O.k. practising the art of honesty here, this month could have gone better, a lot better. In my defence I was away on holiday for a good portion of the month and to be honest it took longer to get back into this writing malarkey then I first thought. As the month has gone on I have got better, after my blog post my writing didn't really register till the 22nd, my best writing day was the 30th when I clocked up just over 1,700 words, so when I do get into writing I can get the numbers up. Anyway here is how my goals stacked up.
1. Write my first novel
I probably did the most work on this goal, I found my original notes in my old notebook and there was actually more there than I remembered so that was a plus. I've got a rough outline and a good idea of direction, I now know my main characters name and some features, I am hoping to finish all the initial planning by the 15th August so I can make a start on writing the actual novel, but I am reasonably happy with my progress.
2. Write 2 new short stories a month
This is one of the main places I fell down, I didn't write any short stories, however my main goal for this was 12 new short stories by the end of 2013 so with a bit of luck and time I can till do that by writing 3 stories in other months, so I’m not to disappointed not happy but it could be worse. Though this does mean more work for two months later in the year.
3. Write and sell a readers letter
This is the goal where I have to submit something, so I have come against a brick wall with lack of confidence to send the damn letter off, but I have written a letter and it is ready to be sent, I just have to find it in myself to click the send button.
4. Start and complete the writers' bureau comprehensive writing, poetry and competitions courses.
I don't study well in the weather so I did something really important last week I brought a fan for my room; I'm hoping that will help with the output. What I did do was re-read over modules 1 and 2 for the comprehensive to remind myself of that info and I read module 1 of the poetry course. Not a massive amount but a small nudge in the right direction. I also found my old rough notes for comprehensive assignment one and there was quite a lot there! I've pretty much written it, it just need putting in the right order, editing and typing up on my computer so I am hoping to get my first assignment off on 11th August for comprehensive.
5. Open degree with Open University with creative writing and design
For this I finished a rough timetable and read the study guide, trying to remind me of all the work I've got to do which in retrospect was a bad idea as I’m not worried about the workload. Oh well on wards and upwards, I did study the first few weeks before the accident so I will quickly work through the first few weeks and then go to 1 chapter a week.
6. Read 5 writers’ books
I re-read the positively productive by Simon Whaley which I really wanted to do though it sparked me off on writing up these long term goals into short and medium which took up some writing time but which will certainly help in the long run, I recommend this book to all writers, it is a fabulous kick up the arse, I finished it on the 31st and have wrote both on the 1st and second this month. I also made a start on the night time novelist which has been extremely useful in my novel planning so far.
7. Read 20 new books and 26 total books by the end of 2013.
This is another place I fell down, I did read a lot when I was away but it was all magazines! Though that did include 2 writing magazines, 3 design magazines and a travel magazine, so I’m not going to beat myself up to much but try harder next month.
8. Writing courses
I'm sorting this out this coming week. (I could have done something this month but didn't... cough)
9. Join a writers group and attend once a month
I'm a shy person so I have been finding it hard to call up about this, I have found a writing group and found where they hold meetings, which is thankfully only a 20 minute walk from me and I know when the next meeting is, I AM going to call up on Monday and see if I can come along. (I also found a local poetry group which meet each Tuesday which I may look into.
10. Keep up with blog posts
It should be quite obvious looking at this blog I scr**ed up royally on this one, again I was away and I didn't have internet access during that time, I did however write up a list of blog ideas which I'm looking forward to writing up. So hopefully I will do a lot better on this one next month. (It's not like I can do any worse.)
Best writing day – 30th July: I wrote just over 1,700 words, read freelance market news and finished up my long, medium and short term goals list.
Worst writing day: Well I didn’t write anything between 2nd-22nd of July (Away for most of this time) however I did do reading on some days and research on others. My worst days were 11th and 19th July. On the 11th I was travelling and instead of reading like planned, I catched up on ZZZZ’s during that time and I came back on the 19th and had work as well so I was shattered.
The Good: Finished a letter and Novel planning.
The Bad: No new short stories, studied very little.
New words written: 5000
Submissions: 0
Competitions entered: 0
Books read: 1
Magazines read: 5
Old words gone over: Novel planning and rough work for comprehensive assignment one, looking through it all roughly4000-5000 words
Income: 0
Expenses: £47.21 (Combination of magazines and stationary)
