Writing

Goal-ie

[Cross-posted from Daydream Believer]

I let the weekly goal setting fall by the wayside when the time came to start gearing up for NaNoWriMo–since that was pretty much the only goal I’d intended to focus on through the end of November, and it seemed pointless to reiterate that every week. Then, of course, life happened, and the holidays, and apart from just getting through those with my sanity intact I was pretty aimless there for a while. And although I know I said I don’t feel like setting any big goals for the year, I still have plenty of Stuff I Need To Get Done, and breaking it down into weekly goals has proven a pretty good way to get myself on track.

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By Jean Marie Bauhaus, ago

Insomnia-induced NaNoWriMo ramblings

I’m coming at dawn from the wrong side this morning. My circadian rhythms are so far out of whack that I never even felt like going to bed all night. I’m feeling a little like it now, but if I went to bed now I’d sleep the whole day away and be right back where I started tomorrow morning.

I whiled away the wee, small hours by finishing up a copy writing project I’ve been doing for a while, and since finishing I’ve been blowing off steam by playing around with graphics for my NaNo profile. It’s been a productive week of novel planning, and I’ve got all of my main POV characters profiled, a stack of notecards full of scene ideas to arrange, and, wonder of wonders, I even have a title:

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By Jean Marie Bauhaus, ago

Last week, this week, and a month from now (yay NaNoWriMo!)

(Cross-posted #)

I know I said I’d start posting my goals again last Monday, but then I got slammed with work. So far this freelance biz is feast or famine, and my regular clients all seem to be on the same cycle as to when they have work for me. I’m not complaining. The busy times are great, as they mean we get to eat and pay the mortgage, and the stress of multiple deadlines isn’t nearly as burdensome as the stress of wondering how to pay the bills.

My brain was pretty fried by Friday night, though, and I spent the weekend trying not to think about work and just recover so I could dig in again this week, which promises to be another busy one. I actually had planned to get a lot done on Saturday, including blogging and posting the next ep of This Old Haunt, but I got hit with a pretty bad headache, and all I managed to get done were some errands and a few scenes of Hero Factor marked up for revisions. Then I spent Sunday puttering around the house getting the cleaning and laundry done. Well, mostly done. I’m still waiting on the last load to dry so I can put it away before I get to work on client projects.

I also put out the Halloween decorations yesterday, which made me ridiculously happy. I love October and Halloween so hard. (more…)

By Jean Marie Bauhaus, ago

One of these things is not like the other: macabre surprises, police apathy, and this week’s goals

[Cross-posted #]

I just posted Episode 8 of This Old Haunt, in which Ron learns her true feelings and Sarah shows her true colors.

***

If you were following my Twitter stream last night, then you already know about the disturbing discovery I made yesterday while picking up trash in my front yard. We live on the corner of a busy arterial street, just a few blocks down from some pretty unsavory apartments, the kind that has been on the news for gang-related activities, and where we can hear gunshots fired on a fairly regular basis. The sidewalk running along our yard sees a lot of foot traffic, and I’m constantly having to pick up trash that people toss on our lawn. I’ve never found anything worse than broken beer bottles and cigarette butts, until yesterday.

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By Jean Marie Bauhaus, ago

Let’s set some goals.

It’s hard to think about goals for the whole week on a Monday morning when your brain is rebelling against the entire concept of work and wishing it could go back to sleep for about five more hours. It’s also hard, knowing I have a lot to get done today, to think past just getting through this day. But despite all of that, I’m off to a decent start, and hopefully this goal post (SCORE! o/) will help keep the momentum going.

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By Jean Marie Bauhaus, ago