Goals Bloghop: Your Blog and Your Writing Goals

This post is part of the Do You Have Goals? bloghop sponsored by the Five Year Project.

Writers and aspiring writers who have goals also tend to have blogs, these days. Why? Something to do with having a platform, I imagine. A blog is not the same thing as a platform, but it's easier to put together.

How does your blog connect to your writing goals? Perhaps your writing goal involves writing a novel and having it published. Whether you publish with a large publisher or a small press, you will want to sell a few copies of that novel. Your blog can affect those sales.

Your blog is a place where your writing can be seen by potential readers without their having to take a gamble on purchasing your novel. What do your blog posts say about you?

Several times I've visited a blog by a would-be writer whose blog posts contain misspellings, grammar mistakes, and, worst of all, incomprehensible sentences. My presumption is that if these bloggers have books out, they are probably self-published and have the same flaws as their blog posts. Such blogs actually discourage book sales. Just as well, because these bloggers are probably prematurely self-published, which is not good for their writing career.

Other blogs are clever and interesting and, at the least, prove that the blogger is capable of writing in good English. Some blogs go even further and show that the blogger is a thoughtful, intelligent person who probably is able to write fiction that is compelling. One great example of this is the blog deCOMPOSE by author Mike Duran. Since Mike is a Protestant and I'm a Catholic, we don't always agree on the issues he blogs about. But at least his blog posts are intelligent and worth reading, and his blog is one of those that I look to as a role model for my own blog.

Now, not all of us can be a Mike Duran. We can't put together a thoughtful blog that attracts lively debate without cutting into our writing time too much. But we can all do something. And we can improve our 'something'.

For my own blog, my goals are to improve the blog by:
1. Posting more often--- sometimes I neglect the blog for a couple of weeks. I want to post at least twice a week.
2. I want to participate in 4 blog events monthly in order to interact more with other blogs.
3. I want to make my blog more personal by posting excerpts from my writing journal, and sharing about my struggles with writers block, low self-esteem, and my autism spectrum disorder (Asperger Syndrome).
4. More cat pictures. My blog really needs more cat pictures. Because my cats are way cute.

Kitten Therese mourning her dead friend, kitten Myfanwy.

MY goals update:

My goal, which I put down for this blog hop, was the limited one of writing 10 more poems in a series I started. I didn't do much work on this poetry project because of NaNoWriMo. And I didn't finish my NaNo novel, either. But I am continuing with my NaNo novel after the month is done. I've come up with some good ideas for it and the work is continuing.

Another goal which I haven't worked on this November is to work on putting together a ebook version of my poetry book. Also at the same time a revised print version of the book. I'm so indecisive about the whole project, though. I don't know whether to stick with the current version of the book or to totally do a new book with stuff added. Well, I'll think about that tomorrow.


My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Do You Have Goals? There's a Blog Hop for That

Visiting some blogs today I found out about the Do You Have Goals blog hop over at Aloha! Mark Koopmans says hi from HI. It takes place the last Friday of every month. Instead of putting your blog name in the linky, you put your goal. 'Write 28 Christian sex novels in Latin by next Tuesday', or 'Kill the wasps in the upstairs bedroom window before they destroy the universe' or 'write 5000 more words in Amish Zombie Apocalypse Book 3.'

The web site for the Do You Have Goals blog hop is here:
The Five Year Project: Do You Have a Goal?

And so, goals. Long term goals, short term goals. I set goals but never believe I can achieve them because I never do, or if I do they must have been so easy they don't count. So I don't think I will set a big or long-term goal this month.

My goal is: 'write 10 more poems in the Sons of Jacob series'.

To explain: I've been taking a few days off from the novel planning process for Starship Destine to work on doing an ebook version of my poetry book Where the Opium Cactus Grows. While working on it the project kind of grew. I am now doing an expanded version of Opium Cactus with the addition of about 20 or so newer poems, which means I will have to do a revised print edition as well.

Which takes 20 or so poems out of the poems I'm saving for the next book, which might be titled 'Sheep's Feet Dancing'. Or not. And it brought my attention to the fact that my poetry output this year has been pretty sparse.

So I've been setting to work, and on impulse I did something new--- I decided to do a series of 12 poems. You see, when I write poetry I grab random books to snatch words from, and the book I happened to grab this time was called Jacob's Dozen by William Varner. It's written by a pastor and is about the 12 sons of the Biblical Jacob, centered on the prophecy made by Jacob concerning his sons and their descendants.

I came up with the idea to do a poem for each of the 12 sons. It's not all Bible-y, though. I DO use the words of the Genesis text (in KJV) but I also use another book as source for other random words in the poems. So we end up with lines like this:

thy father's children bow down
before thee
using the most scientific methods

The thing about my doing the poetry is that it is something I know I can do. I was writing poetry 20 years ago and got quite a few published in 'zines and could do it again if I could spare the money for postage and sample copies of the 'zines. It's just that I've absorbed the idea that it isn't worth doing and that I'd be better off working on a failed attempt at a novel. But I'm beginning to suspect that's not the right way to look at it.

And so my goal is to finish the poem series--- which will be the centerpiece of a future poetry book I'm sure--- and stretch myself as a poet. To allow myself to be a poet. Perhaps I'll do better as a serious poet who writes a novel or two on the side than by trying to force myself into a prosier mode.

So that's my goal. Do you set goals? What has your experience of that been? What is your goal right now?

Please consider 'liking' us on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt