Week 16 of Freelance Writing: Diary Entry #17
Goals aren’t always static.
This week I had to come to grips with the fact that I’m not going to reach all of my April goals. What started out as an ambitious, focused month has turned into a month of trying new things and coming to a deeper understanding of myself and my work habits.
I’m trying out a new format for these diary entries. The old format was becoming too restrictive and repetitive, so I’ve adjusted it to make it a little more free-form while still hitting the main points of interest. It might change more over the next few weeks until I land on something that feels right. If you have a preference, let me know!
Here’s last week’s post:
My Schedule
This week I worked on my novel on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings and then switched to writing articles in the afternoon. On Tuesday and Thursday, I worked on getting my Fiverr gig live in the mornings and then switched to other administrative tasks and writing articles.
I’m happy with the amount of writing I’ve been doing and the variety of tasks I have to keep things interesting, but not too crazy.
I’m going to keep things mostly the same next week, but I’m going to spend time on Tuesday and Thursday learning more about Fiverr.
Goals Review
Paid Writing Goals
My primary goal for this week was to get my Fiverr gig set up, and I crossed that off my list on Thursday morning. Now that the gig is live, my focus will shift to optimizing my profile and increasing my visibility.
Novel Goals
This week it became apparent that I had set too lofty a goal for my novel’s first draft. Oops!
I definitely underestimated the word count. A few days this month, I didn’t reach my word count goal, which set me back more than I thought it would.
Ultimately, I realized I need another month to finish the draft. Instead of finishing at the end of April, I plan to finish by the end of May.
Medium Goals
I’m currently working on a review article for the Cirkul water bottle, which I tried this week. If you use TikTok you probably know what I’m talking about. I love doing reviews, so this has been a lot of fun so far. I plan to have the article posted early next week.
Also, I wrote and published this article this week:
Normally, I publish these yoga-related articles weekly in my Savasana Today publication, but I’m running a test for the next few articles.
My articles used to get curated almost every time, but since I started posting in my own publications (Diary of a Freelance Writer and Savasana Today), not a single article has been curated.
The only thing that’s changed on my end is where I’m publishing, so I’m curious about whether posting in my own publications is somehow making it more difficult for my writing to get curated.
I know I would get more views if I publish in a larger publication, as I’ve experienced in the past, so I’m keeping that in the back of my mind. That might be my next move, but I want to analyze the situation a little more before I change direction on that.
Final Thoughts
With Spring finally making an appearance, I felt great this week and got a lot done despite the setbacks. Next week is going to wrap up the month of April, so I’m planning to buckle down and get as much done as possible before I plan next month’s goals.
Good luck and have a great week!
Follow my publication, Diary of a Freelance Writer, and check back next Sunday for another rundown of a week in the life of a full-time freelance writer.
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