My major accomplishment this month was avoiding getting one family member's never ending cold and a couple of other family members' norovirus. This involved moving to the other end of the house to save myself--twice--where I still am because while my husband did not become a norozombie, he's now on antibiotics for something else. I have spent a big chunk of this past month moving my things around the house, taking the elder visits, cleaning, and then, this past week, washing my hands, doing laundry, washing my hands, going to the grocery store, and washing my hands. I now have the skin of an old crone. A still healthy old crone.
When I had time to huddle on the bed with my laptop in what I fear is going to become my permanent room, I focused on the following 2020 Goals:
Goal 1: Submitting Work. I made four submissions, two as part of PBPitch, and two to literary journals. I have a couple of agents lined up to submit one project to, and other agents in mind for two others. I registered for the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Spring Conference, which will entitle me to submit to agents connected with that. (There's at least a 50/50 chance I won't be going because of a family event coming up around that time this spring.)
Goal 2: Work on Short-form Writing. I've begun roughing out one new piece. If the last weekend of the month had gone differently, I would have tried to finish it. I made a big effort to focus on reading short stories this month.
Goal 3. Work on the 365 Story Project. The best I can say I've done for this is starting a blog post on children's lit and flash fiction and finding a flash fiction workshop at the NESCBWI Conference that I hope to get into. (Sign up for workshops is tomorrow. Two o'clock.)
Goal 4. Work on YA Thriller. I finished up most of what I had planned for my ultralearning project on historical methodology which was specifically for this book. I have been working on an outline, something I don't think I've ever done this extensively, and brought a few pages of the actual manuscript to my writers' group. And I've just started reading another YA mystery. Oh, and I just finished reading a popular history, which is part of my get my head into history thing for the historical methodology project.
Goal 5. Community Building/General Marketing/Branding. I provided support to Connecticut writers with the CCLC and did two #BlackHistoryMonth blog posts. Went to writers' group this month. Registered for the NESCBWI Conference. Promoted The Bending Genres Anthology in which my creative nonfiction appears on both Facebook and Twitter.
Goal 6. Stay On Top of Upcoming Known Events. I'm clearly not doing a great job on this, since I signed up for that conference when I know something in the family might be happening then. But I am keeping track of my work time with these monthly goal assessment posts. And I'm about to go look at my bullet journal to see what I've got in it for the month of March. And to set it up for next week, which I never got to for last week.
Last month I was a little discouraged at the goal check-in, because I hadn't done anything big. "Are these little things I'm doing the ground work for something big later in the year?" I wondered. "Or am I just messing around?" This month I am ecstatic that I've done as many little things as I have.
You have to look at the big picture, what else is going on. Given what has been going on, I'm feeling good right now. So I'm going to go put away the groceries I've been buying over the last three days and the laundry I've been washing and try to get some cooking done and maybe get started on a couple more blog posts.
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