It’s time to begin the Monthly Dares inspired by Kellyn Roth @ Reveries! I introduced them in my last post, Review of 2016, Plans for 2017. The idea is that you dare yourself to do several things throughout the month and in the next month’s dare post, you check up on them, then introduce dares for that month!
My little twist on it is that most of my dares for the month are going to be helping me to work on my 2017 resolutions. That way, I’ll be able to accomplish them and not forget about them.
Yesterday, my dad, my brother, and I all started using this website/app called Habitica, where doing good habits and tasks in real life earns you in-game experience points, equipment, gold, and so forth, and bad habits make your avatar lose health. We’ll see how it goes and if it works out for us! I think it sounds like fun.
Anyway, let’s get on with the Monthly Dares for January 2017!
*NYR stands for New Year’s Resolution
1. (NYR) Read my scriptures every morning & pray morning and night.
2. (NYR) Write in my journal at least 6 out of 7 days a week, which equates to 27 days in January; I can miss only four.
3. (NYR) Research different college majors I’m interested in, and research at least one in-state college.
4. Study at least 2 hours (30 min a week) for the pre-college test.
5. (NYR) Get my driver’s license!
6. (NYR) Catch up on my online class, which probably means doing 1 assignment every school day.
7. (NYR) Do at least 1 hour of service once a week, and try to do one small act of service every day.
8. Earn some money by doing at least 12 hours of work for my dad over the month (3 hours a week).
9. Floss every night. I don’t have a problem with brushing my teeth, but flossing them can be really hard sometimes…
10. Sing at least 4x every week to practice for my weekly voice lessons.
11. Do at least 2 hours (30 minutes a week) of Personal Progress.
12. Go to bed before 10 p.m. at least 15 times this month.
13. Do at least 2 hours (30 minutes a week) of Spanish practice with Duolingo.
14. Hand write a letter and mail it to someone
15. Try updating Habitica every day and see if it helps me to keep this goals.
1. (NYR) Read 5 books this month.
2. (NYR) Write reviews for the said 5 books on Goodreads.
3. At least one has to be one that I’ve started but not yet finished.
4. Make a Goodreads goal of 60 books for this year.
1. (NYR) Write at least 6 blog posts this month. (Wahoo, 1/6 of the way there!)
2. (NYR) Keep the sidebar updated, especially the word count for Enhanced.
3. Create the page for the Zel novel.
4. Make pretty graphics for at least 3 of the posts. (Again, yay, 1/3 of the way there!)
1. (NYR) Write 31,000 words this month (1k every day) and keep track on it on the 365K spreadsheet. (I wrote 1,653 words yesterday, so currently I’m ahead!)
2. (NYR) Write 30,000 words in Enhanced. This means I should end up writing more than 31,000 words this month, since I’m not going to be writing it on Sundays. (On Sundays, I’m working on a novel that will hopefully bring me closer to God and Christ…I may introduce that more fully for a Spotlight this month.)
3. (NYR) Write a short story or flash fiction. I have absolutely no ideas (unless I’m finishing a different, really long short story I started), so that’ll be fun.
4. Write a chapter in TC, a novel that I’m writing with a friend that should no longer be abandoned.
5. Force my friend (a different friend than from #4) to write her part in the CN (a different collaborative novel), so that we can finally finish it.
6. Ask friends & other bloggers about self-publishing vs. traditional publishing to get a better outlook on it.
I triple dog dare you to comment! (Reference, anyone?) What are some of the things you want to accomplish during this January? Are any of them the same as mine? Have you ever heard of/tried Habitica? If so, what are your thoughts on it? Do you still feel like it’s 2016 (apparently, I do!)?
Have a very happy New Year and January, and good luck with your goals & resolutions!
The Music of Words 
Habitica sounds cool! Great resolutions!
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Thanks! Yeah, it seems pretty cool so far, so hopefully it will help us do things instead of procrastinating. 🙂
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I couldn’t get away with it and still keep my pride, so here I am. Commenting. Will my tongue be frozen to the, er, computer screen after this, or …?
This post has given me ideas for my next Dare post (which is supposed to be today … but I haven’t even started it … *sigh*)! Which is weird, because aren’t I supposed to be, like, the master of the dares or something? 😉
Heeeey, I can tell you about self-publishing! Not how to succeed at it, but how to do it … badly … but whatever! I still know stuff … 😉
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Yayyy, someone got the reference! 😀 We were supposed to watch that movie on Christmas Eve but we didn’t…sad day. And yep, your tongue will be stuck to the computer screen. That’ll be fun for vlogging… 😛
You should write that! I want to see your dare post…maybe I can get ideas from that for my next one! 😉 I’ll bet that we’ll both give each other ideas for the dares, but you really are the dare master. You do way more of them than I do…
Yes, I know! You were one of the first I was going to ask about it! So you can respond here, if you want, or I can comment somewhere on your blog and ask you like I’ll probably end up doing for other people. The only problem is, I don’t know anyone who’s traditionally published, so I’m not sure how I’ll get advice from that side of the spectrum…
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Yeah … vlogging will be fun. You’ll see the words coming out of my throat before I say them. At least, that’s how I think it works … 😉
The dare post is taking a while because of videos uploading … I might have to give up and post it without the videos!
Is there anything in particular you want to know about self-publishing?
As far as traditionally published authors, I’d ask questions of authors on Goodreads! People do that. I think it’s perfectly okay. You could ask an author you really like who’s enabled ‘ask the author.’ 🙂
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o.O *is imagining how that vlog would look now…and…it’s a little bit scarring*
Awww! But I see that you have it posted! I shall have to look at it if I can…maybe after school. I got a delayed start today ’cause of all the snow and just spent an hour shoveling! It’s really quite exciting.
Hmm…I want to know why you chose to self-publish and what you think are some of the pros and cons of it, and how it compares to traditional publishing. If that makes sense.
Ooooh, that’s a good idea! I’m going to do that! Thanks! 😀
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It’s actually quite terrifying! I don’t know if I’d recommend watching it to the faint of heart … 😉
Yeah, it finally uploaded! Whew! 😀 We got a lot of snow yesterday and last night, too. About … hmm, six inches? Maybe eight? Well, that’s a lot for here, anyway … it rarely snows as much as it has this year!
I chose to self-publish mainly because I wanted to get my work out into the world and I wanted to do it now. I’d also heard about publishers making authors write 50-page outlines and such and I just didn’t want all that pressure to preform. I have high standards of myself, and I don’t need someone looking over my shoulder half the time. I also like to interact with people online, so I thought it’d be better for me just to do self-publishing and do my own marketing. I think the main reason at the time was because I didn’t want to bother with the hassle of inquires and such (and I wasn’t sure they’d take me seriously at my age), but now it’s more a freedom thing. I enjoy being my own boss. I think the pros are, like I said, the freedom and the ability to interact with people without … intimidating them, I suppose. XD Maybe that’s just me, though, because I always get scared of traditionally published authors. Many say your book won’t look at professional if you self-publish, but I disagree. You can hire a professional-looking cover designer (or simply get one from a friend, because I know some talented people! 😉 ) that’ll look just as nice as a book cover from a big-bucks designer, Createspace’s books are high-quality, and formatting is relatively easy to learn. What really makes the difference is the content itself. If it’s a good book and it’s edited well, it’s professional. Who your publisher is can’t change what your writing is. On the other hand, I believe some publishing companies help you edit, but I like to keep my work to myself anyway. I think the main upside for traditional publishing is the marketing. I don’t know how much they do for you, but obviously no matter how you publish marketing is something the author does have to put a lot of time into if they want their books to be read.
I couldn’t tell you a lot about how traditional publishing compares with self-publishing … it’s something I should research more, honestly.
So … sorry for the rambling. I hope it helped just a wee bit. 🙂
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We got about sixteen inches that day, I think, but it was pretty powdery, and today we’ve gotten a couple of inches too.
Wow, thank you! That’s really interesting and I shall take note of it…it makes me want to self-publish. 😀
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Wow, looks like you get a lot of snow! We … rarely do. XD
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We did! We haven’t gotten that much for a couple of years, so it was fun. (And they didn’t even cancel school! 😛 We did start later, though, so we could shovel our driveways and actually get out of them.)
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That’s cool! We usually have a very green winter, so yep, this was pleasant. It must be Global Warming … 😉 Jk. Sorry. (Our school wasn’t canceled either! 😉 )
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Haha, yup. In that case, it would have been global warming these last few years until this one…now it’s global freezing. 😛 (Aww, that’s too bad. But I can understand why, since you wouldn’t have a problem getting there!)
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I believe the phrase they use now is climate change. Aka, weather. 😉
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Riiight. 😛
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I’m going to go download Habitica! Best of luck in writing 😀
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Awesome! You’ll have to tell me how it goes. And thanks! 😀
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(If I pretend I don’t get the reference, then I don’t suffer side-effects, right?)
The Habitica sounds pretty cool. I might try that.
I… should probably create goals for January like this, too. Hmm. I’m feeling lazy and discouraged right now, though.
I know some things about self-publishing and traditional-publishing. (Well, as much as I might be able to know from never having done it, heheh.)
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(Hmmm….I don’t know…hehe.)
Yeah, it seems pretty fun so far, but I’m still only on my third (ish) day of it so I haven’t done much.
No, don’t feel discouraged! I dunno, making goals doesn’t really make me discouraged…just when I don’t keep them. Making them, though, that’s fun.
I shall ask you too! I’m going to be posting it on the slack, also, so hopefully I can get lots of opinions and stuff.
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I ended up joining the Habitica thing like a week ago, heheh.
Ahaha, assuming Slack ever lets you post, eh?
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Oooh, really? How’s it going for you so far? And have you looked at any of the guilds yet?
Yeah, exactly. 😛 So far, it’s looking like I’m never going to get on Slack ever again. Bleh.
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Eh, well, I had to check into the Inn thing on Wednesday, because with my wisdom tooth stuff, there’s no way I’m completing some of my Dailies, but otherwise, pretty well. I did check out a couple of guilds—I joined a bunch, and also a couple of challenges, although I’ve only posted in one guild like twice.
Heh heh. You have a Chromebook, right? So you’re using the website and not the app?
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Ahh, makes sense. Cool! Are you part of the Wordsmiths Guild? ‘Cause I saw a Morgan posting and I thought of you, but I thought of course it couldn’t be you…but maybe it could. 😛
Yeah…I’m glad I got it figured out!
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Heh, nope, that’s not me. I am part of that guild, but I never posted in it. The only Guild I’ve posted in so far is… I think it’s called Ink Slingers? Anyway, my username thing on there is Shazean. What’s yours?
Yeah, same here, heheh.
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Ahh, okay. Mine’s technically lana the llama, but I post as just lana.
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