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January 2023
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'ello reader !
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Slow and Steady
In setting my goals for the year, I've decided to be nice to myself and set reachable goals this year.
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The first is to work out once a week. If I miss five days in a row, I won't feel defeated because my goal was three days a week. Always a chance to cover ground when I fall behind.
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The next goal is not to read many stories but to alternate between fiction and nonfiction books. I haven't stayed on point with this, but only because I've been reading a lot of nonfiction lately.
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Next is to declutter our house before we move in May. I got 22 rooms and at publishing this just 14 weeks left. I was able to finish deleting the upstairs closets (4), but there is much more to do.
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The last two goals are writing goals. The first is to edit 104 flashes (of the 250 I drafted last year). But luckily, having a total number gives me the flexibility to edit more or take a break at other times. My final goal is to publish a book; my fingers are crossed.
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I hope your goals allow room for life and flexibility.
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"It wasn’t until her shoe touched the top rung that she started to shake. "
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- OLD LINE: "Drama In and Out of the Lab" Episode 3 FF Writing Prompts - 10 Oct '21
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"It wasn’t until her shoe touched the top rung that her limbs began to vibrate."
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- NEW LINE: "Drama In and Out of the Labr" Twitch Editing Stream - 5 Jan '23
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Editing:
I edited a lot more than this one line, but I chose this line as an example of my editing journey. This slight change can have the reader watch a scared character or feel that fear of heights themselves.
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My goal was the latter. I hope I achieved it.
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Room to Grow
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In college I was an intern at a radio station. Eventually I got hired, but in that time I still was called "Intern Natalie."
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I never once took offense to it, but full welcomed the title and made it my screen name when I could.
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Honestly, it was great because it reminded me we're growing when we're learning.
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If we get cocky or complacent, we will stop seeking to learn and thus cease to grow to our potential. And, as I feel with my own children, even as an adult, I need to remind myself at times thee potential is infinite, as long as I continue to learn to skills, hone my existing skills, and always welcome a refresher of the basics when I can't recite them from memory anymore.
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The other side of this growth sword, is we can get tunnel vision on our goals and aspirations to a point that we may feel we're running in place and not going anywhere.
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This is another technique I use, which is data capturing. I have every single flash I've written in an excel spreadsheet with the number of words that make up that flash. For some of those flashes, I captured how long it took me to draft. This helps me realize how far I've come when how far I have to go seems too far.
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Outside of Writing
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In Stephen King's memoir On Writing he said "You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself."
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This is why I've pushed to make reading a priority in the past year. I'm not setting number goals, like those able to read hundreds in a year, but I do set myself to read each month. The first year I was able to read over 30 books, not including the books I read to my son each night.
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Being a part of the group Scripting the Book this also helps my writing as myself, Ben Pick (RunningtoWrite), Nia James (VixenofFiction) meet monthly to discuss books and the film/television adaptations. It is a perfect learning technique that helps our own writing and show the vastness of readers' preferences.
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For January, we read Fire and Blood and watched the HBO series House of the Dragon, with Shannon (SDHouston) guest hosting with us. Link below if you want to pick behind the wonder like we did and maybe learn more about writing through reading/critiquing as Stephen King recommends.
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Playful Work
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As someone who is very type A personality, I tend to even treat my hobbies as work tasks that I need to complete, such as this monthly newsletter. This is a dangerous road to go down and I want to be sure others are able to find balance of their work, personal life (spouse, kids, animals, family), self (mental/physical), and hobbies - which may be your work (if you get paid for them).
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For me, I schedule my "me time" but I don't specify what I shall do, but allow myself to choose based on how I feel in the moment.
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Don't cookie cut my method, this balance is going to be different for everyone. Try a few techniques on, but realize everyday will also be different.
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With work, I consider what NEEDS to be done today versus what would be nice. With personal, I try to say yes to playing video games with my son or shopping with my daughter (what they like to do) more than I say no. After a chat with my husband, we like to stay up together after the kids go to bed and watch something or (like now) I'll work on my laptop as he plays online poker. My me-time 5 mins here/there during the day and even late at night after the kids go to bed.
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Fill your toolbox with options as the weights on the scales change each day.
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You can find me between newsletters on any of my socials.
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