Not The Best Start

One week in, and I've already failed at half of my resolutions. I've also only sold to my own mother - and one other "ready to buy" customer - since 2017 started. Not the best start, but I'm still in high spirits. The year is extremely young, and the first week of the year is always a bit of a chaos-ball for me as I transition from the old to the new, as well as getting back on track after falling off the horse in November and December.

In helping with that transition, I HAVE taken steps in the right direction for the new year; prep work I should have done the last few weeks of December, but the last two months of the year always get away from me. I need to figure out a better way of avoiding that from here on out....

Anyway, let's take another quick look at my resolutions.

Resolution #1: No More Than Three (3) Zero Days In Any Given Week
Well, this was one that I already failed at. I didn't really write anything leading into my post last Tuesday. I then didn't write anything really since my last blog post; hence me not having either of my review posts up yet. While I've been a complete failure at work, I HAVE been busy there; making writing hard to fit in. As for post-work, well, I've been doing the "Mom's coming" mad rush cleaning this past week. All-in-all, though, I HAVE attempted to continue outlining my review blogs while at work; small 10minutes at a time.

So, there is at least the outlining as "sorta" writing. I've also completed the main task to help keep myself accountable: I bought a pocket calendar for the sole purpose of marking when and what I write. That way I can see the chain of "I wrote today" marks, as well as a quick reference back as to what I wrote to help me figure out my writing patterns.

My pretty pocket calendar specifically for
tracking my writing.

The month-view I can use to see my "chain" of writing days.
I can also see if certain days suck for writing.

The Daily-View gives me more space to write what I was focusing on
for that day's writing, when in the day I was working on it, and how long I
was working on it. Helps me analyze better.

Resolution #2: Complete the "Reading Books Like a Boss" Reading Challenge
If I didn't have time to write between work, cleaning, and family visiting, I certainly didn't have time to read - aside from my own blog to help with my Year-in-Review post. I do have a book picked out though. Spink has decided to read one of the Harry Potter books, since she found one with a red cover. Since the challenge is just "red on the cover" and not full on "a red cover," I decided to take on the same challenge for this month.

Mom went a bit overboard with the NaNo stuff for Christmas. See, at the beginning of December I posted on Facebook that I had six pieces of NaNo merchandise that I'd like to buy, but I shared the items instead in case anyone was still looking for Christmas present ideas for me. Seems my mother - who already had tons bought for me, apparently - called "MINE" and bought it all up for me to show her support and excitement about my writing and winning NaNo this year.

Well, one of those items was the book "Ready. Set. Novel!" which happens to have big, red font for the title.

You can buy your own copy here.

True, it's not a novel, which is probably the main aim for these reading challenges, but I do have to read through the workbook. Plus, I think it's a good start for the year. It will help me with what I seem to be really lacking: focus. I'm hoping this workbook will help me better zero in on what is that key story that is calling for me to write it: Jolene's tale, Connor's and Natalie's, Amara's, X-Future, Glitches, something new I haven't thought of yet, who knows?

I'm aiming for 20 books total by the end of the year, so maybe I'll find a novel with red on the cover as well before 2018.

Resolution #3: Constructively participate on the Writers’ Huddle Forum At Least Once A Week
Okay, so I haven't done that bad on this one yet, per se. I did post my resolutions over on Writers' Huddle when I was done posting here. I haven't been back on yet, but at least I did re-establish myself for that first week. I have all this week to go back to the forum, and I did add it to my Habitica. I'll have to keep you posted as the year goes on. As for Atlanta, though? I still have been slacking on emailing her back. I really need to get on top of that!

Resolution #4: Beta Read And Return Notes Within A Fortnight
To be fair, I haven't had anything to beta-read, so I really couldn't screw this one up. However, DFL has been sounding more and more defeated and deflated at group lately. She states that multiple people have offered to read her story, and yet the only person who actually did called it boring; more-or-less. I'm guilty of being one of the many who never got back to her, and yet I can't seem to find the copy she sent me either. Once I'm more settled back into my groove for the new year I'll have to ask her to resend it to me.

Resolution #5: Have 52 Blog Posts Published Before The End Of 2017
As I already mentioned, I didn't have much time to do more than just continue outlining my review blogs, but I do have this one up on time. Two for two for 2017. Not a bad start. Especially since I'm currently at work right now due to a sick co-worker, which meant writing this last night so it was ready for my noon update. Glad my co-worker asked for her sick day last night so I had the time to know I needed to pre-prep. Regardless, I'm still on the ball with this thus far.

Resolution #6: Ronoxym's Writing Challenge
I attempted to work on this last week. I tried brainstorming ideas of quick stories I could maybe write up in those "stolen" 10minutes that I was using for my review-blog outlining. I even mentally had a monologue from Jolene towards Mahtab before Jolene's not-so-quiet exit from the party. I just didn't have the time to actually write it down. Also, Bear still wants me to actually roleplay it out, and I don't want to have my headcanon come to life via a flash, only for it to be AU to the actual canon of the interaction.

With any hope, working through "Ready. Set. Novel!" will help me with the challenge; giving me more of a focus on what to write a novel about, but also giving me sparks of inspiration to write flash fiction about. We'll see how it goes. It's only Tuesday, and the week already feels like it's raced away from me. I need to change my perspective to try to work in writing/reading time again.

I might have something to help out with that. My godfather and his wife mailed me my Christmas gift: a book about writing. It's about DAILY writing, actually. One of the first quotes is basically the ancient equivalent of the "No Zero Days" concept: "Nulla dies sine linea. Never a day without a line." - Roman poet Horace.

I haven't broken into the book quite yet, but it seems to have some lead-in advice as well as daily prompts for the week. Then more advice, and another week's worth of daily prompts. So on and so forth, for a whole year.

You can get your own copy here.

So, I haven't really done anything for three out of my six resolutions, and a fourth one I haven't really had a way to either succeed or fail at it. Meaning I've only stuck with two resolutions only one week in. Still, 33% isn't too bad if I can bounce back, right?

Especially since I now have two books in my arsenal to help me out: "A Writer's Book of Days" with daily prompts that I could potentially turn into those flash stories for Ron's challenge, as well as "Ready. Set. Novel!" for the focus I need to actually get started on ONE manuscript. To a lesser extent, also my new calendar to help me visualize how I'm doing better. I've also started up a bulleted list of what I talk about in each of my blog posts; so that it's already a rough outline for my review post at the end of this year.

All good starts to make up for tripping out of the gate, I think.

How have you been doing with your resolutions? Writing related, or otherwise.