52 Secrets

One of my goals is to read a book a month and I just finished my third book early.  “52 Secrets for Goal-Setting and Goal-Getting” is Debra Eckerling’s follow-up to her previous book, “Your Goal Guide:  a roadmap for setting, planning and achieving your goals.”  I read “Your Goal Guide” last year, although I still have to go back and do many of the exercises in it.  I’ve just been a bit busy accomplishing my goals!

“Your Goal Guide” shows you how to set goals and steps to accomplish them.  “52 Secrets” is a collection of short articles from people in business and entertainment who share things they did to achieve their goals.  One contributor wrote about listening to your body.  For him, he works best when he starts at 5:00 am, and by sundown, he’s done for the day.

Another suggests that you ask yourself when making a decision, how will you feel in 12 hours?  He uses the example of you may want to go to a party, but if you go and stay out late, how will you feel the next day?  How will that effect your work?

Knowing my body and my preferred writing time, I like writing until one or two in the morning when it’s quiet and there are less distractions, but I have an eight-to-five job I have to go to, so I can’t stay up that late and be functional at work.  I look forward to the day when I can write full-time and stay up as late as I want with no alarms except for going to church and fun stuff like traveling and going to conventions.

One of the most useful sections of the book for me was on networking.  I am not a natural networker.  Kris is, but I’m not.  As a kid, I was shy.  I’ve gotten over that.  I’ve spoken in front of a crowd of 2,500+ people, but I never really learned the knack of starting up a conversation with strangers.

“Hi…”

“How you doing…?”

Okay, now what?

In a room with people I know, no problem.  “How you doing on your book?”  “How’s your family doing?”  “Are you going to be at the next writer’s conference.”  If I know them, I know things I can start a conversation about.

When I attended Quattro University, an entrepreneurial course, I learned something that has served me very well.  Cofounder Cheri Tree said if you want to make contacts, show up early at events, volunteer and stay late.  That I can do and have done.  When I joined the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society, I volunteered for every writer’s conference I attended, probably around 20 by now.   This put me in contact with all the speakers at the conferences.   Writers, educators, mentors, editor, lawyers and agents – all the people I need to know in my career as a writer.

After seeing me at conference after conference, we got to know each other.  And they came to know me as someone they could come to if they needed something, a microphone, a projector, the air conditioning turned up, whatever. 

They were no longer just people in the business I was in awe of, but friends I looked forward to seeing.  And they knew me as someone that was dependable, easy to work with and wouldn’t flake out.  That’s important to an editor or an agent who’s considering taking on a new client.

In addition, GLAWS cofounder and president, Tony Todaro, was generous enough to give his volunteers free passes to these conferences for their work.   I even served as vice president of GLAWS for a number of years.

How’s that for a non-networker’s networking?

Dennis

260th blog completed.

Second Steampunk screenplay:  157 pages.

Second Steampunk novel: 783 words. 

First Steampunk screenplay:  Updated with notes from the novelization.

First Steampunk novel:  77,546 words.  Completed until editor reviews it.

Third Steampunk screenplay:  38 pages.

“It seems I’ve been usurped for the past three weeks as Dennis has been reviewing Gallifrey.  I’ve fallen behind, so let’s start with Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup.  https://www.facebook.com/recipesofthedays/posts/pfbid02hbsyFX2gZM3QjrLdo9SuLQMj2TWcxaMEELJy9oePZ3114A5c3jcqWwDUHBZ7aHJCl

This soup was a winner, but it could use a little kick.  Fortunately, I think there is an easy fix to that.  For some reason, it was hard to find a small bag of wild rice.  At least not one that didn’t cost eight dollars.  Dennis ended up using a box of Uncle Ben’s wild rice, but he used just the rice, not the seasoning packet.  I think next time he needs to use the seasoning packet.  That should give it the extra kick it needs.”  – Vincent Reinhart.