Ramblings of a Samurai and his Duct Tape

Goals 2.0

It's time for me to create some more writing goals for myself. I've tried setting goals before, but I wasn't too successful with them. I identified the problems with my first goal, which was that I didn't know enough about the world I was trying to write in, but then I made a vague goal of creating more about the dream realm within the novel I plan on writing. That one fell by the wayside. I made some progress on one area, but then kinda... forgot about it.





So my new plan is to set a bunch of goals to accomplish this month. I may not succeed in accomplishing all of them, but I'll have a bunch and each little one that I accomplish will help keep my motivation going to continue more of them. Also, it's better to complete 70% of ten goals than to complete 0% of 1 goal. At least it is for me.





So here goes:


Write a poem for round 2 of "DreamTime Dragon's Poem Contest"  Contest closes on June 24th. I entered round one this last month with "D.R.A.G.O.N.S."  and got second place, which is a success to me.


Write a poem for round 2 of "Invalid Item"  Contest closes on June 30th. I entered round 1 with "Flight" , still waiting for winners to be announced.


Get to the point where I've submitted more than 50 reviews. I made a bit of progress on this one tonight. Reviewed 3 things for a friend, one very detailed review, and 2 minor ones. I find it hard to do detailed reviews of poetry. I find it even harder to do lots of detailed reviews, due to the amount of time and effort I take on them. I have to remember it's okay to do a less than exemplary review as long as I can still feel that I'm helping the author.


Get to the point where I've submitted 100 reviews. Might as well shoot for the stars a little. Who knows, I might even achieve this one!


Enter and win "The Writer's Cramp - Poetry Week"  at least once this month. Just for fun last week I looked at all my entries I've submitted for the "The Writer's Cramp - Poetry Week"  since I've become "active" on this site. (I joined this site, but only added sporadically to interactives, and don't really consider myself active until I branched out from those to other reading and writing here) I found that of the 18 or 19 times I entered, I've won the cramp 3 times and tied for the win once. I'd say that's a pretty good track record.


Write Poverty essay for scholarship. Due on June 15th. This one is high priority, as that scholarship could help me out a ton when I go back to school this fall.


Write a story for Round 2 of "Invalid Item"  Contest Closes on June 20th. I found this one after it's first round had already closed, though I think this one is right up my alley.


Write a story for "The Pressure Valve - closed for now."  Contest closes on June 10th. I've never written or read Steampunk before, but in reading about it I can recall a few movies that had steampunk elements and I think I'll be okay with that. This last night at work I downloaded a samples of 2 steampunk books onto my nook, think I'll try to read one of those before I turn in here. I also think I have a good starting point that follows the prompt. If nothing else, it's an exciting foray out of my writing comfort zone. Maybe I'll find a new direction to lean towards, or maybe I'll say it's not for me and be done with it. Who knows at this point~


Make some sort of progress on my Novel. Whether it's drawing more maps of the dream realm, writing 10 pages onto Anthony's part of the story, or 10 pages onto Laura's part of the story. If I do any of those 3 things, I'll consider this goal a success.


Write an entry for "What a Character! : Official WDC Contest"  The prizes are just too good not to at least try.


Have something ready that I can submit to the Writers of the future contest. Deadline for this quarter is June 30th. I don't know that I'll have something appropriate to submit, but who knows, maybe one of the stories I create for one of these contests could work after a little expansion, or maybe I'll start writing about Anthony or Laura and really get on a roll!





Well I think that's a damn good start. 11 goals set, with varying deadlines throughout the month. It looks a little daunting right now, but if I work hard I can at least make a dent in this list, and I feel better already just figuring it all out. At the beginning of next month I'll do a recap of these goals and see about what new goals I can set then.