Platform Building

Lots of you guys might be aware of the April Platform Challenge going on over at My Name Is Not Bob, a new addition to my Awesome Blogs. It's a great challenge with a new task everyday to help writers get started on building, or maintaining, a platform for their work. If you are interested but not involved yet, you can see all the past challenges in the archives on the MNINB site. It's turned out to be the start of a great community of writers, as well. BONUS!

I even participated in my first Twitter chat last night with the group. That was pretty fast paced and hard to follow.  And one of the reasons I started a Facebook group. Typically, I'm not very good at organizing, but hopefully managing this group will help with that. Because you can't grow inside your comfort zone, right? If you read my previous post Tagged, you know I'm terribly shy when it comes to social interaction. Seems like I've been venturing out of my comfort zone a lot lately.

Lots of writers participating in the challenge have started groups/lists/circles on Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Actually, I just started the Facebook group last night. :) It's called MNINB Platform Challengers. Go join up if you are a writer. It's gonna be a place for writers to chat, recommend resources, help each other with any issues/questions, and/or just hang out. I'm hoping it turns out to be a pretty helpful group. If you have any suggestions or things you want help with, comment below or in the group!! It's a writer's group and we're starting off with posting goals and accountability, but I also want it to be a place writers can share resources and support. I hope it will become a place that writers feel comfortable asking questions (about writing and anything else) and just sharing with each other. Post a link to your latest blog or share a craft article you found helpful! Post a piece of your latest WIP in the Docs section and ask for feedback! Just make sure to give feedback and answer others' questions if you know anything about it!! I want it to be a community where everyone can help each other grow as writers and/or social beings!!! (I'm excited about it, in case you couldn't tell...)

What do you guys think about the group? Any ideas or suggestions? I appreciate any and all feedback. Even if you think this sucks, as long as you tell me why you think it sucks. I can't wait to hear from you guys! Interaction is what this life is all about.

ROW80 Update #5: April 18th 

Check out my goals here!

Writing: 485 words on this Platform post
Reading: One down, three to go!
Editing: Now on page 20!! WooHoo!
Blogging: Platform post, plus update!


Happy Writing and Platform Building!!
Becca♥

ROW80 Goals

Hello, all you wonderful people out there!!

I've decided to participate in A Round of Words in 80 Days, Round 2 for 2012. If anyone wants to know more about this program, you can check it out here: ROW80. Basically, it's a group of people agreeing to set a goal (or goals) that's reasonable for them and checking in on their progress twice a week for 80 days. They do four rounds a year, and the second one for this year starts April 2.

I'll be setting weekly goals. I like the idea of weekly goals better than daily since you get a little more wiggle room to fall behind (or get ahead) early and make it up (or chill) later on in the week.

Without further ado, here are my goals for the next 80 days so you can all help hold me accountable.

Write!!
1. I will write at least 1500 words a week. This may be on my fantasy novel WIP, romance novel WIP, short stories, or blog. Ideally, I will write at least 500 words a day, at least 3 times a week. I know, I'm aiming low, but I've had higher goals in the past and always fall short, get discouraged, then give up. So, we'll start here and see what happens.

2. I will complete a short story and submit it by the end of this round. This is a big one for me. I've just started writing seriously in the last six months or so, and I haven't completed any works yet. (Shocker, right?) I get lots of ideas, and have started a few projects, but have yet to finish a story so I don't really feel like I'm accomplishing anything. Therefore, I will write a short story, 1500-4000 words, and edit it into something I feel fantastic about and submit it somewhere it could potentially get published.

Edit

I will edit one chapter, or at least ten pages, a week of a full novel manuscript I'm editing for a critique partner. It's much more work than I first thought. (Show me your shocked face again!) But, surprisingly, it's also much more fun than I had thought. I love going back and reading it after I've made a whole bunch of little punctuation, spelling, or word order changes and seeing what a wonderful difference it's made, how much more smoothly her words flow and how much more easily it is to understand the wonderful story she is telling. And the best part is that she appreciates it!! I've found that helping others is immensely satisfying, when that person is truly happy with and thankful for your help, of course.

Read

This was my favorite thing to do before I started writing and my biggest inspiration. Now, I almost never do it. I have about 50 books on my reading list and haven't read for fun in forever! Ugh! I love to read! Why am I not doing it more?!? I feel like I should be doing more productive things, like writing, cleaning (yuck!), or (gasp) playing with my children. But I need to make sure to give myself some fun time too. I don't really watch TV, although I do waste WAY too much time on Facebook (I know, another shocker). So, anyway, my goal is to waste less time surfing the 'net, and read, let's say, four fiction novels during this round. That's about one every three weeks and should be doable.

Blog/Check In

I just started my blog about a month or two ago, and I've only made a couple posts so far. For ROW80, I'm supposed to check in twice a week on my blog to share my accomplishments. I don't want to just post an update on my goals, though, cause that just seems a little boring for those (few) people who follow it. So, my goal is to post an entertaining, thought-provoking, book-reviewing, website-suggesting and/or absolutely amazing blog, with a short ROW80 update at the end, every Sunday. This seems a little overzealous for me, and I anticipate having the most trouble fulfilling this goal, but we shall see...

I appreciate any and all feedback!! What is your experience with setting goals? Do you aim high and push through? Or do you set 'em low so you don't fail? Or do you aim high, then fail miserably? Let me know! I can't wait to hear from you guys! Interaction is what this life is all about!

Becca ♥