Philosophy Friday

GOOD VIEW













GOOD NEWS
The manuscript for SPIRIT DANCE is finished!
I'm going to send my son to school and then sleep all day!!

GOOD ADVICE
Back in JulyI started to sweat the fast-approaching October 1 deadline for a novella I hadn't started yet. (Well, actually I had a 6 page prologue in the point of view of a terciary character.) But nothing done on the main story. And there's another story I'm dying to get back to, so I set a goal of September 1 to have this novella completed.

Today is September 15th, so obviously I didn't make my self-imposed deadline. But the point is that I did set a deadline and although it needed to be adjusted for the Unforseens, I pushed myself to meet the challenge. I'm still two weeks ahead of my contractual submission date. So, as far as I'm concerned, my goal was still met!

"A good goal is not a fairy-tale castle shimmering, half-described, at the edge of wakefulness. Good goals are not warm feelings, hot hunches, or a nagging itch down your spine. These are all fine and wonderful things, and they can inspire goals, but they are NOT goals. A good goal is concrete, plain, stark, explainable in words of one syllable to people who know nothing about what you hope to do. Good goals require neither the word 'thing,' nor wild hand gestures to get across. "I'm going to write a 100,000 word fantasy novel" is an acceptable starting goal. As for "I'm going to, ah, do this thing, ah, where, a, I sit down and listen to my MUSE, and ah, await inspiration ... and then I'm going to internalize ... ::gesture, gesture:: ...," No. Saints preserve us, no. You cannot hit a target you cannot clearly see. " - Holly Lisle, whose websites is overflowing with writerly knowledge and advice