Aswiebe's Market List Update 06-2013

http://www.aswiebe.com/writing/markets.html

The next update of Aswiebe's Market List will be after 7/15/2013.
Permanent link to this newsletter in the archives: http://www.aswiebe.com/writing/archive2013.html#061513

Editor's Note

Lists and goals--don't get the two mixed up! Now, before I get any irate comments, let me add that I think there's nothing wrong with having a list of goals. Let me explain. You may have figured out by now that I am a list-maker from way back. My to-do lists are terrifying in size and have items stretching back to 2005 (I wish I was making that up). These lists include urgent things like sending submissions back out, important but not urgent things like transcribing that handwritten story out of that notebook, way overdue things like finishing final edits on that one really good story, and a gazillion small details that should get attended to someday, like fixing that web link or adding that thing to that other thing. Yes, I theoretically have ways of telling these things apart.

The problem is that sometimes these lists give me tunnel vision. It's easy for the tiny details to overwhelm me, until I forget the larger goals. I stop using those goals as a compass to find my way through the confusing thicket of minutia and proliferating ideas. I get lost (a little like that metaphor).

It's amazing how much simpler dealing with a massive task list becomes once you set some medium-term goals. Call them resolutions, or project management goals, or a business plan, if you like. For me, I think that three months out is about the right time frame. Longer than that, and I start getting swallowed by generalities. Shorter than that, and I'm tripped up by task lists.

I wrote out some medium-term goals as part of my catching-up-from-sickness process, and I really like the way it's helped me focus again. So I'm adding that as a permanent item on my "recovery plan" . . . and I'm adding a recurring reminder in my calendar so that it becomes a regular part of my writing routine.

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