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October 2016 Goals

Each month seems to speed by faster than the last. I've heard this is what getting old is like. Lol. Time crawls when you're young, but speeds up as you get older. Le sigh.

What Happened With September's Goals?

Finish the next Daydreamer Book. This didn't happen. :( Which I'm upset about because I'm fighting to get through this book. Not because I'm not interested in it, but because of my overall mental state. I just think 2016 is out to kick my butt, and I will need to reboot really hard in the New Year. Anyway, I'm going to finish it this month, because even though I didn't finish it in September, I did work on it. I'm at 53k and I need to write another 30k. I can do that!

Travel to Vancouver. We went and we had a great time. But the trip definitely interfered with my other goals this month.

Edit my last short story and get it off to readers. I'm working on this now! I'm half way through the copyedits and I should be able to send it off to my readers by Monday.

Publish blog posts about my trip to Japan. I've only done one of these.

Keep up with the exercise. I wasn't as good about this this month due to a lot of school off days and bad weather.

Keep reading. I've been reading! And listening to audiobooks, too!

Knit. I don't think I knit at all in September. :(

Bake more muffins. I did bake some muffins but only one batch.

Business Goals For October

More blog posts. I faltered with the blog in September. With back to school, and our trip to Vancouver, I had to put it on hold to work on other things. But now I've set up a separate calendar for it in iCal and I plan to write on it at least once per week besides the Sunday Updates.

Finish Daydreamer 3. If I plan to do NaNoWriMo, I have to finish Daydreamer 3. No two ways about that. I need to plot out the last third of this book, and get to writing.

Finish and publish my next short story. It's almost done, and even though it's a short story, it'll be good to publish something this month.

Plot out some ideas for my NaNoWriMo book. I've been talking about this book a little on FB groups, but with very few details because it's still forming in my head. It'll be the beginning of a new series, and I have lots of ideas for it. I may pants most of it, but I need to do some research first!

Personal Goals For October

More knitting. Jesus, why is it so hard for me to fit in knitting? The days just zip by and then I'm dead on the couch and too tired to do anything, much less knit. I've been working on this shawl for TWO YEARS. I need to finish it already!

More exercise. Writing and editing means spending time on the walking treadmill. I'm setting a goal of walking 70 miles this month. I think I hit that goal last month, though Runkeeper didn't keep track of my walking in Vancouver.

Try four new recipes this month. I liked the muffin recipe I tried out on the kids this past month, and I also tried out a new salmon recipe. This month I'm hoping to try a spicy cauliflower recipe I pinned and a sweet potato and kale curry.

4 thoughts on “October 2016 Goals”

  1. I hope you can finish the Daydreamer book this month. Sorry to hear about your mental state, I hope 2017 will be a better year. It’s nice you got to travel to Vancouver even though it meant less time for your other goals.
    Good luck with your October goals, they sound doable, so i hope you can achieve most of them. What you have with knitting is my problem with coloring, i do want to make time for it, but I just can’t seem to actually do so.
    I noticed those recipes you pinned were for Minimalist Baker, I really like their blog! I made a few recipes from her blog. And those muffins you made this month sound good, will go and pin that recipe.

    1. I have a few additional ideas of why I’ve been down this year, having to do with the way I’ve changed writing my books. I’m going to go back to writing them the way I used to and see if that brings the magic back a little. :) But I’m very close to finishing Daydreamer 3! Very close. I’m in the last 30k. I think the book has been hard to write because I’m working harder at the mystery. I keep coming up with better ideas and weaving them back in means lots of starting and stopping. Plus I’m being quite mean to Mei in this book. That’s hard to do!

      I think the rest of my goals sound doable too! I want to cook and bake more this month. :)

      1. I didn’t realize you changed the way you wrote your books and indeed maybe going back to how you sued to write them will work. I hope so!

        And I am already curious about book 3 and the mystery :). Poor Mei, you’re being to mean to her again? I do like seeing how she changes throughout the series so far and how she keeps going even with everything that’s happened.

        I’ve been cooking and baking some new recipes again this month, it was fun! Also gives me materials for new kitchen posts again, which I was lacking for a few months, so I am glad to be back at that.

        1. Yeah, I had been working on Fast Drafting, which is a technique where you get the first draft down really fast, even if it’s crappy, and then deal with everything in revisions. I’ll admit that it made me very anxious and sad to see such a bad first draft that after the second time, I felt really bad about my writing. I did manage to edit both the Daydreamer books and make them shine, but it was a hit to my overall well-being. I used to write a few chapters, stop and read, make some edits, repeat and I think that was better for me. That’s how I wrote the entire Nogiku Series, Face Time, and Summer Haikus, plus all the short stories. So I’m going to go back to that. It takes a little longer in the first draft but I don’t have to do major reconstruction and HATE my book in the second round, which is important! Lol.

          Yes, the mystery in Daydreamer 3 is intense for me. Several suspects and ghost of relationships-past coming about. After this book, though, I think I’ll go easier on her. :)

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    S. J. Pajonas