Recently (okay, yesterday) I became a member of the Rome Construction Crew, and I am pretty excited about it. The crew are a wonderful group of people who I have been “following” (not stalking, following) since I rebooted my blog. From reading their posts on their goals, I could ascertain that nobody was putting the thumbscrews to anyone, no dissing or taunting if a crew member fell behind (well, ok, some good-natured ribbing now and then). Even though they have a lofty name to their crew (Rome Construction!), they are a warm and fuzzy group. Just what I need right now.

I gave serious thought to membership, to the point of making Green Embers wait a week, thinking he had missed my submission when in fact I hadn’t followed up when I said I would. Yes, off to a great start I was. I have a tendency to “over-do.” I usually have several projects of various types going on at the same time (including at my day-job). It was worse when I was on Zoloft. Now that I’m medication-free, I experience the appropriate sense of panic every time I commit myself to yet another obligation. But I still overcommit. Yet this, the RCC, feels very different.

In fact, my whole blogging experience feels very different. I don’t feel pressured by anyone, except myself. I know I’m not keeping up with reading and commenting like I had at the beginning, but no one is scolding me. I’m struggling with trying to write original posts, both for my blog and for The Community Storyboard and the Stuff It Tuesday collaborations with Writings of a Mrs, but nobody is giving me any grief over it. Nobody except me. So, in thinking about the goals I want to set for myself as a member of the RCC, I think the first one should be:

(1) Get off my own back. I am my own worst enemy. It’s been a lifetime pursuit to thwart my every chance at success and happiness. Rather than pat myself on the back for what I do accomplish, I admonish myself for what I don’t accomplish. This has to stop and it has to stop now. I think I can make that happen if I follow through on the next goals.

(2) Set up a schedule of posting that gives me time to write, but doesn’t make followers think I’ve fallen off the face of the earth. I want to start slow, let’s say with one original post for my blog and one original post for The Community Storyboard and one for Stuff It Tuesdays a week. That actually may be too much, but I am building some draft posts and I have plenty of writing around. I just need to:

(3) Get organized. Start taking time to go through my extant writing and sort out what may be appropriate for The Community Storyboard, for example. Organize my reading as well because I’m committed to provide reviews of books/stories from fellow bloggers (and those reviews would be original posts on my blog … two birds with one stone, except that I like birds and hate that little homily). Also, I plan to participate in the July Camp NaNoWriMo, write another 50,000 words for a third novel. And our kitchen is going to be redone in July, so getting organized would be nice. Not to mention how it would help with:

(4) Write the third novel in my series, The Widow’s Club (working title). You will be hearing a lot more about the three novels over the next several weeks (or into infinity) since once I start writing in July, there will be little to nothing of me left over for much else.

So these are my goals for the foreseeable future. I do have other goals, like ensuring that I go to yoga classes at least twice a week, that sort of thing. But for RCC, I want to focus on writing. That’s why I’m here. It’s what I do. (Well, I also knit but right now writing trumps knitting.)

So now I’ve put this all in writing and am about to send it into the blogosphere (I can hear the NSA starting to yawn). And since it’s past my bedtime, I’ll wish you all a good night.