Monday, February 04, 2008

Goal-Setting RWAC Style

In most respects, January was a great month for me. I had a lot going on and managed to squeeze in a fair bit of fun. But writing-wise, I staggered along like a drunk who'd imbibed well beyond their limits, weaving and spinning and running into walls.

However, in the past week my drunken writer's brain has detoxed and sobered up. Things are beginning to flow much better. I am not struggling with the words, caught in some push and pull tug of war trying to get them out of my brain and onto the page.

Best of all, at our chapter meeting yesterday we did a session on goal-setting and the new executive rolled out their new incentive plan for people who wanted to set goals on a weekly basis.

Every two months we set an action plan using SMART goals then we break it down weekly into a specific action plan. When you accomplish one week's goal, you get one point. Once you collect four points, you move up a level. There are 10 levels in all, each with its own color and action hero representative. Level 1 is yellow and managed by Lara Croft. Once you hit Level 6 (mauve) you get to kick a little butt with Buffy. And while it will be hard to leave the Buffster who is a personal favorite of mine, Sydney Bristow is hanging out in mauve at Level 8. Thankfully James Bond is at Level 9, incentive enough to move on and the mother of all action heroes waits in the top spot in a lovely magenta: Level 10 - Ripley from Alien.

Now as soon as I hear something like points and levels my competitive brain starts to fire off on all cylinders and my blood revs up and gets ready to go. Suddenly meeting my goal of getting Brimstone out the door no later than mid-March doesn't seem like such a difficult task.

And if I start now, there is no reason I can't hit Level 2 (John McLane wearing Dark Blue) by the end of March.

So a big thanks to the new executive of RWAC for coming up with such an innovative and ingenious plan. It was exactly the kick I needed to get things done.

In other news, I did a phone interview with the Moncton Telegraph newspaper. The reporter was doing an article on romance for Valentine's Day and wanted to interview a couple of romance writers to get their angle on it. She spoke to
Julianne MacLean who gave her my name, so I got a chance to throw in my two cents worth as well (thanks Julianne!). And as it turns out the reporter knows my older brother. They, as well as Julianne, all attended Kings College at the same time.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a cool goal system!! Hope it works for you. And good luck getting Brimstone out the door by mid March!

Annette Gallant said...

We're psyched about this new plan and hope everyone will be as enthusiastic as you are about it!

Let us know when the article is going to be out. I'd love to read it!

Unknown said...

What an awesome goal system! I'm so excited about this...and I'm hoping I can play...even from afar...

Unknown said...

Feel like I've been revising forever. Hope you get Brimstone out the door soon.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

I'm already choking on your dust, Kelly. (cough, cough)

Melissa Amateis said...

You can do it, Kelly!

Dixie Belle said...

I need to quit dragging my feet too!!