Two Steps Forward, Three Back

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 3 Comments

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Every year Christmas season seems to come earlier. Before Halloween decorations are down the Christmas lights are going up, and the shopping frenzy begins. 

Tis’ the season to be merry with Christmas lights, music, and decorations filling the stores, crowds of people materialize from nowhere and everywhere. The hours of the day are suddenly crammed with to-do-list so full it makes my head spin. 

 I wonder how I ever managed to work a full time job, raise a family and still finish the things on my list. Hats off to young mothers everywhere. Maybe it’s my age, who knows, but for whatever reason, my list keeps growing. It feels as if I’m taking two steps forward and three steps back. 

 All I can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other; I’ll eventually accomplish what I set out to do.  For now, I intend to relax, enjoy a bit of this Christmas spirit, and my family. There’s sure to be a few stories I can glean from this crew!

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Decisions

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

There’s an old saying I keep in my desk drawer. I pull it out ever now and again when I need to be reminded. Today was one of those days.

     “Indecision is like a dull knife that hacks and tears, leaving ragged edges behind.” 

When I worked, making decisions came easy. Perhaps, it was the added responsibility, or the multi-tasking. Regardless of the reason, in my professional life it was easy.  

The Choices

I can’t say the same, now. I’m always the holdup when we go out to dinner. Unable to decide between two menu items, the waitress  will end up waiting on at least two other tables before I can make a decision, and in the mean time I have to listen to my family’s stomach’s growling and their protest urging me to “just pick something.”

Shopping isn’t much different. I no longer have my best friend, having lost her three years ago, so it’s less fun and deciding which shoe or dress I like the best has become exhausting. 

So, you can imagine my consternation today, when I was handed a bigger, more important decision to make, especially when someone close to me differed in their opinion about what I should do. Boy did I feel those ragged edges. 

 I sat back, thought about it for a long time, and remembered who I was. I may not make the same high-powered, fast-pace decisions I once did, but I am still the same person. I haven’t forgotten the process. Decisions are like a sharp razor quick and smooth, leaving no ragged edges in sight. I know and I will.

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Do Your Writing Goals Meet The Criteria?

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

While many of you have been navigating the #ds139 "Writer's Block"NaNoWriMo challenge this month, I can’t begin to tell you how many pages I’ve crumpled up while navigating my own challenges, but that’s life.

At any rate, I’ve decided to stop fretting so much and set new goals, only this time make them more sensible, otherwise, I may be the interesting story you read about in tomorrow’s morning newspaper.

In my past life, I was a nurse, and we prepared a plan of care (POC) for every patient, which included stated goals to be achieved before the patient was discharged.

Each goal had to meet the following criteria:

  1. It had to be specific to the patient.
  2. It had to be measurable-“the patient would be able to …. before discharge”.
  3. It had to be achievable – We had to be certain, based on the patient’s condition, the patient could accomplish the goal.
  4. It was a realistic goal- based on the patient’s condition
  5. The goal was attainable – based on the time frame the patient would be in the hospital.

This got me to thinking, why couldn’t I apply the same concept to writing? Life may be throwing a load of crap my way, but I could still set goals for myself based on these same criteria. Once I realized establishing goals was no different from one discipline to another and that I could use something so familiar to me, a load was lifted from my mind. It became easy to apply this to my writing, and I immediately put a POC, of sorts, in place for my writing. You can too.

 Remember:

  1. Goals are not written in stone, they can be renegotiated; don’t panic.
  2. They need to be specific. Make the goal specific to the project.
  3. They should be realistic. Don’t set out to write a novel, when you know you only have time to write a couple of short stories.
  4. Goals must be measurable. Establish a word count per day or a story per month, for example. You must be able to have something to show your goal was completed.
  5. They should be attainable. Set a time frame in which your goal will be completed and stick to it.

Make yourself accountable by writing your goals down. You can list your goals, paste them on a mirror, computer monitor, or make them your computer screen saver, whatever works as a daily reminder. Index cards work well for me.

Goals give you something to work toward becoming your own daily prompt.

Do your goals meet the criteria?  Leave a comment and let me know.

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Setting Effective Writing Goals by Moira Allen

Setting Your Writing Goals by Sharon Hurley Hall

Best Laid Plans

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / Leave a comment

Typical scene at a local emergency room

I had the best plans laid out yesterday morning. I  was up bright and early at my keyboard, ready with an article outlined for Cow Pasture Chronicles, and Morning Pages was brewing in my head. I had pulled my notes and was prepared to start back to work on my novel, mid-morning, when….

Well, stuff happened… Instead of getting any of those things accomplished I ending up spending the next twelve hours in the emergency room with my daughter. It wasn’t as simple as the flu, but she will be fine. It’s going to require more family support, but taking care of family is my top priority, right now. Even, the best laid plans don’t  always work out.

So, what’s the writer supposed to do? Here are a few of my suggestions.

  1. Schedule like hell.
  2.  Make a to-do-list
  3. Use micro moments of time – use travel time to revise, or work on previous pieces.
  4. Have a notebook and pen with you at all times, even at the bedside to jot down ideas, outline notes, etc.
  5. Assign a limited time to social networking each day, otherwise you may find yourself wasting enormous amounts of time.
  6. To save time group tasks together.
  7. Learn to say,”No” to unnecessary drains on your time.
  8. And, keep on writing one word at a time.

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