What Were Your Writing Highs And Lows This Month?

August has 31 days and sometimes that makes it feel like a long month. Strange how one extra day does that. I've been pondering what I've accomplished in my writing life during this 31 days of August. Should I be satisfied, proud or ashamed of what I've done? 

The Good:

1.  I checked my Submissions Record and noted that I'd sent out 5 stories and poems. 

      2.  I wrote the first draft of two personal essays

 

      3.  I critiqued several submissions in my online writing group

     4.  I did all 4 Random Word exercises in my online writing group

     5.  I wrote a blog post 5 days every week this month

    6.  I made two submissions to my online writing group

    7.  I encouraged another writer

The Not So Good:

1. I didn't work on pieces I subbed to my writing group that had been critiqued

      2. I didn't read much of a new book on creative nonfiction that I'd purchased

      3.  I did not succeed in getting a new member or two for my writing group

      4.  I didn't spend as much time on writing as I could have

      5.  I had no acceptances from earlier submissions

      6.  I wasn't inspired as much as usual

How about you? What were your highs and lows in your writing life this month? Some months are better than others for various reasons. Maybe we should keep a record for the 12 months each year, listing our good and not so good happenings. I think we'd find it of interest when looking over the list at the end of the year. 

There will be months when our life outside of writing throws us some curves or is incredibly busy. When that happens, it definitely affects our writing life. There's no way around that. Maybe we should also note on our list what else was going on that month that may have hindered or helped us in our writing life. 

Writing is our passion but the record keeping part is not so much fun. Even so, it's imperative that we keep a record of our submissions, acceptances, rejections, amount paid, date of publication and maybe now this monthly accomplishment list, too. I guarantee that you will find your records of interest at the end of the year. They will tell you a story about your writing life for 2017. Read that story carefully if you want to improve in 2018. 

So, good bye to August. Tomorrow we begin a brand new month with opportunities available to us if we take advantage of them. As writers, we are the captain of our own ship. We choose where to sail and for how long.    

    

Blog Looks and Looking Back

I've been trying out new backgrounds for the blog. Some were awful so ditched them right away. I liked one a lot until a reader commented that the background was blurry and she liked the old one better. So, I've kept looking for one that really appeals to me. Yesterday, I even thought I'd go back to the old one. But guess what? I can't find it! It doesn't seem to exist anymore. 

So, now it's imperative that I find one and stay with it. Not there yet, however, so you may be seeing a different look every day for awhile. Why the need to change? I'd gotten tired of the old one with the brown tones that seemed a bit dreary to me. I wrote about making changes one day last week. Maybe not all changes are for the better.

Now for the Looking Back part of this post. I'm not a fan of the many newspaper and TV journalist pieces which summarize the year's events for us. They tend to make me antsy. My mind rejects them as it keeps repeating to me, "Get on with the new stuff. This is all water over the dam." Well, maybe that's not the best attitude to take. There are good reasons to recap the year.

Writers need to recap the year just past in their writing world. It's time to look over your records (oh, please don't say What records?) and see where you stand in achieving your writing goals and ponder what you might do differently in 2012. 

Look at:

1. the number of submissions you made

2. the number of acceptances received

3. the number of rejections (grit your teeth and do it!)

4. your writing income and expenses (needed for tax purposes but also for your knowledge)

5. goals met and those still pending

6. your record keeping methods (good or need some changes?)

Now that you've looked back at 2011, make a list of goals you would like to meet in 2012. Make them realistic for the most part, but go ahead and put something wild and wacky in the list, too. Put the list somewhere visible so you can refer to it from time to time. You'll be ready for the new year.