The Originals - Symposium From Topic 1

As I was perusing the earlier symposium topics, number six suggested it needed following up! This was the situation:


New Year's Resolutions ... who needs them, right? All they typically do is remind us how hard it is to stay focused and motivated throughout the year on our goals. But sometimes, a direction to move towards can be important and helpful, especially in our writing. I want you to ask yourself what you want to work on in 2014 in your writing. Simple, right? But wait, that's not all. I want you to be specific. Now, pay special attention to the difference between "what you hope to accomplish" and "what you want to work on." The former is a goal, while the latter is a course. I want the course. And I want it to be specific. Don't shy away from this question as some do about New Year's Resolutions . I'm not asking you to cite a goal that will make you feel guilty if you don't achieve. I want you to think about a course ... what do you want to work on in your writing? You can take this topic wherever you want, as long as you give me at least one specific answer. If you wish to give me six, that's fine too! As always, elaboration is not necessary to qualify for your wineglass.


What did the OPPS say? And how are they doing so far? (NB: I'll paraphrase and not necessarily list ALL of the goals if they gave many. You can read verbatim by check out: "Invalid Entry" )


SirSchemingSerpent – had a goal was to complete the first draft of The Anador Chronicles, as well as get half way through a revision.

Dave - wanted to continue with his monthly assignments for the Mount Pleasant Lifestyle Magazine, fine-tune his judging for "Shadows and Light Poetry Contest"  as well as come up with fresh material for lessons for "The Poet's Place " 

Elle - has eyes on her 2012 NaNoWriMo novel Grand & Epic Adventures: to rewrite, edit and publish. She also wanted to review and blog more often.

Samberine Everose - her main focus for 2014 is on English grammar - through the New Horizon Academy, with a particular focus on learning about and improving her American English grammar. Oh, and to work on her short story Miming.

Fi - wanted to diversify into writing more short stories and non-fiction, as well as gaining experience in a wider range of poetry forms.

Ghostranch - also focused on poetry in her goals - desiring to submit her work to magazines and journals for publishing, as well as submitting entries for external poetry contests.

Mandy – wrote that completion and revision of her novel, Water-Eater was a main goal. But she also wanted to complete a book of her poetry for publishing.

blue jellybaby – another with a novel goal, to edit her 2013 Nano novel and have it completely revised by the end of the year.

Lina Black-So Far Behind!!! – decided she'd like a blog that displays and promotes her shorter writings. Also aims to continue and complete the edit of The Unexpected (Working Title).

Max Griffin 🏳️‍🌈 – was very novel-oriented! He's aiming to finish both Timekeepers and The Decoherence of Kevin, while outlining a third novel too.

PatrickB – bravely gave a numerical number for his reviewing goal! 25 reviews per month. And on top of that, polish up and complete the first book of The Betrayer of the Virtues.

ShelleyA~15 years at WDC - was looking to do some daily journaling, as well as reviewing more short stories. And, as poetry-oriented as she is, would like to come up with a new poetry form.

~ Santa Sisco ~ - another focused on novels. 2014 is for editing Agent Kilo - Carnage and finishing the final draft of Agent Alpha - Recuperation, with the ultimate goal of publishing one (or both!) of them.

Hannah ♫♥♫ - has a grammar and writing focus - to work on placement of colon/semi-colon and to work on show over tell. Quite aside from that she also aimed to work on Fibian's Quest - Trail of Truth. (I think it must be a Capricorn thing, but by this topic Hannah and I had three answers very, very similar. Great minds and all that...)

Jeannie💕 – another who wants to show not tell in her writing. But also, for 2014, she wanted to write a novel.

Scarecrow - gave a fine goal of coming up with a new writing routine to allow for more productivity. And aside from that, the desire to finish off Zombies.

Jeff - gave the simple, but big, goal of wanting to finish a NaNoWriMo novel which involves planning, writing and sticking with it.

Liam – has a poetry focus, in this case developing his vocabulary with regards to learning new sound combinations that he can use.


And me? Well, I also wanted to focus on gaining show and losing tell. I'm working on it. The other goal was to eradicate as much use of 'was' as possible. I'm doing okay there but now I've found 'looked' has taken its place as the word of plague proportion. Argh.


So, OPPS... How are you doing seven months down the road? Have you succeeded in these goals? Have you started these goals? Or are you thinking, Oh riiight, I remember now...

Proof of goal achievement or progress could gain some extra rewards. I don't mind receiving witness statements either if you can rustle up some from your fellow WdCers.