QUARTER 3 2020 WRITERLY GOALS | Recap Q1/Q2 & Review Q3

This year has been fun, right?
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Today I'm talking about my goals for 2020. I'm recapping quarter one and quarter two of this year while also reviewing what I hope to accomplish in quarter three.
I'm a big proponent of quarterly goals, and I am at my most productive when I work in three-month chunks at a time.

Quarter One
HQ Digital

• I had hoped to write 80,000 words for 'Barefoot on the Beach,' my most recent release. And I reached around 78,000 words. I count that as pretty darn close.
• I allotted time for one to two developmental edits. I only ended up doing one.
• I had a line item for copy edits.
• I scheduled my blog tour with Rachel's Random Resources.
• I reviewed my 30-day promotional schedule for 'Barefoot on the Beach'.
• I sent out a newsletter each month for January, February, and March.
• The only thing I didn't do in this column was review my spreadsheet for my taxes.

 YouTube

• Caption my backlog videos, which I did do a significant amount, and I am moving forward.

 YA thriller

• I wanted to review the full outline that I completed during my trip to the Highlights Foundation, which I did.
• I hoped to do a chapter by chapter outline, which I did not.
• I wanted to do 10,000-word milestones for the book, which I also did not do because partway through quarter one, I decided I wanted to make my novel an ADULT thriller. I had a lot of work to do. More on that in a minute.

Entertainment

• I watched Mindhunter season two
• The Good Place
• The Witcher. Nope. I don't think I'm coming back to that anytime soon, just was not my cup of tea at this current time. Don't throw things at me if you love that show.
• You season one and season two

Reading

• I wanted to read and review for my channel, one writing craft book per month, which I did. If you're interested in checking out these reviews here is a link to the playlist
• I wanted to stop DNF'ing books. I wanted to push myself to finish books and possibly figure out why I didn't like them (in terms of helping my craft). I did not DNF any books in quarter one because I didn't do much reading to be honest.

 
The end of quarter one led into a lockdown period because of the pandemic. I didn't even attempt to put down any goals for quarter two of this year. I was completely paralyzed with my writing. I had a lot of introspection about everything going on. I ended up taking those promotional plans that I thankfully prepared in quarter one.

Quarter Two

• Promote the release of 'Barefoot on the Beach'

All I did in April was promote 'Barefoot on the Beach', which came out at the end of the month. Including a LIVESTREAM (ß click for replay) It was a lot of fun. Giving myself that time to focus on me was so important. And it helped me get back to where I wanted to be within my writing and my author business.

• Thriller Novel

Also, when I had bursts of creative moments (there weren't many), I went back to look at my young adult thriller and I completely changed my synopsis to make it an adult. I had to change a lot of things there. I worked on my chapter by chapter outline. I usually create bullet points for each of my chapters ahead of time, so I know what's to come, like red herrings which is especially important in thrillers. It wasn't even until late May that I was able to open my Scrivener document for this book. When I said paralyzed, I meant I was unable to open the software for my book. When I did, it was a huge revelation for me.

Overall, quarter two was hard. It was so hard for me to do much other than worry. Then I had the guilt, you know, that guilt I'm talking about. Going on the internet, checking social media. Some people felt they had all the time in the world, and they were able to be so productive because they were home all the time. But this was so much different than that. At least it was for me, this wasn't like taking a vacation or going on a writing retreat where that's literally all I could focus on. We could not even leave our house for anything. If you're like me and went through all of this or still going through this. I just want to say that it's okay. At some point, you will get back to normal or you may discover a new normal in your life.

One simple thing that helped me out was getting my thoughts all in one place. I started a new planning process. I found that having all my thoughts down; things I wanted to do, even if I wasn't doing them. It was just me being able to sort of brain dump all of my information in my mind about what I wanted to do onto paper so that I didn't worry about forgetting it.

That process of organizing my thoughts helped. I've realized that this summer and probably most of the year is pretty much canceled in terms of getting things done. And if I didn't adjust myself, then I knew I wouldn't accomplish any goals for this year. And that I think would have bummed me out when it came to reflecting next year on 2020.

Quarter Three
My goals for quarter three are not as robust as they usually are. And that's also because I have two secret projects that are in the works and the dates for those projects are a little bit up in the air right now. I didn't want to plan it for quarter three then maybe I don't need to start until quarter four. I left them off the list for now. Of course, I'll update you when I can. Also, if I suddenly have the opportunity to do more, I will, but if I don't have to, I won't.

Author business

• Finish this thriller that I am currently drafting. I would love to finish it by the end of July, but I'm giving myself the whole quarter to finish it and then possibly send it out to critique partners
• Send monthly newsletters (By the way, if you want to join my newsletter, here's the link)

YouTube

• Posting videos 1x a week
• Reading 1 craft book a month (I forgot to mention this in the video!)

 
I don't have a huge list, and that's okay with me. The most important thing is that I'm excited to be in the writing trenches right now. At the end of last year, I was getting burnt out with my ghostwriting and my contracted projects. So, I'm just so excited that I gave myself space and the ability to write what I want to write and when I want to write it.

Let me know what you're planning to accomplish this quarter in the comments below. 

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