How To Avoid the Horrible Mistake Other People Make With Writing Goals

"When your goals inspire you, when you believe and act on them, you will accomplish them."
~ Jim Rohn

I love the above quote by Jim Rohn, who was an American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker. He believed in the power of goal setting.

And I also believe that setting goals is motivational and it always helps me to work through and finish my writing projects.

The problem though is that most writers make the mistake of setting the WRONG goals.

What do I mean by wrong?

They set goals that are unappealing to themselves, or they set goals that seem unachievable. And when that happens, writing doesn't happen.

You see in order to achieve your writing goals they need to be inspiring and motivating, otherwise you won't even make a start.

If you have writing goals that you always think about but never, ever start, ask yourself if it's really something that you want to do? Because often (and I've been guilty of this myself), we set goals for accomplishing things we think we SHOULD do, rather than things we want to do.

So when it comes to writing, what is that you REALLY want to do? What are your writing dreams and writing goals? What is is that you want to sit down and write about every day?

And whatever you decide, make sure it's something that is fun for you to do. Something that you really would enjoy and that you look forward to doing it every day.


Mission Critical For Life
https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCFL.html

An Introduction to Screenwriting - Free Online Course

If you've ever wanted to learn about screenwriting, this free online course will interest you.

The University of East Anglia’s School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing (in the UK) have built this course with instructors and recent alumni from their famed course in Creative Writing.

The University of East Anglia is an internationally renowned university providing top quality academic, social and cultural facilities to over 15,000 students from over 100 countries around the globe.

This online course explores the key concepts and fundamental principles involved in the process of screenwriting.

Explore key issues in the practice of creating screenplays.

• Explain the basic principles of the screenwriting process
• Identify the essentials of the screenplay format
• Discuss the construction of a professional script
• Design a story 'pitch'

There are no formal requirements for this course, just an interest in screenwriting.

What topics will you cover?

• Basic characteristics of a screen story
• Development of a basic storyline
• Story structures including The Three Act Structure and alternate story structures
• Characters and developing character outlines
• The construction of scenes including the role of dialogue and character voice
• The workflow for writing a first draft of a feature film screenplay
• The process for screenplay formatting
• Writing – and finishing – a first draft

At the time of writing, this course was open for registration and immediate start.

Find out more and register now using the link below:

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/screenwriting

Writing Updates and Other Interesting Things

It's not even the end of January yet and already this year is going great.

As you've probably seen in the news recently, here in Australia we've been having some horrendous bushfires which have been compounded by the fire crews not putting them out fast enough and instead issuing 'watch & wait' notices while the bush and the wild animals burn.

Thankfully, we're now having plenty of rain so most of the fires are out AND our land is green once again and the rivers are full. It's been a drought here for 6 months but it's certainly over now. Only last week I was down at the creek watching a poor little platypus turning over and over in the muddy water, unable to dive because the water had mostly dried up and the creek had become patchy puddles in amongst stretches of dried creek bed. I felt so sorry for the poor little thing (and platypus really are small).

But now it's been raining for days, and the platypus is happily diving deep for food again, and the land is burning no more, not that the fires came close to where I live anyway.

Also, thanks to the rain, the unbearably hot temperatures have dropped somewhat (but it's still hot because it's Summer), so all is well with the outside world again.

And on the writing front, here at chez Ruth Barringham, there are many changes afoot.

Firstly, I'm in the middle of writing my next book which is a novel. And I've been rocking on with it really well so I'm excited about finishing it soon.

I also have my web designer, aka my husband Dean, working away diligently in his study (and not swearing TOO much) redesigning my RuthIsWriting website. He's even changed the colours and the layout and has taken away everything that is not necessary.

And when he's finished, I'm going to begin a new subscriber list. I haven't done that for the past few years, but I have lots of plans for subscribers. It will be free to sign up so watch this space. I'll let you know when it's all online and ready to go.

I've also bought a new domain name. Well, actually, it's an old one that I found out was available again. It's a site called WorkAtHomAholic. I used to have this domain name years ago and now I have it back and I plan to use it as a website all about different ways to make money working from home.

I'm also still working my way through reading the amazing book by Eugene Schwartz called 'Breakthrough Advertising.' I've been trying to get through it for weeks but it's so good that I don't want to miss anything so I keep going back over and over parts I've already read. This is a book that is now difficult to get hold of, and when you do find it on places like Amazon, the price is ridiculously high.

And speaking of books, my latest one, Mission Critical For Life, is selling really well and it's available in hardback and as an ebook. It's a small book, a quick read, and packed with instantly usable information to help you transform your life. You can read it in one day and start making changes immediately.

I've also been working hard this past week restoring a dining table and four matching chairs. I've been busy sanding, varnishing and painting, and now it's finished and looks amazing. It's a fixer-up job I've been threatening to do for the last three years and I've finally done it, so it's one more thing I can tick off my to-do list.

And that is all for now.

So stay tuned for lots of up-and-coming books, websites, newsletters, and freebies.

There are plenty of things in store as my marvellous little monkey mind continues to work overtime and my fingers (which feel really rough at the moment from handing so much sandpaper) are glued to my keyboard.

:)

3 Simple Life-Changing Things

The other day I was reading about a copywriter who said he was asked to write the sales material for a self-help course that cost $1,500.

He spent time looking over all the course material and said that after reading all the information, it all boiled down into just 3 simple things:

- Get more sleep.

- Eat more vegetables.

- Find something you like to do in life and do that, whatever it is.

The first two are a given. Everyone knows to get plenty of sleep and to eat lots of vegetables.

It was the third one that got my attention because that is almost what my new book is all about.

But there's more than simply finding something you like to do. There are other factors involved in being able to enjoy your life and live it on your own terms.

And in my book, Mission Critical For Life, I tell you what you need to do to find your own mission in life, and how to do it.

And it will cost you a lot less than $1,500.

In fact, you can download the ebook for less than $10.

And buy a hardback copy too.

https://ruthiswriting.com/books/MCFL.html