Do you have goals bloghop...share them....Novels, novellas, short stories...

I joined this regular monthly Friday bloghop hosted by Misha Gericke and Beth Fred. The idea is simple. It's to keep us honest about what we hope to achieve in our writing. We post the last Friday of every month. Can you believe it's the last Friday of March today?!?

You're more than welcome to join this bloghop. All you need to do is read and follow the guidelines then SIGN UP HERE...

1) Beth and I Misha will be co-hosts of this list.
2) If you do enter your link into the list, please be supportive of the other entrants.
3) Keep us up to date with how you're doing. Update Day is on the last Friday of every month. Even if you don't think you achieved much or anything, write a quick post to say so. We can't encourage if we don't know. 
4) When you enter your blog's address write your goal as the link title. For example, my link's title will be "earn $7500 per month." Not your name or your blog's. This is so we can keep track of who's doing what. 

I signed up as 'publish a novel and submit short stories' this year.

MY WRITING GOALS for 2016 SO FAR...

MY PARANORMAL ROMANCE NOVELLA, BOOK TWO - The Vendemmia (The Harvest)
I have continued researching for the second in my paranormal romance series to follow Under the Tuscan Moon and the adventures of Vipunin and Cuchulcain. I have tons of notes and have begun structuring the story. My favourite research was on the ancient wine presses used in the 16th Century. 

A basket press from the Provence region of southeast France.

SHORT STORY UPDATE

Well-oh-well. My Paris short story has grown from a 1,000 word flash fiction originally published for #fridayflash. When I picked it up again, it soon grew to 2,000, then 4,000 words and someone offered to translate it into French! Tres exciting! But after sending it off to a critique partner, I received several suggestions on expanding some scenes. They were excellent suggestions. As a result, I now have 12,000 words...no longer a short story by some reckonings, but heading for a 15,000 word novella. Well, will my translator still be interested? I'm so excited. I'm loving how this story is growing.
TRAVELLING AGAIN 中国
So...in late March/early April I am travelling to distant lands. More in my IWSG post next week. When I return to the land of Oz, I will be working on my own little NaAprWriMo again and write every day. Last April I wrote 25,000 words on a Paris Cookery novel and hope to pick it up again as I'm SO EXCITED about this book but haven't been able to get to it for months! But the research has been delicious! So I'm pretty busy. 

Overall, March has been a very successful, wonderful writing month even though we embarked on major renovations at our beach house. Somehow I've clawed more time into my schedule, so maybe this bloghop is helping. Dropping one teaching day has definitely helped.

AIM HIGH
It's always a good idea to set yourself achievable goals, but it's even better to use the turbo power of imagination to help you get there. For example, you may decide that you'd be happy to have your body in better shape. Instead of just thinking: 'I'm going to tone and trim my waistline', bring on the drama. Try rephrasing that into something like: 'I want to turn heads as I walk down the street and wow people when I walk into a room'. Remember, when you use colourful, vibrant imagery it will be easier to achieve your goal and turn your dream into reality.

So...when you dream of your finished story...instead of just wishing you could reach the finish line, add drama. 'I want to write the most riveting, amazing story that people will love so much they will say to everyone in their reviews on Amazon and Goodreads--'You've got to read this story!' Imagine that!

How are you going with your 2016 Writing Goals? Please share in comments below or join the hop.