Setting Writing Goals: May 2017

Hey, writer, how’s it going?

Did you write in May?

I hope you did. I hope you scheduled time to write and followed through with your promise to your art.

I did a lot of soul searching, teaching, and writing. This month, I focused on working on my novel, The Divantinum Project: Wastling and teaching my workshop Anthropology, Archaeology, & Romance.

At the end of each month, I do a recap to see what I did the previous month and what I want to work on next month to move my writing career forward. Let’s look at what I did in May and what I can improve on for next month.

What really happened in May:

I didn’t write every day [shocker!], but I did hit four of my six mini goals!

I finished The Artist’s Way. I’m tenacious and as usual wasn’t going to quit until I finished what I started, and now I can say I’ve had a few insights in the last two months.

I taught my Anthropology, Archaeology, and Romance workshop. I was really excited about this because of the way I set it up – it wasn’t just a writing workshop – it was a deep-dive into science and writing and a fusion of the ideas.

I wrote two + blog entries every week. It’s habit now – and I’ve been looking for ways to level up my craft. Each week, I pick a topic and learn about it, and then I apply it to my work.

I published several reviews.

I sent out 20 pitches.

0 guest posts – mostly because I was focused on writing.

I looked for a teaching position and compiled a list of potential jobs that I’m applying to.

I networked with writers and readers. I could have done more here and want to over the next few months.

I invited writers to my blog and to share my writing life.

My Blog Posts

3-step Grocery Shopping with $50 in the Bank

Anthropology Writing Prompts

Capturing Character: J. K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy

Coffee Talk and Writer Secrets

Emily’s Ghost: William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.”

Exploring the Fantastic in Robert Kirk’s The Secret Commonwealth

From the Files: Organizing Your Home Office

Grocery Shopping on a Budget

Happy Mother’s Day – to Share with Moms

How to Read Like a Book Dragon: a Reader’s Manifesto

Knit Your Writer a Plot Bunny

Literary Appropriation in Jorge Luis Borges’s Labyrinths

Makings of a Madwoman: Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea

May Writing Goals

Mortal Danger: Elizabeth Moon’s Trading in Danger

My Top 11 Favorite Anthropology Topics for Writers

An Ode to Tolkien

On the Darkest Hours: When You Think of Giving Up Writing

Particularities in Nicolai V. Gogol’s The Overcoat and Other Tales of Good and Evil

Review of Brandy L. River’s Sleepwalker

Review of Not Your Mother’s Food Storage by Kathy Bray and Jan Barker

Specific Details and Word Choices: William Gibson’s Neuromancer

Storytelling Magic: Mary Mackey’s The Year the Horses Came

Talk-Story and Ghost Words: The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

Writer Inspiration #4

Writer on the Go Checklist

Guest Bloggers

Athena Grayson | Writing Business Mistakes, or Learn From My Fail

Therese Martin | A Relatively Painless Research Strategy

Brandy L Rivers | Interconnecting Stories

The Recap

The lowest low

So many pitches. I’ve learned a few techniques to deal with these feelings, how to focus, and how to do everything I can on my end, and then realize that when I send something out into the universe, it may or may not come back to me. All I can do is all I can do.

The highest high

Finishing the FF&P Workshop. I met so many writers who have the passion and love for it that I do. It was my honor to teach them. If I won a few over to the idea that anthropology can be used in fiction, I’ve done my job [and it can, even if your character isn’t Indiana Jones or Lara Croft].

So. June.

I’ve got a three-day MPS [monthly planning session] for next month! Will post on my goals next week.

Until then: keep dreaming, reading, writing, and playing.

Write on,

Darlene

If you’ve enjoyed this and other blog entries, you can follow it here! Keep up-to-date on other writing happenings too! Coming soon – an online RPG writer’s course.

And if you or anyone you know needs a writer, please keep me in mind. I’m available for new projects now!