The Weekly R.A.P #8
Writing Goals Check-In for July 17, 2023
Reminder: The Weekly RAP is a gentle tool for staying accountable to your writing goals. If you set a goal with us in the comments of last week’s newsletter, check in about how it went by adding a comment! If you’re just joining us this week, ignore the first two questions of the RAP sheet and just set a goal for next week.
Welcome to the 8th Weekly RAP of HIBOU’s 100 Days of Summer!
Things are starting to settle into something like a rhythm over here at chez chiot.1 As we move into the second half of July—and we’re firmly in the second half of the hundred days—how are you feeling about your summer writing goals? Any tasks you keep putting on your weekly to-do list only to gamely migrate them to next week’s to do list?2 As always, if the big picture is too overwhelming, think smaller—in that spirit, how did last week go?
THE WEEKLY R.A.P #8 — July 17, 2023
RECKONING—If you set a writing goal in the comment section of HIBOU’s July 2nd post for The Weekly RAP #7,3 did you achieve your goal? Yes? No? Partially?
ANALYSIS–What went well this week? What was a challenge? What insights did you learn about your writing this week? Looking ahead to next week, can you repeat what went well? If the coming week has similar challenges to last week, how might you adjust your writing schedule or your goal? Are there any new challenges to take into account this week?
PLAN–What is your writing goal for the coming week (7/17 - 7/23)? What’s your plan to get it done? How will you reward yourself for the work you complete? A friendly reminder that smart goals are (s)pecific, (m)easurable, (a)chievable, (r)ealistic, and (t)ime-bound.4
Copy and paste the template above into the comments, replace the questions with your answers, then hit post and check out what other HIBOU subscribers are up to and cheer them on!5
Remember to be kind to yourself if you didn’t make your goal!
Today is the start of a fresh, new week!
It tickles me that the French word for puppy sounds so much like Shiloh!
I for one have had an author website that’s needed a final pass for weeks and some neglected plants that have been ready for repotting for months. I’d blame this article on how plants *checks notes* SCREAM when they’re in distress for my negligence, but my avoidance is actually wariness about touching my plants as intimately as repotting requires. When I repotted a bunch of indoor house plants at this time last year, I ended up with lesions that looked and felt like poison ivy but couldn’t have been poison ivy because I hadn’t been outside. Whatever it actually was, my skin was a horror show and my doctor didn’t know what to do with me. I got a skin graft and was tested for monkey pox and forced to isolate in a windowless room in the doctor’s office until tests showed I was pox free. But whatever it was it wasn’t monkey pox. It wasn’t poison ivy. It wasn’t anything they could explain, and now I couldn’t be more afraid of my plants if they were Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors.
Click the link if you need to refresh your memory!
For example, while I have to get cracking because how the heck are we already more than halfway through JULY? may capture your urgency perfectly, a smart goal makes the action more concrete. : By July 23, I will pull on some gloves and bravely repot my pothos and every seedling I have languishing in water that is more hairy roots than water. Ahem. Your mileage may vary.
Because this is about us not me—plant tangents in this week’s footnotes aside—my weekly RAP response is posted in the comments.
CATHY'S WEEKLY R.A.P for July 17, 2023
RECKONING—I finished chapter 27 and read my notes for the last two chapters and epilogue. I finished reading the first chapter in Wonderbook and LOVED it, but did NOT finish the post about it. Also, Shiloh has been approved for day care which means that once a week I'll get a day of concentration!
ANALYSIS–I'm glad I didn't rush last weekend to finish Chapter 27--it simply needed a little more TLC and I'm glad to give it. I am also looking at the long revision process ahead of me and thinking I may switch my expectation to getting a rough draft down--it makes little sense to revise when I know that going back to the start will require me to revise the end when I get there, so there's little point in revising it now, however much I'd like to. I think it was important to do revision work for 26 and 27 because they are revelatory chapters for the story, but I think I can move faster going forward. Also, I was delighted to find that when I sat down to read my structural draft notes for the last two chapters and the epilogue, I felt they were the right beats and enjoyed the scenes that are already in various states of drafted (my structural outlines are very long and detailed--my structural outline for chapter 27 was fifty pages because of all the drafts and snippets collected).
PLAN–Hmm. I think I'm going to prioritize writing about the Wonderbook first, particularly since that post is about how I want to change my process moving forward. And then I would like to get through a rough pass of chapter 28 and begin reading the omnibus about the trick that's pivotal for chapter 29 (my book is about a sleight of hand magician, and diving into her signature trick is part of my plan this summer). Also, I would like to finish a draft of the next Tenacity Tales to ship it back to the subject so we can run it in the next couple of weeks. So to recap: Wonderbook post, rough past of 28, research, Tenacity draft. Yes, that's a lot, but also I'm trying to increase my number of hours spent this week by fifty percent or more.
I'm going on a writing retreat in CO this week at which I planned to just do yoga and hiking, but now I may actually do some writing… I'm too shy to spell the plan out because I'm afraid if I do I won't do it, but I just want to let people know that there is a plan! To hold myself at least that much accountable.