All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Well, my lovely Dwellers, we’ve reached the checkpoint. That can only mean one thing – I get to delay the article I planned to write YET AGAIN! This time, at least, it’s for a good reason. And what reason is that? Why, a goal review, of course!
This has been a historically low point in my articles – generally speaking, when it comes time to review I end up realizing how poorly I’ve utilized my time and waxing on about how I need to improve moving forward. But, that’s the past. Have I managed to step up to the plate this time around and roll into the midway with wins?
Heeelllllll no. Bless you wonderful people if you thought otherwise.
Now, I guess I do need to give myself a little credit. I actually did manage to achieve most of my goals for the six months. “But Tom,” I hear you say, “I’m confused – wouldn’t that mean you did step up to the plate?” You could interpret it that way, I suppose, but if you weigh things on importance, that’s when the drop off happens.
So, yes, I did pay off the van and we have no more car payments. Awesome, you love to see it. Yes, I did manage to keep up the article per week on this site. Great. That’s right, I successfully completed 75 Hard. Neato. All well and good, high fives all around.
On the other hand, I failed every single novel plan. Those are kind of the whole reason I’m doing all this in the first place. In the face of that level of failure, it’s pretty hard to take the rest with any sense of victory. But, hey, it’s me, and I’ve become accustomed to my system of routine failure and reset. So, what else is there to do but dust off, reorient myself, and climb back on the wagon?
Six months down and six to go. What did I learn, and how do I adapt?
Well, for starters, I’ve been trying out a few different mini goal setting processes. I won’t go into the details, but I’m on my third or fourth (Hopefully final) iteration of these and will be comparing each of them soon to determine which type I preferred most and using that to help me as I move forward.
I’m also – again – trying to rein in my absurd overcommitments. Did you know I had five – FIVE – different writing goals? A new novel, editing an existing manuscript, keeping weekly on this site, submitting a short story every month, AND starting up a new “choose-your-own-adventure”-style story on this site where the readers pick the path of the next entry? Where in the hell was I planning to find all that time and still live any kind of life? Do I have any grasp of time management? Well, I think we all know the answer to that, but good Lord do I need to get a handle on it. Because, in the end… that actually is all stuff I want to do. Very much. Yet, I also need to recognize my limits and understand I can’t do all that at once. In time, yes, but right now the story muscle is flabby. I’m out of practice to the extreme. Heavy rust buildup. That has to be fixed before I can begin to tackle anything near as ambitious as all of that.
I hate having to go back to baby steps, but I’ve done this to myself so I have to get past it. Consider it a self-imposed, narrative sort of physical therapy. Creation therapy. And it starts with Residuum.
No more pouring out a manuscript and moving on to the next one without a care. I’m finishing things. It’s been far too long – time to read it over, get notes, talk to those people who’ve read it, and see what can be done to smooth out all the rough edges and make something that’s publishable. I want a work completed.
There are other goals, of course, but those can wait. They don’t need to be public – again, this place is here to help me get over things for my writing, so writing is what needs to be the focus. Those goals can remain, hovering around the perimeter, waiting for the time I give them after my writing needs for the day are done.
So, really, that’s the true goal for this next six months. Certain things come first – God, family, work, and my health… but aside from those, nothing else can take precedence over writing. There’s no gaming, no shows, no YouTube rabbit hole until whatever goal I set for myself for that day is seen through. None of this happens on its own, I have to see it through. And I will.
Next week – for real this time – there’ll be a long-overdue post of a style I haven’t really done, but should probably do more of. I hope it turns out well. I might even put some extra time and reviewing into it, and not treat it like a stream-of-consciousness word salad. It deserves the attention.
Until then, my lovely Dwellers, I hope you have a great Fourth and get your eyes set on what you can achieve to close out 2023.
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