KJ

Days written: 20/31
Words written: 3,984
Stories worked on: One
Stories posted: None

( Charts can't believe it's already June )

Specific goals:

1. Write five days per week. On average, yes.

2. Pick a topic for a ladybusiness post and get started on it. Nope, but WisCon has given me a couple of ideas

3. Finish Cassandra/Lavallen fic for real this time (for real). No, and I've decided it's time to shelve this one, at least for now. It's really two stories jammed together, I've rethought the first part several times, and I'm definitely not doing the second story justice. Really I should have written this when my heart was still on fire for my m!Lavallen, and while he is still best boy, the immediate need to set down words about him has passed. Maybe I'll revisit him, and this story, again someday.

Goals for June:

1. Write six days per week. Yes, really; it's time to start catching up on my GWYO goal, and this month seems as good a time as any to do it. Because...

2. Spend some time with my three long background WIPs and decide which one to prioritize for the rest of the year. These are Find the Music 3, Wardens of Ivalice 3, and a half-written Fenris/Marissa Hawke in the time of Inquisition epic that's been on the to-do pile for several years now. I didn't get my act together to sign up for the WIP Big Bang this year, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't work on a long fic.

3. Write a post for ladybusiness, for real, really.

Days written: 18/31
Words written: 5,771
Stories worked on: 1
Stories posted: None

( Charts are bummed to see that Imgur is trying to get into the NFT business; maybe time for a new image hosting service? )

Specific goals:
1. Write five days per week. Not quite.

2. Finish first draft of the Lavellan/Cass story. No but I did make progress on it!

3. At least one gameblog of HFW per week. Failed pretty spectacularly at this one, since I only posted once (spoilers through arriving at the Isle of Spires).

It's also time to check in on annual goals, I guess.

1. Surpass the target of 240 writing days per year for getyourwordsout. I'm behind on this, but not as much as I could be, I suppose.

2. Write at least one post for ladybusiness every quarter and post Monday Media Musings at least three times a month. I'm actually on track for the first one. The second I've fallen behind on. As with the next goal, I blame HFW.

3. Return to my Dragon Age replay and finish up the DA codex meme that I started in late 2020. To be fair, I did actually start up DAI and take my m!Trevelyan partway through Jaws of Hakkon. But that ended pretty quickly once we started Horizon Forbidden West. But although there are other games I want to play this year, HFW is by far the one I'm most eager to finish, so I have hope that I can work finishing this DAI game, and then getting back to my Tabris who just barely started Awakening, into my schedule more easily once HFW is done.

4. Work on (and finish?) Face the Music Part 3. I always intended this project for later in the year. Signups for wipbigbang opened yesterday, and I'm considering whether to sign up -- and if I do, whether I should use it to finish FtM, Wardens of Ivalice, or a very long stalled "Fenris/Marissa Hawke in Inquisition" story that I would, in theory, love to finish someday, although a lot of the ground I wanted to cover there ended up folded into Face the Music and a Dragon Age Big Bang story instead, so I'd need to refocus it quite a lot. Signups close on April 21st so I need to decide fairly soon.

So anyway, let's talk about April. Going back to work in the office could be great for my creative productivity, or it could be terrible. Only time will tell, so I don't feel like making predictions now. I'll keep it simple:

1. Write five days per week.

2. Pick a topic for a ladybusiness post and get started on it.

3. Finish Cassandra/Lavallen fic for real this time.

Days written: 21/31
Words written: 5,421
Stories worked on: None
Stories posted: None

( Charts are ready to sit at the computer again. )

Specific goals:

1. Write 6 days per week to get ahead of GYWO pace. No, although technically I am ahead (by literally one day).

2. Finish long-in-progress LB post as well as writing up media favorites for 2021. Well, I worked on it anyway. I did manage a 2021 favorites post and also contributed to and edited our 2022 Hugo recommendations, so that's something, anyway.

3. Finish DAI Cassandra/m!Lavellan fic that stalled out last summer. Nope. I did pick up DAI again; maybe that will help.

So you'll notice that it's already the fourth of the month and I'm only just now writing up my monthly goals post. I think I mentioned last fall that I was having some health issues; on Tuesday, I had surgery as the next stage of dealing with them. Everything went fine, and I'm recovering well, but today is the first day where I've been able to sit at my computer for more than a few minutes. It'll probably be another week or so before I can do this for long, and of course my dayjob will need to take priority. I don't plan to take off writing entirely (I may try taking my laptop down to the couch or one of the comfy chairs in the living room), but I'll have to go easy on the goals for February.

1. Write at least four days per week, on average (less now, more later in the month).

2. Finish this LB post for real for real, and set about plans for posting at least bimonthly for all of 2022.

3. Take stock of all my fic in progress and pick something to work on.

Days written: 25/30
Days written, YTD: 219/240
Words written: 5,754
Stories worked on: One
Stories posted: None

( Charts don't have anything clever this month )

Specific goals:

1. It is probably the height of some kind of denial to think I'm going to write something every day in November, but I want to at least try. Did I write every day in November? No. Did I at least get ahead of GYWO pace? Also no, but I made up some ground. So I guess it could be worse.

2. Post something for Monday Media every week except this one. I also missed Thanksgiving week.

3. Finish that LB post already. Sigh, no. Am trying to decide if I'm inspired to work on it more or not.

4. Work on critmas_exchange story once I have my assignment. A little bit. I need to get cracking on this one.

5. Catch up on posting reviews to StoryGraph, which I got woefully behind on. I did a bit of this but should have done more. This will be a carryover goal into December.

Speaking of...

1. Write at least 21 days to hit GYWO goals.

2. Finish and post critmas_exchange story (due 12/16).

3. Finish catching up on StoryGraph.

4. Write LB post? We'll see.

Days written: 22/30
Days written, YTD: 178/240
Words written: 4,338
Stories worked on: One
Stories posted: Zero

( Charts notice a distinct boom-or-bust pattern this month )

Specific goals:

1. Write six days per week, except while on my houseboat trip. Not quite, although I did write most days on the houseboat, mostly by deciding to keep a journal of the experience... which I then threw out when things got wild during the last couple of days. But I still wrote it, so it still counts!

2. Choose a story for remixrevival, complete, and post (due October 1st). I fell really behind on this, in part because I was hoping to write most of it on the boat; I got one good afternoon of writing in on Thursday and then... well, see above. So I asked for an extension, and then so many other people also asked for extensions that the deadline actually got extended until next week. So now I have the weekend to pull it together, which should be fine (I actually plan to turn to that project as soon as I'm done here).

3. Write one post for ladybusiness (topic already chosen). Nope. Since the topic is related to Disney+ Marvel shows, I decided to wait until What If? was finished. So I'm pushing it to this month.

Time to check in on the annual goals...

1. Try to hit the 240 getyourwordsout Journeyman Habit goal. Still a little behind pace, but closer than I was before. If I write every day in November, or at least come close, I should be fine. But no slacking off.

2. Sign up for wipbigbang and use the challenge as an opportunity to finish the sequel to "Face the Music". This story is finished and posted, but as mentioned before I discovered that the series is not yet done.

3. Once that's done, turn my attention to Wardens of Ivalice Part 3. As I mentioned in June, I have to decide whether to do this or keep working on "Face the Music", and I still haven't really thought that through. Part of me thinks it makes more sense to keep up the momentum... but WoI is a more popular series, so I'd get more bang for my buck if I finish it. That said, I have more ideas for FtM right now, so that's probably what I'll do.

4. Write at least one post for ladybusiness every month (already have some plans for this in the works) and post Monday Media Musings at least three times a month. I did post to LB in August. Monday Media has been hit or miss, largely dependent on what I've been watching/playing.

All right, let's see what October has in store.

1. Write five days per week. I actually have a reason for treading water this month: T is going to be installing hardwood flooring upstairs, which I expect to wreak all kinds of havoc on my schedule. My desk is moving downstairs, and there will be lots of noise and dust and disruption around. Then again, maybe that's the perfect excuse to take my laptop out of the house more. So we'll see how that plays out.

2. Finish and post remixrevival story (obvi, since it's due in six days!). I know what I want to write, it's just a matter of doing it.

3. One LB post, at least two Monday Media posts.

4. Start work on "Face the Music Part 3", see how it goes.

Days written: 20/31
Words written: 4,363
Stories worked on: One
Stories posted: None

( Charts are content with treading water, all things considered )

Specific goals:

1. Write six days per week. No, five on average, and in all honesty I was happy to get that much.

2. Complete draft of "Face the Music" Part 2 -- including a solid ending -- and outline Part 3. It's not quite complete -- there's a quick fight scene I've been stalled on for awhile -- but I did get to an ending I was pretty happy with.

3. Post Monday Media Musings at least twice. I did, in fact, post two of these in July! I wonder if every other week is actually the proper schedule right now.

4. I need to stop making vague plans for ladybusiness posting and actually decide what I'm going to do, so I'll pick something off my TBR, read it, and review it for my long-neglected Tales from the TBR series. Given that I didn't actually manage to read any books at all this month, I suppose it's not a surprise that I didn't do this. My strange obsession with revisiting the Ace Attorney series, along with the Leverage rewatch and now the Olympics, has given me no media bandwidth for reading. This is something I need to change, but I'm not sure how. Not to mention the continuing "not writing anything for Lady Business" problem.

Here's some goals for August:
1. Write six days per week, for real this time. The Olympics are nearly done, which should help. I have some other ideas, too; we'll see how they pan out.

2. Complete "Face the Music" sequel. My wipbigbang posting date is August 29th, so I feel that I should have a complete draft no later than August 15th.

3. Write up my experiences revisiting Ace Attorney, and actually work on the fic idea that's been bopping around my head for awhile now.

4. Post Monday Media Musings at least every other week.

Days written: 20/31
Words written: 4,674
Stories worked on: Two, plus the DA codex meme
Stories posted: None

( Charts are surprised we did this well )

Specific goals:

1. Write 6 days a week except while traveling. I actually came pretty close to this, at least before my trip.

2. Have an update to share at the May 15th wipbigbang check-in. I wrote a significant new scene before the check-in, so I feel okay about that.

3. Can I wrap up the DA:I story that's been in progress for like three months? Let's see. Well, according to my records I added 10 words to this, so I think it may be time to officially send this story to hiatus.

4. Pick a topic for a substantial ladybusiness post and make some progress on that. Nope.

For month that included a week of vacation during which I injured both my arms, I can't say I did badly. (I even got some writing in during the vacation, before I hurt myself!) But I need to step up my progress on a couple of things, so I'll need to figure out how to do that as I heal up.

With that in mind, June goals:

1. Write five days a week -- don't want to push it any further right now, until my arms are better.

2. Outline draft and a working title for my WIP Big Bang fic (rough draft due on July 15th).

3. Make progress on Super Sekret Fandom Project (yes, that's back! and I owe one of my collaborators some focused time working on it sooner rather than later).

4. But seriously, start writing for LB again.

The fact that I'm posting this on April 2nd gives you some idea of how my March writing went.

Days written: 18/31
Words written: 4,603
Stories worked on: One, plus the DA codex meme
Stories posted: None

( Charts wanted to play Dragon Age rather than write this month. )

Specific goals:

1. Write at least 5 days every week.

2. Finish the project that the unposted short story turned into. Nope. Made progress early, then got stalled.

3. Write at least one real post for Lady Business -- something I have not yet done this calendar year. That would be 0 for 3. I don't remember the last time I missed every single goal in a month. That's a little sobering.

On that great note, let's check in with 2021 so far.

1. Try to hit the 240 getyourwordsout Journeyman Habit goal. I'm still on pace, so that's something.

2. Sign up for wipbigbang and use the challenge as an opportunity to finish the sequel to "Face the Music". wipbigbang either just opened or opened very soon, and starting up DA games again has definitely given me a boost with this. Look for more updates on this one.

3. Once that's done, turn my attention to Wardens of Ivalice Part 3. That's a ways off, so we'll see what happens.

4. Write at least one post for ladybusiness every month (already have some plans for this in the works) and post Monday Media Musings at least three times a month. Where I'm falling the most short by far. I don't know how many times I've said that I need to get back on the stick with LB and then not done it, but I still really want to. I need to brainstorm somewhere to get more ideas. I did somewhat resurrect Monday Media Musings, probably not three times a month, closer to twice, but at least I'm getting in the habit again.

Okay, let's make some plans for April.

1. Write five days per week on average.

2. Sign up for wipbigbang and start actively working on it.

3. At least one real post for ladybusiness, for real this time.

Days written: 2/31
Words written: 4,953
Stories worked on: One
Stories posted: None (but one from December revealed)

( Charts have rarely been this happy to start a new year. )

Specific goals:
1. Get ahead of GYWO pace by writing an average of 6 days a week. It was more like 5 days per week, but I did manage to get a couple of days up.

2. Finally start the Dragon Age: Inquisition game for my Mahariel canon. Started, and how. A short fic mostly drafted that I need to just post already, and one codex meme-like bit written (a prompt didn't exist for the thing I wanted to write, so I just added one). And I already have plans in mind for another DA:I game once this one wraps up; more on that in another post.

3. Begin a new fandom project that I can't really talk about yet, but I promise you I'm super excited about it!! In process, and next month I'll definitely tell you more. :)

Okay, so, off to a pretty good start. Goals for February:

1. Write at least 5 days every week.

2. Finish and post the aforementioned short fic before the end of the week.

3. Finish and announce the first installment of the fandom project mentioned above.

4. Catch up on book reviews (I've read three so far this year but haven't added any of them to Story Graph) and stay caught up through the end of the month.

[img: notebook paper with "GYWO 2021" printed in large black
letters with a blue shadow. under that, "writing decathlon" in
handwritten black letters with an orange shadow.]
GetYourWordsOut: Year Thirteen!
Pledges & Requirements | getyourwordsout.net

If you've been following my writing goals posts, you'll know that I missed my goal for 2020 by rather a lot. On the one hand, it would be easy to just throw up my hands and say "well, 2020", but that feels a little too easy. I think my intentional break from fic was a huge part of it; while I still think that was the right choice, journal writing and writing for LB just didn't fill the void as I had hoped. Again, in part because world on fire, and also working at home five days a week instead of commuting to an office four days a week messed with my writing schedule pretty hard. Not to mention that I'm now working more hours and have less flexibility (it's hard to remember sometimes, but I only made that change a year ago and was still adjusting to it when everything went topsy-turvy).

All that said, I feel like I need more continuity and structure in the new year, not less. So I will sign up for GYWO again, and I will do the 240-word habit pledge again. But I may need to be more disciplined and intentional about how I strive for that goal.

Other folks who are signing up, or thinking about signing up, let me know if you want to create some sort of side support group -- regular check-ins and chats here, or setting up something else. Since I'm no longer active in any specific fandom communities really, I want to do a better job of reaching out here and other places where I do have community. I think it will help, not just with writing but with my quality of life in general.