2013 Goals -- Status update
May. 5th, 2013 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowynThis afternoon, I went back through my blog so I could to update my activity log to include the journal entries I've been making here as well as the fiction (which I've been more prompt about tracking, since I've done a lot more of it.)
I've been thinking "Wow, I've been doing a great job at my goals this year, because my goals is 50 points a day and my average is now at almost 70. For four full months!"
Then today I looked at my actual 2013 goals instead of what I thought they were.
Oh. Right. I changed them from 2012. Instead of a daily 50 points, I have an annual 30,000.
...
That would be 82 points per day. Oops.
Now, this isn't the "ZOMG so far behind!" that it looks like, because the whole "points" system for this year is heavily dependent on finishing things. I am well on-course to finish A Rational Arrangement this year, and assuming I actually do so, that'll put me easily over 30,000 for the year. But it does remind me that if I lose steam on this project before finishing it, I am going to need to do some serious finishing-stories work or I am not going to make goal.
The vast majority of my writing for the year so far has been A Rational Arrangement or the prequel short story that goes with it, "His Angel". (Oh hey, I could finish the prequel short for a completion bonus too. It is much closer to being done. Huh.) The novel is about 55k words as of this writing (and looking likely to come in at over 100k, sigh, though I am still hoping for under 120k.) The prequel is at 9200 words.
For my blog, I've written about 21k in various entries and posted, um, a bunch. 54 entries or so, I think. Many of them being book reviews or the short "Good Things" entries.
Anyway, there were four parts to this year's goal, so in order:
Keep score Been doing this! I have been measuring by words written rather than time spent almost exclusively this year, because the time-spent measure requires my time to be focused and while I have been getting stuff done, I have been doing it in dribs and drabs amidst various distractions. That is explicitly okay. The goal is to get things done and be reasonably happy while doing so. Process is not that important as long as those criteria are met.
Score 30,000 Points: I am at 8,665 as of today. I am anticipating I will get another 4k+ points in writing on RA and then around 21k in completion bonuses for finishing it. So I am considering myself provisionally "on track", although this does require the all-important "finishing it" step actually happening.
Write more fiction: The target was 2/3rds points from fiction. I am actually at a hair over 3/4ths. Even without yet qualifying for any of the big completion bonuses. Well hey. Cool.
Post the occasional update: I forgot about this. I was aiming for 4 total, and this is the first one. Still. Status updated now! Goals actually looked at so I remember what they are instead of what I thought they were.
The 2013 goal sheet has a provision for revising it, but I'm happy with it for now.
I've been thinking "Wow, I've been doing a great job at my goals this year, because my goals is 50 points a day and my average is now at almost 70. For four full months!"
Then today I looked at my actual 2013 goals instead of what I thought they were.
Oh. Right. I changed them from 2012. Instead of a daily 50 points, I have an annual 30,000.
...
That would be 82 points per day. Oops.
Now, this isn't the "ZOMG so far behind!" that it looks like, because the whole "points" system for this year is heavily dependent on finishing things. I am well on-course to finish A Rational Arrangement this year, and assuming I actually do so, that'll put me easily over 30,000 for the year. But it does remind me that if I lose steam on this project before finishing it, I am going to need to do some serious finishing-stories work or I am not going to make goal.
The vast majority of my writing for the year so far has been A Rational Arrangement or the prequel short story that goes with it, "His Angel". (Oh hey, I could finish the prequel short for a completion bonus too. It is much closer to being done. Huh.) The novel is about 55k words as of this writing (and looking likely to come in at over 100k, sigh, though I am still hoping for under 120k.) The prequel is at 9200 words.
For my blog, I've written about 21k in various entries and posted, um, a bunch. 54 entries or so, I think. Many of them being book reviews or the short "Good Things" entries.
Anyway, there were four parts to this year's goal, so in order:
Keep score Been doing this! I have been measuring by words written rather than time spent almost exclusively this year, because the time-spent measure requires my time to be focused and while I have been getting stuff done, I have been doing it in dribs and drabs amidst various distractions. That is explicitly okay. The goal is to get things done and be reasonably happy while doing so. Process is not that important as long as those criteria are met.
Score 30,000 Points: I am at 8,665 as of today. I am anticipating I will get another 4k+ points in writing on RA and then around 21k in completion bonuses for finishing it. So I am considering myself provisionally "on track", although this does require the all-important "finishing it" step actually happening.
Write more fiction: The target was 2/3rds points from fiction. I am actually at a hair over 3/4ths. Even without yet qualifying for any of the big completion bonuses. Well hey. Cool.
Post the occasional update: I forgot about this. I was aiming for 4 total, and this is the first one. Still. Status updated now! Goals actually looked at so I remember what they are instead of what I thought they were.
The 2013 goal sheet has a provision for revising it, but I'm happy with it for now.
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no subject
Date: 2013-05-06 01:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-07 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-06 04:29 am (UTC)Do you also give yourself points for successfully recording that you earned points? Because for me, that seems like it would be one of the most challenging parts! You get a big 'huzzah' from me on that one, just because even keeping score seems so daunting to me.
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Date: 2013-05-07 01:04 am (UTC)