It’s the first Monday of July, and you know what that means! It’s time to set up our July accountability thread.
The first Monday of each month, we’ll invite you to share your plans and goals for the upcoming month. As this is a writing blog, of course there will be lots of focus on creative and writing goals, but feel free to share other important life goals as well. Training for a 5k, learning to crochet, reading a book a day? Tell us about whatever it is you hope to achieve by July 31st, 2017.
Be sure to come back the first Monday in August to report your progress! And now, it’s time to ‘fess up about how it went in June. I had very mixed results.
June Goals with Outcomes
1) Submit Act I of Take the Money and Run to my writing coach, address her feedback, and prepare to write Act II (in July).
Completed!
2) Finish the second ginormous revision of my Victorian Romance novella.
Not completed. But I’m working on it, I’m working on it!
3) Read two books per week, every week.
Completed!
4) Sign up for ongoing Krav Maga classes to work toward my yellow belt.
Not completed. This one’s on hold because I’ve realized that with so many things going on in my personal life this summer (most of them revolving around my daughter’s upcoming September wedding), I really don’t have time to work on a new physical challenge. So, no success here, but no regrets, either.
July Goals
1) Finish the second ginormous revision of my Victorian Romance novella and submit it to beta readers. Seriously. I’m going to do it this month. (Fingers crossed.)
2) Choose an editor, a proofreader, and a cover artist for the novella. These are important decisions, because I’d like to use the same team for the entire series.
3) Write the first draft of Act II of Take the Money and Run and submit it to my coach for comments.
4) Read one book a week, every week. I’m dialing this down from two, because I really need more writing time if I’m to have any hope of completing goals 1 and 3.
June was a mixed bag for me, but onward and upward! I’m going to be an optimist and expect better results in July.
So, how’s by you? How did you do with your June goals? What do you have planned for July?
Eight Ladies Writing 
Here’s the June thread: https://eightladieswriting.com/2017/06/05/nancy-first-monday-accountability-thread/
Ukulele: I didn’t do “I Walk the Thinnest Line” by the Dead Milkmen, but I did learn “Punk Rock Girl”. It was incredibly fun! I think I’ve finally got a better handle on the Bb chord, and best of all, I’ve played it in front of other people three times, and got great reactions (even though I still flub up when playing for people — HOWEVER, I do better each time!). The last two times, they didn’t know the song, but laughed at the funny lyrics. 110 percent goal success!
Writing: I did the writing sprints, and I wrote a little bit in Jack and Olivia’s universe, and made some progress on what the problems are. Very little writing I can actually use, but . . . better than nothing. 50 percent goal success.
Cleaning: ha. Fail.
Mowing: 20 percent goal success. I wonder if I can burn the lawn?
Reading: I read a screenplay and 1.5 books in June. I don’t understand it. I used to be such a voracious reader. Is Twitter really replacing my beloved books?
Phone usage: Not good. I didn’t keep good statistics, but I feel like it must have been a 10 percent success rate.
July goals:
Ukulele: I’m kind of in a good place here; just keep up practicing and improve on the things I’ve already learned. The theme on my ukulele group is TV themes, but I already did The Addams Family theme for Halloween, so I’m not that interested. I have been toying with the idea of doing a Japanese song from a TV show. (-: Maybe a good August goal that I start early in July.
Writing: Keep up with the sprints. Read through the entire Jack and Olivia stuff by July 10. Write 3000 extra words (even just goofing around) on Tuesdays (ie: 750 words/Tuesday). Putting it in my calendar now.
Cleaning: ha. But I really must get the table cleaned off before we have guests in August.
Mowing: Keep up with the mowing I’ve done around the house. Try not to google “Slash and burn agriculture”. (Negative goal, but a kind of important one.)
Phone: Last month was a great, practical goal. Set my alarm before 9:30 and then stop using the phone. I’m giving myself another chance on this one, and I’m thinking about making a paper chart beside my bed to keep track of statistics. If I can’t do this consistently (at least five nights a week), I may have to install one of those phone apps that shut the phone off for me.
Hey, progress, that’s what counts! And IMHO, mowing is overrated ;-).
LOL, the meadow look? Yeah, it’s fine for now, but it harbors mice and insects and pesties. Which will want to move into the house when the first hard frost falls . . . . The cats will be delighted, I suppose . . . . But, yeah. Yay for progress! And I can do better by next accountability day. This was just my starter month, LOL.
Has it been a month already? Where has the time gone?
June Goals with Outcomes
(1) Post at least 2 Friday Writing Sprints (rather than just mentally sketching them off and then wandering off)
Completed! Also, completed a 3rd, which I used for my June Short Story post.
(2) Read a book a week
Aced this one –the final total for the month was 8. I am now well-versed in Georgette Heyer’s country house mysteries, though I can’t say my TBR pile is any smaller than it was last month, thanks to a weekend stop at a local independent bookstore.
(3) Finish my current revision pass on my Regency WIP
Not so much on this. Didn’t even crack open the WIP (see number of books read above). I did, however, get some unexpected beta-reader feedback on my draft mystery WIP, so I spent my writing time working on that story instead.
July Goals
With RWA only a few weeks away, I’m going to keep my July goals simple:
(1) Add 2 scenes to my draft mystery WIP
(2) Read no more than 1 book a week
(3) Brainstorm with the Eight Ladies
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