Goals for 2009

In a little over a week, I'll be presenting my goal setting workshop on the catawriters loop. So, today, when I popped a tape in the VCR (yes, I still have one) and it was an episode of Oprah where she and several others discussed the book THE SECRET, I stopped cleaning, got a cup of coffee and sat down and paid attention.

The beginning of the goal setting workshop is all about figuring out what you really want. If you can match what you really want with a succinctly stated goal and a plan of action, you'll end up succeeding.

Why? Because the biggest reason most of us don't achieve our goals or follow through on New Years Resolutions is because we choose things we "think" we want...but we don't really want. LOL. Like being thin. Society has inflicted a thin mentality on us, so we feel honor bound to at least make a resolution that says I will lose twenty pounds. Personally, I don't want to lose 20 pounds. I like my cookies.

On the other hand...

After a year of suffering with dibilitating silent migraines, I value health over cookies.

So when I set up my goals/New Years Resolutions for 2009, losing weight won't motivate me, but being well will. All I have to do is remember the panic that came over me when I would be hit by dizzy spells as I was driving and I don't worry that I'll eat anything on my migraine trigger list.

Which brings us to another intersting point about goals ... or maybe about actually achieving the goals we set. There's nothing like remembering negative consequences. If you set a goal to write a novel but there's no negative consequence if you fail, you don't really have the motivation to succeed.

I love good results, but they don't motivate me like bad ones do!

So join us at catawriters...there's sign up information in the Dear Reader letter on the home page of susanmeier.com...and spend two weeks thinking about your life, considering what you want and setting a few solid, achievable goals!

susan

Good Morning, Jessica!

And everybody else who reads this blog!

Today we are experiencing our first "real" snowfall of the season. Schools have closed. Roads are a bit slippery (or as we say in Southwestern, PA...slippy). I even canceled my hair appointment.

Because I work six or seven days a week, I've had to invent holidays and reasons to take time off without guilt. Hair Dye Day is one of them. Once a month I know I will not write. Which means I scheduled myself off today and for a panicked ten minutes after I called to cancel I realized had nowhere to go...nothing to do.

So I'm reading a book I've been dying to read...Angela Knight's JANE'S WARLORD and I'm munching on Mallowmars. Which is why I'll also be on the treadmill later today. The TV is off, kids are still sleeping, cats are napping and I'm snuggled under a crocheted afghan reading.

Life doesn't get any better than that.

Is It Almost Turkey Time Already?

I've run my website by a few professionals in the past few months and hands down, they love it. My webmistress is absolutely one of the best!

But they all come back with the same negative comment. You don't update your blog enough.

When I first added this blog, I had a lot of things to say. Lately, not so much.

I'm not one to complain about politics or to foist my views on others. In an election year, I was pretty much of a drag. I believe the world needs us all. Conservatives. Liberals. Geniuses. Laborers. After all, where would we be if everyone wanted to drive the trash truck and no one was willing to grab the cans from the curb?

I had a bout with silent migraines but a drastic change in my diet is changing that. No big news there. Except that in all the exams I went through to figure out why I always felt as if I were going to faint, we also discovered I had high cholesterol and now I'm on the treadmill four or five times a week. That's lifting my butt from the back of my knees, which is good news for everyone.

The editors only had a few comments on the book I turned in this summer and I think they're going to love the Christmas book that due in December. My husband is healthy. My oldest son, who suffers from a seizure disorder, has a job and has been seizure free for a few months. My daughter found work closer to home. My youngest is doing well, too.

So I have nothing to whine about or ponder. Except that this year has flown by. Another reason my blog doesn't get updated often. Of course, the good side to all of this is I love Thanksgiving and Christmas. I bake a mean pumpkin pie and a fabulous turkey pot pie with leftovers. I love shopping for presents and wrapping.

I'm about to enter the happiest time of my year. Even though the year shot by, it's sort of nice to find myself getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas again!

susan

Seton Hill Crowd

Just popping in to say thank you to the ladies in the Seton Hill College "module" I taught this morning. You were a wonderful class. I can easily predict good things for all of your futures!



My next workshop is the online version of Can This Manuscript Be Saved. Once in August and again from mid-September to mid-October for the Orange County California chapter. I'm pretty sure you can register from the OCC chapter website.





susan

I'm back!

My beach vacation is now a memory, but what a wonderful memory!



Before I talk about that, though, I'd like to say thanks to the Philadelphia Writer's Conference for inviting me and to say hello to all the great people I met there. We had three wonderful workshop hours and I had conversations with a few people whose names I'm sure we'll see on book covers this time next year!



So thanks Philly! And good luck to all the wonderful students!



Back to the beach...



My family is huge. I don't even say big anymore because with 11 kids in the original group, most married, most having had 2 or more kids -- some of whom are also married and now having great grandchildren for my mom -- we will soon need a football stadium for Thanksgiving dinner.



So when six of us get together, with kids, and rent an enormous beach house, with pool, nothing but chaos results. But what wonderful chaos! We watched Miss Lainie, the newest addition to the family, take her first dips into the pool with her mom. We witnessed a reluctant uncle make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a gaggle of kids who barely came up to his knee! We drank beer poolside (when the kids were napping) and fought over what decade had the better music...thanks to satellite radio!



Texas Hold 'em was the game of the evenings, and, sadly, I lost every time I played. I'm no match for the wit and poker wisdom of the Beyer clan. My husband and I were the last to leave. With only our oldest son in tow, we had the time and free hands to make a last minute sweep through the place to make sure it was clean, and I have to admit I cried. I wasn't sure if I'd miss the beach house or didn't want to go home to my house which always seemed to need to be cleaned. But big tears filled my eyes.



I love the beach, but I love it most of all when I'm with kids who play in the sand, ask a million silly questions and chatter about shells.

Are we risking our lives for ice cream?

I have to admit I love ice cream. Pumpkin. Peach. Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. My mouth waters just typing the flavors.

Now...

I also have to admit I gained twenty pounds in the past year. First my bum knee kept me from walking, which was the way I kept my weight under control. Then the recovery month sealed the deal. Two weeks of sitting in a chair, getting minimal exercise and then only through rehab, made the twenty pounds official. :)

For the past week, now that recovery is over and summer is nearly here and I can't fit into any of my summer clothes, I've been pondering the fact that I face a choice...lose weight or buy a new wardrobe.

The new wardrobe is very tempting. It's the path of least resistance. And who doesn't salivate at the prospect of getting ALL NEW CLOTHES!

But keeping the twenty pounds has ramifications in terms of family pictures. I won't merely be taller than everybody in photos...I'll be the fat one. Ye Gawds.

Plus, last night something else struck me as my husband (who also needs to shed a pound or two and who has high cholesterol) pulled the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from the freezer. I suddenly realized that extra weight translates to lots of "heart" things...and that reaching for that half gallon of bliss every night could be considered like scaling the side of a mountain.

In Susan Wigg's latest release a few secondary characters climb an icy mountain for the sheer joy of it and I gasped, thinking...I'd never risk my life like that. Then I dipped my scoop into the half gallon of delight and realized that maybe I would. LOL

Just returned...

Good morning, everybody!



I just returned from an intense one-day workshop I presented for the multi-genre writers group Pennwriters. What a great time! The hotel was wonderful...the lunch divine! Ayleen Stellhorn, who coordinated the event, deserves a round of applause!


But the students in this class were exceptional. Very talented. Very personable.


In the morning, we took apart the concept of "plotting" and I saw some ah-ha moments in the crowd. Making the distinction between the skills needed to come up with a story, decide what to write as a scene and then create those scenes with word mastery helped a lot of people. But the magic plotting formula of action/reaction and decision really brought down the house. LOL


In the afternoon we worked on characters and creating external conflict with goals and internal conflict because of an incorrect core belief. We even hit a bit on Michael Hauge's (screenplaymastery.com) identity and essence theories.


But the real lightbulb moments came when we distinguished between our book's theme and the "idea" that showcases the theme and learned how to write a one-paragraph pitch designed to easily relate your story to an editor or agent so you don't spent a whole pitch session saying...Um...Well..Ah...Instead, you easily get to the heart of your story and make yourself look super smart!


So it was a good day. We all had fun.


I think we also learned something!



susan