How did January go?

Pretty good I have to say.

Knowing that I was going to be reporting here definitely helped me stay on track. It also helped to have a few solid goals rather than a heap. Check out below how it’s all going.

Read 6 x non-fiction books.
My non-fiction reading is going well. As I’m at the starting point of writing a novel I have kicked off with Save The Cat by Jessica Brody. I have been reading it with a highlighter and post it notes in hand which sound like over kill, I know, but this is the only way I can retain information. The key ingredient to get reading has been to take the book everywhere with me, so whenever I’m waiting or have a spare minute I pick it up rather than my phone.

Write two books using my new schedule.
I have all the planning in place for this and the dates are ready to go. My only steps now are to work to the deadlines. The first deadline was to plot out my next novel (I’ll call it Book 1) by February 11th. (I actually got a bit of a jump start on this over the holidays and it’s making me realise I need more time added to this than the two weeks originally planned). I already feel like I’ve achieved this and can now set it aside and pick up Book 2 for a first edit.

Start getting up early in the morning.
This wasn’t a key goal in my annual planning but it is part of my writing plan. I want to start each day knowing that I’ve written a thousand words so if my day blows out, I’m safe in the knowledge I’ve already done the work.

I spent January setting my alarm a little earlier each week so by the time the kids went back to school it wasn’t a shock to the system. I’ve failed to achieve five early mornings in a row which is definitely due to a certain snooze button. This month I will be aiming to get out of bed as soon as my alarm goes off without thinking about it. Hopefully if my body plays ball, my brain will follow.

Develop my understanding further of beat writing.
Reading Save the Cat is a major part of learning more about this.

Nail social media.
My first step on this was to find a process that was going to work for me on social media. I did set aside a day in January to really nut out how I could make it work and not feel overwhelmed. Posting on social media just doesn’t come naturally to me so for it to happen I do need to have a bit of a plan. Anyway, I did manage to set up a process I’m pretty happy with. The key is now to follow the steps I set up in all my lovely process creation.

Give more in my newsletter
This was a bigger job than I thought and I started to wonder if I had made the right decision as the time to do it had to be taken from somewhere else. However, I always come back to the fact that I really enjoy newsletter and post writing and the roll on effect of accountability will be a win too. I think by the end of February I will have a better handle of what I need to do.

Take small steps on a new project.
I set myself a goal to email someone about a project I was thinking about. Sometimes it’s just so hard to reach out to people and say, “Hey, I have an idea, what do you think?” But I did and the person got back to me straight away full of excitement and information, it was really energising! I will probably mull a bit about my next steps for February and make sure I’m ready to step out my comfort zone again in March.

So in a nutshell for the rest of February I will:
– Finish Save the Cat
– Have at least five early mornings in a row.
– Start a first edit on Book 2
– Be consistent with my social media process.
– Carve out a bit of extra time to get on top of my new accountability and process corner.

How are you going? Are you hitting some highs for the start of 2023? I hope so! Let me know either way.

Xx