. Still more prep work to do, however.

So now, we come to February, already six days into it. Here are my goals.

  • Blog twice a week, on Monday and Friday. I believe this is do-able, even with certain distractions planned into the month.
  • I won’t be attending writers meetings this month. The first one, already passed, was snowed out. The three others come while I’ll be out of town.
  • Edit and complete A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 6. This was Part 4 until I restructured the series last month through some serious planning. That wasn’t one of last month’s goals, but I did it. I begin that editing today. Part of this goal is to, at the end of February, have a publication-ready book.
  • Begin work writing AWTHW Part 7, simultaneously to when I teach it. That worked well last year on part 6 (was part 4 before restructuring).
  • Get TKTTT to beta readers and receive their feedback back. I began this process last Friday. Hoping two of my grandchildren will read it this week and next. And I have one other family to check with.
  • Work with the cover designer of TKTTT.

That seems like enough. I’ll check back in on March 3, report how I did, and post some goals for March.

Bible study, goals, The Forest Throne, Writing

December Progress, January Goals

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It’s a quiet morning at Blackberry Oaks. Ten people in the house and, at 7:19 a.m., I’m the only one up—unless some are up and quiet in the basement. It has been a good post-Christmas celebration, one that will continue for a few more days.

So I’m going to give a somewhat quick progress and goals post. I may come back with a follow-up post later, when I’ve had more time to think about it. First, how did I do relative to my December goals?

  • Finish The Key To Time Travel. Yes, I managed to do this. Added the last words on Dec. 16. About time to edit it.
  • Blog twice a week, Monday and Friday. Yes, did this, with real posts, not just fillers.
  • Attend three writers’ meetings. I may even slip in a fourth. Just three this month. I decided to to forego the fourth.
  • Read at least some of the Bible study I’ve set aside. I’m going to read it for my own morning devotions. Yes, I’ve been doing this. I’m now up to the fifth chapter, out of seven. Each chapter is divided into seven parts, providing a daily reading for those who want to do it that way. That’s how I’m reading it right now. It has been a blessing to me as I read. Of course, the writer/editor in me can’t help but fix typos as I’m reading for devotions. Occupational hazard, I’m afraid.

Now, to make a few modest goals for January, 2023.

  • Edit The Key To Time Travel, at least once and hopefully twice.
  • Finish one pass through A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 4. If time allows (which it should), make a true editorial reading of it. Also, write whatever introduction is needed, and whatever ending makes sense.
  • Blog twice a week, Mondays and Fridays.
  • Attend four writers meetings this month. The one I sometimes make, sometimes miss, is a lunch brainstorming session, which I plan to go to.
  • Work on at least one other part of A Walk Through Holy Week, probably Part 3, which is already well along.
  • Plan out the next part of A Walk Through Holy Week. I will be teaching that in February through April, and last year I found it was easier to write the current part than one from a previous year.

That’s plenty. I’ll review these over the next week, after things calm down here, and see if this makes sense.

Bible study, goals, The Forest Throne

November Progress, December Goals

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Regular readers will recall that I did not post goals for November. Right around the first I was much preoccupied with life, and writing a progress and goals report was beyond my capabilities. But it’s now a new month. I’m writing this on Dec. 1st to post on the 2nd, and I’ll do my end of the month normal post.

First, the goals, for which you have to go way back to October to see.

  • Complete some significant work on The Key To Time Travel. I will have four days (starting today) where I will be somewhat cloistered, and hope to write 4,000 words those days. For the month I’ll double that and set a goal of 8,000 words. With a little discipline, that is quite do-able. Alas, I did almost nothing the last two months, not even on those “cloistered days.” I did some editing based on critique group comments, but almost no new writing.
  • Finish the Bible study A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 5. I should get a report on viability soon. Indeed, a preliminary report on that indicates it is good. Note that, if I’m not mistaken, this is a renumbering of the Bible study, splitting part 1 into two and renumbering those after it. I did nothing on this. I finally heard back from a beta reader, and he proclaimed it good.
  • Attend three writers meetings, all in person. Actually, I may fit in a fourth meeting. I’m also considering joining in on an on-line group. I attended my regular meetings in October and November. There were a couple of more I could have gone to, but was satisfied with the ones I did attend. I also had two author events in November, which took up time.

What about goals for December?

  • Finish The Key To Time Travel. I know, I know. I can hear my regular readers laughing, after all the failures to achieve even modest goal for this book. But my special projects are done; only a few straggler items remain to be put in place. So I should be able to spend a lot of time on it. Monday to Thursday this week, I wrote over 5,000 words on it. I’m on a roll. I have most of the plot items reasonably well worked out. I hope to finish this and give it to my grandchildren to read before the end of the month.
  • Blog twice a week, Monday and Friday.
  • Attend three writers’ meetings. I may even slip in a fourth.
  • Read at least some of the Bible study I’ve set aside. I’m going to read it for my own morning devotions. Since it’s been around six months since I’ve even looked at it, I’ll be coming at it kind of cold, so it might be a good test of how well the Bible study reads for its daily reading feature.

That’s it. See you all on January 2 with a report.

Bible study, goals, The Forest Throne

September Progress, October Goals

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Yes, the last day of the month is here. Time to give a report of my stewardship of my time and reveal what I got done for the month and what I didn’t. Also time to set some goals for October. First, the progress.

  • Attend 3 writers group meetings, all in person, including making a presentation at the NW Arkansas Letter Writers Society on 9/13. Did this, and my presentation at the NWALWS went well, with reasonably good attendance.
  • Blog twice a week on Monday and Friday, as always. Got this done, with no filler posts
  • Concentrate my limited writing time on The Key To Time Travel. I won’t put a word or chapter goal. I’m in the middle of Chapter 2 currently. I worked very little on this. I looked at it, read it all over, made some edits. But I don’t think I added more than 200 words. Next month should be better.
  • Figure out how to make a trailer for my Bible study, Death Kindly Stopped For Me. It will be a simple trailer, but lots to study to make it happen. I worked on this, but wasn’t able to get it done. I have a power point done, but can’t figure out how to make it run automatically.
  • Hopefully, get back to work on the two Bible studies I set aside a couple of months ago. One needs only an introduction and maybe 1,000 more words in the narrative to be finished. The other I estimate at 70 percent finished. Sure would be nice to find an hour here and there to work on them. Did not work on this at all, other than to touch base with the retired pastor who is reviewing one of them, to see when I might have his input.

So, it wasn’t a very productive month in terms of writing. But, in terms of special project, it was productive. I finished the Stars and Stripes inventory on Monday. On Wednesday I had a very good day digitizing letters, and am close to the end of the notebook I’ve been working on. The overall project is a long way from being done, but progress is being made. I’m at the point where soon I’ll feel good about backing off somewhat and getting back to writing.

And so, here are my goals for October.

  • Complete some significant work on The Key To Time Travel. I will have four days (starting today) where I will be somewhat cloistered, and hope to write 4,000 words those days. For the month I’ll double that and set a goal of 8,000 words. With a little discipline, that is quite do-able.
  • Finish the Bible study A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 5. I should get a report on viability soon. Indeed, a preliminary report on that indicates it is good. Note that, if I’m not mistaken, this is a renumbering of the Bible study, splitting part 1 into two and renumbering those after it.
  • Attend three writers meetings, all in person. Actually, I may fit in a fourth meeting. I’m also considering joining in on an on-line group from time to time. Just considering, for right now.
  • Blog twice a week. I have a number of book reviews lined up.
  • Continue with special projects. That’s not necessarily writing related. In October, I expect to finish digitizing the letters notebook I’m working on, and to finish proofreading the Kuwait Letters book. I’d like to say I will also finish adding photos to it and reformatting it, but that might be a bit much.

So there it is. A little more ambitious than the September goals. We’ll see if I can pull it off.