If It’s Not Written Down. It Doesn’t Happen.

Ask anyone in my family.

Lists and notes are my rock. In my personal and writing life.

I have a physical day-to-a-page diary and an erasable pen that really gets a workout. This year, I also have a (realistic and manageable) writing-related 'to do' list on Word that I put together at the beginning of each month.

This month I was SO grateful for that 'to do' list because I felt a little overwhelmed.

November is a line in the sand and the only thing holding my sanity together was knowing that I'd written down what I wanted to achieve.

Picture me at the start of the month, bracing for the starting gun and hurtling off at a breakneck speed (aren't we all?) eager to get through all the year-end madness plus finish off all the things by 31 December.

All is well.

Or maybe not. Barely into the first week of November my attention was pulled to the left, to the right and back again. I was pelted with more instructions, appointments, speech nights and other dramas. Distracted, I forgot where I was headed and why I was sprinting so hard to get there.

So, I did what I always do when I don't know what I'm doing, I open up my Word document and check my 'to do' list.

This was November and bit by bit, I worked my way through it.

1. Write a testimonial - this was not hard. Pretty much a gush-fest. Holly Brunnbauer who designed my website is a magician. Done!

   
   

2. Hit 20,000 words of a new manuscript - I wrote about this goal in my October blog post Write Till Christmas. Happy to say - goal achieved!

   
   

3. Complete and submit to short story competition - this involved approximately five drafts, which included a few rounds of beta readers. By November, I was in the final stages of this. Happily, can confirm - story submitted!

   
   

4. Blog - write and post. If you are reading this... it's a tick!

   
   

5. Finish bringing small selection of archived blogs posts over to new website - I’ve had a blog on Wordpress for years, but didn’t want to bring all my posts over, so I selected about a dozen of my favourites. Done!

   
   

6. Complete conference notes write-ups - I like to have all my notes, thoughts, handouts and slides in one book for each conference. It’s so much easier to refer back to (and I do!). Did this task in baby steps and so thrilled it's complete!

   
   

7. Start Rock Your Plot on-line course - I booked a day course with Cathy Yardley at the Romance Writers of Australia 2024 Conference in Adelaide but (and I couldn’t feel more heartbroken for her) she was really ill by the time that session rolled around, and it was cancelled. At the time of writing this, I am nearly finished a complete 'listen through' - highly recommend this course! In December, I'll be pulling out the homework sheets and starting to work through it at a slower pace.

I love ticking off writing-related goals, no matter how big or small - they are all wins and leave me with a huge sense of achievement.