Goals

Reading

• Goal – 100p / day, or 700 / week
• Achieved – 386/700 – Failure

Writing – I Remember

• Goal – 21 / week
• Achieved – 12/21 – Failure

Writing – Fantasy Project

• Goal – 1,120 words / week
• Achieved – 0/1,120 words – Failure

Writing – Small Projects (Fragments, short stories, etc)

• Goal – 12 minutes, 15 seconds / week
• Achieved – 0/12 minutes, 15 seconds – Failure

Writing – Large Projects

• Goal – 24 minutes, 30 seconds / week
• Achieved – 0/24 minutes, 30 seconds – Failure

Getting myself out there

• Short story reviews – One (Two total for the year)
• Submissions – Zero (Zero total for the year)
• Rejections – Zero (One total for the year)
• Acceptances – Zero (Zero total for the year)

Commentary

I suppose I am pleased that I restarted the Journal of Failure with a full spread of failures across the board.  I had intended to achieve so much, and had given myself exceedingly achievable writing goals, but alas I failed to meet these.

On the one hand, I have a small child, and while she is amazing and incredible, she does take up a lot of time.  On the other hand, that is a total excuse and I expect the time spent browsing my phone or playing idle games would certainly be enough to write and write well.

The goals are small, particularly the writing goals, but the intent is to make them small and achievable (ha!), and then slowly increase them.  For example, reading 100 pages / day is eminently achievable, and once that’s done, I want to go up to 101 pages, etc.  The idea is that after a number of weeks of failing and succeeding and increasing, then failing, and so on, I should have a reasonable understanding of what is reasonable for me.

I expect that I will have to resume night-time writing.  My head wants to write in the morning, and my heart wants to write at night, and overall I think the best thing for me to do is ignore both and just get on with it.  I spend much of my life arguing with myself over the merits of either, while doing neither.

Here’s to a better week next week!

Each week I aim to provide an update on the Journal of Failure.  These reports are intended to provide an impetus for me to achieve as much as I should/more than I do, and also to provide a further ongoing record of my life, as it is.