The Weekly R.A.P #9
Writing Goals Check-In for July 24, 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.
If your week was anything like mine, this was the week of everything BUT my novel, but that should come as no surprise given that my footnotes last week were all about the pull I was feeling to make headway in all the things NOT novel—I sat down to write this month’s Tenacity Tale,1 I launched my summer series on Wonderbook with “A Writerly Rorschach,2 and my long neglected plants have been repotted as needed! I don’t love a week when I barely touch my novel—though I feel like the guilt I feel (I know, I know) is more of a personal compass telling me I’m heading in the wrong direction. I’ll talk more about that in my weekly RAP in the comments.
More importantly, how did this week go for you?
THE WEEKLY R.A.P #9 — July 24, 2023
RECKONING—If you set a writing goal in the comment section of HIBOU’s July 17th post for The Weekly RAP #8,3 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 (7/24 - 7/30)? 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!
Watch this space on Wednesday!
Didn’t spell it right on the first try that time either. Perhaps Rorschach is my writerly Waterloo. Though maybe I just don’t care enough. I once had the same problem with the word squawk until I started thinking of it as a squash hawk mash up. But there’s not an easy thing and a pneumonic would be a mouthful—Really Oughta Radically Spell Check Hellish And Cheeky Honorifics doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
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 at the end of JULY? may capture your urgency perfectly, a smart goal makes the action more concrete: By July 30, I will clear three one-hour writing sessions out of my week to break ground on this chapter I’ve been avoiding.
Because this is about us not me, my full weekly RAP response is posted in the comments.
CATHY'S WEEKLY R.A.P— July 24, 2023
RECKONING—I said I was going to prioritize writing about the Wonderbook first, and I did. You can read it here: https://hibou.substack.com/p/a-writerly-rorschach. And I said I would do a draft of the Tenacity Tales for July and I did! I also said I would do a rough draft of chapter 28, turn to writing on the computer and increase my hours.
ANALYSIS–I caught up on other writing projects but even though I said that was the priority I felt a bit guilty for not working on the novel. So guilty I wrote a post about it here: https://hibou.substack.com/p/guilty-i-feel. Ultimately I decided that the guilt--though annoying given all that I did--had more to do with an internal compass telling me that the novel is the priority and that the other things need to be dealt with in smaller chunks as I can around the book.
PLAN–(7/24 - 7/30)- I have manuscript mart and the muse this weekend, so a huge chunk of my week is spoken for. Still, I'm going to try to extend my morning writing hours and push to do a typed rough draft of chapter 28. Would also like to read the Omnibus, but I'm trying to read a novel for the manuscript mart, so that's unlikely.
I said I intended to do some writing this past week and that was my goal. I went to a writing retreat in Colorado… In a Nunnery! It was beyond amazing. All I had to do was get up, talk with my college roommate, go to yoga, have food that had been prepared, walk in a labyrinth, look at the deer on the grounds and listen to the bells, and… Miraculously that freed me up to write. I think there is just way too much noise and clutter in my everyday home life, and I don't have a good routine for writing at home.
I wrote a synopsis for my new book and I'm actually really excited about it. Now to find the routine…
I don't know what my goal for this week is yet. I am being very gentle with myself until September 5, which is my starting gun date for actually writing. I think I will take down the outlines of other books around my study and put up things that support this one.