Weekly Goals

Turns out the rock in my shoe this week was the dental work. Having two wisdom teeth removed and the subsequent pain and swelling really threw off my week. I guess I should have seen it coming, when I set my goals for the week, but I didn't.

Overall, I actually didn't do too terribly, but there were obviously some goals that just fell over and died as soon as I came back from the dentist. The core reading and writing goals, though, I hit those.

Core Goals

Write, edit, or outline every day: I mostly did editing this week, but that needs to be done as well. At the end of the week, I also manage to sneak in a writing exercise and start a new story.

Get exercise: I was lucky and got in the exercise early in the week. After the dental operation, I had to lay low.

Stop snacking: I was doing all right with this one, but since my dietary intake was limited to anything cold and fluid after the dental surgery, I did end up eating ice cream. Honestly though, for all the reason I could've had to fail this goal, I feel like I had a pretty good one.

N/A Do vocal exercises: I was doing all right with this goal, but yeah dental surgery made it kind of hard to keep this going for the rest of the week.

Stretch Goals

Do a review: Despite downsizing the goal a bit, I did manage to get a full WYRM review.

Finish edits: I got this done, and I'm very happy about that. Now I just have to remember to send the story in when the submission windows opens in two weeks.

Start Danish SF story: Once the pain from the dental work subsided a bit, I managed to sit down and do some writing. I ended up writing the last scene for the Danish story. Now I just need to write everything that comes before that.

Do writing exercises : I did a very brief character exercise, keeping the habit going if nothing else.

Read short stories:
- I listened to half of a story in Strange Horizons. It was well written but not really my thing.
- I also listened to a Zadie Smith story in the New Yorker podcast. That wasn’t really my thing either.
- I read a story in the Sunday Morning Transport which I really enjoyed.

Read “new” magazines:
Both the Strange Horizons, New Yorker, and Sunday Morning Transport stories check this goal, hence the double marks. (And that last story was originally published in Analog, so it sort of counts double. )

Read/listen to non-fiction: I need to read/listen to podcast/chapters about at least 3 different non-fiction subjects. Ideally, they will also be different sources, different podcasts/books.
- I read some in my book on Korean myths and legends.
- I listened to an episode of the 99% Invisible about how to construct jokes. This was a really interesting episode and one that coincided perfectly with me trying to write a humoristic short story.
- And finally, I listened to another episode of 99% Invisible, this one about how costumer complaint services are deliberately designed badly to get people to give up. Not a shocking thruth, but interesting how thoroughly designed this sort of thing is. 99% Invisible (which is about hidden designs in our everyday lives) is becoming one of my favorite podcasts.

N/A Submit short stories: I did actually get a rejection for a story, but it was a very old one I didn't really have high hopes for to begin with. Now, it has stacked enough rejections that I will just trunk it instead.

N/A Do Fantasticon work: No con-related work came up this week.