Hello Friends and Welcome.
It has been an interesting couple of months! I hope that you are all doing well and staying healthy. I know that this spring looks a little different than we all imagined just a couple months ago. Today I wanted to check in on my Quarter One goals to let you know how I did and talk about my goals for Quarter Two.
Quarter One Goal Wrap-Up
Complete Review of Autumn Sunrise – (90% Met) While I didn’t hit this goal by March 30, I made a lot of progress and am happy to report that as of the drafting of this post, the initial read-through has been completed and the next step of revision work has begun.
Publish 18 Blog Posts – (94.5% Met) Unfortunately I missed this goal by one post as I only had 17 blog posts go up during Quarter One. That said, I am pretty happy that I almost hit that goal.
Continue the Habit of Writing Daily – (100% Met) I am very proud of meeting this goal and excited to revisit these little exercises if I ever need an idea for a story.
Read (Almost) Only Books On My TBR List – (100% Met) Reading only books that had been on my TBR list prior to January 1st (other than selections for my book clubs and my Lord of the Rings reread) was the hardest thing for me to do. That said, I’m happy that I made some progress on the early section of my TBR list.
Get the Home Office Cleaned and Set Up – (100% Met) Honestly, had I not needed to transition to working remotely so quickly this probably would not have gotten done. That said, I am really happy with the setup I’ve got and excited to do more writing from my office.
Bonus – Meditate 3 Times a Week – (90% Met) There were two weeks that I meditated for less than three times. That said, I am really happy that I’ve started to build this habit and I’ve seen great improvement in my mood and energy levels from starting this practice
Bonus – Pass Business Law – (100% Met) It was such a relief to see the passing grade when I completed my exam! To make things even better, I managed to get my best grade so far for a CPCU exam on this one.
Quarter Two Author Goals
For this quarter, I want to focus my author goals on four specific items relating to my revision, blogging, social media, and continuing projects. I will still be reading voraciously, but I have not set a specific goal regarding how many books or what type of books I will read. This quarter is all about the writing life (and sharing more about it).
Goal Number One: Complete Preparation for Redrafting Autumn Sunrise
The goal for this quarter is to get all my review notes together, redevelop any plot points or characters that need to be changed, and get ready to redraft the novel. This revision may seem like it is taking a long time, however my intention is to do one big intense revision that results in a great second draft that requires only minimal revision.
The second draft definitely won’t be perfect, however the goal is to have something that’s really workable and able to get into the hands of beta readers for their review. It definitely won’t be perfect at that point, but it will hopefully be a fully focused and developed story with well-rounded characters and a clear setting. After a little bit of copyediting and light revision, the intention is to send it out to beta readers.
Goal Number Two: Publish 10 Blog Posts
I really enjoy blogging and sharing my writing life and tips. That’s not going to change this quarter, however with my main focus being on the revision for Autumn Sunrise I am intending to post a little bit less that I did last quarter (but definitely more than I posted last month!). I still intend to get at least one post up a week going forward. You can expect posts to go up bright and early every Monday morning. If I have a bonus post, it will go up on Thursday morning that week.
Goal Number Three: Post to Instagram Weekly
I really like Instagram, however I have not been posting there lately. For this quarter I am committing to posting at least once a week on my personal and author accounts. Hopefully there will be more than one post a week on all my social media accounts, but I’m committing to that small number so that I keep my focus where it’s needed.
If you want to follow me on Instagram, you can find me @kellie.katrin.writes.
Goal Number Four: Determine What Story to Draft After Serial News
This is a very exciting goal for me. I always like to have my next projects to look forward to all planned out so that I do not find myself stuck on one project continuously trying to achieve perfection and making no further progress in building my work. I’ve discussed that after this major revision of Autumn Sunrise is completed, I am really looking forward to drafting the project I refer to as Serial News. The intention is to draft that project while Autumn Sunrise is out with beta readers. If all goes well, the reviews will start to come back in as I am finishing the draft.
However, once I start that draft I want to make sure that I have the next project planned out so that I don’t get caught just bouncing back and forth between those two projects. I have found that having the next project to look forward to helps me at times when it feels like a project isn’t going right or maybe I find that I need to shelve a project for a while. I always want to have the next thing to move on to. I’m really looking forward to diving into my idea files to pick out the next project.
I’d love to hear what goals you are working on this quarter!
Kellie Katrin
Kaitlyn Krna, Author and Bibliophile 
Have you found meditation to work for you? Does it help you envision your characters/stories/life differently?
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I’ve definitely found meditation to be very helpful! I don’t use it for developing characters/setting/story – I use it for personal mental health and self-care. I know that not everybody finds it to make a difference but for me I find it to be a beneficial practice when I take the time to do it.
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