Baby Steps

Using Ali's methodology, I've broken up my monthly goals into smaller, bite-size chunks. So instead of just a blanket "Work on revisions," I've got small, concrete steps. Each one looks a lot easier to tackle than just "Revise." And I'll get more tick marks.

Thanks, Ali.

And So It Begins - Again

Just got back from a lunch break at B&N. Instead of just browsing the racks (which I did, too), I wrote Morning Pages. It was the first time since November 24th. Pretty bad, huh? What's even worse is that the notebook was started June 16th. It is your basic spiral bound, single subject, generic notebook with 70 sheets of paper in it. And I'm only about halfway through it.

There isn't always a one-t0-one correlation between doing Morning Pages and being productive in my other "real" writing. But it's kinda close. I'm amazed I banged out anything in the last half of the year.

I took a bit of time off from any kind of writing, revision, or what have you from October through the end of the year. Since the New Year I've been playing. Watching DVDs (my favorite was Season One of Robin Hood), reading, going to the movies, working out, doing some organizing. Sort of a little bit of everything and not much of anything. It may have worked. I woke up this morning feeling renewed. Ready to tackle whatever I need to.

Hence, Morning Pages today. The netbook is charged up and ready to go. I have a new list of questions to keep in mind as I revise, revise, revise. And the thought of revising makes me smile. That hasn't happened since . . . maybe ever.

I think I'm gonna like this year.

Jenny Wins!

Nathan Bransford, super rock star agent, just announced the winner in his Secret Year journal contest. And it's Jenny! Nathan picked the top 5 finalists from over 650 entries. Huge accomplishment to be part of that select group. But then the blog readers voted, and they picked our Jenny.

How freakin' cool is that? I mean, we all knew she was good. Now it's been verified by a huge number of people.

Check out the rules, the winning entry and the also-rans at http://blog.nathanbransford.com/

Yay, Jenny! Update your bio, hon.

That Old End of Year Feeling - Looking Forward

The end of year reflections we indulge in tend to lead to some kind of plan for the future. What do I want to accomplish? How do I want to live my life differently? Better?

After a lot of thought, here are my writing goals for 2010:

--Revise MMG by end of March to submit to group. (Or Jenny may hurt me)
--Rewrite part of TNN not yet submitted by May CWC meeting to reflect changes that will be made to beginning .
--Query MMG (after any changes based on critiques from CWC) by end of July.
--Revise Vesta by end of September.
--Decide on next novel to start.
--Start it.

Looks like "revision" will be the word of the year. Whatever the new novel turns out to be should be a nice break.

That Old End of Year Feeling - Looking back

It's weird. This time of year always seems to make people reflect on their lives. Not just the past year, but the whole thing. Maybe that's why the older one gets, the more melancholy the season. More time to think about. More regrets to ponder. And more sweet memories to recall.

My writing goals for last year were ambitious. And I don't think I actually got all the way through any of them. But--and here's the thing that seems to happen every year--I did quite a few things I never imagined at the beginning of the year. Does it even out? No idea. But there it is.

So, what were my goals for last year?

--Finish revision of MMG in January (or be prepared to throw it in a drawer). Wow, was I harsh or what? It has changed, but needs more.
--Revise Vesta by end of April. She's still waiting until I get MMG done.
--Finish draft of TNN by end of February. I do have a draft done, but didn't make it by February.
--Revise TNN by end of summer. Still working its way through CWC.
--Write rough draft of some other novel that I haven't thought up yet by end of year. Yeah huh.
--Query Dan and other agents in March (only if MMG is submittable, otherwise wait for Vesta). See above.
--Write flash fiction piece for anthology by mid-January. DONE!! Although I ended up not submitting it to the anthology.

What did I do that I hadn't planned?

--Wrote a second flash fiction piece that I like better than the first one.
--Started a dance class that I love.
--Read a lot. A whole lot. See list at left. And that doesn't include the full manuscripts from CWC throughout the year.
--Took on new duties at work that left little time to write there.
--Visited my aunt in Florida for the first time in too many years.
--Several dog-sitting sessions.
--Learned much more about the craft of writing from all the reading I did and from the wonderful people in CWC. That would be (in alphabetical order) Ali, Fleur, Jenny, Mary and Shane.
--Finally redecorated the Writing Room. Yes, I've been planning to do that for a long time, but it happened this year.

Relax, Make Your Steps Smaller & Keep Your Feet

Suzanne, my dance instructor, will lead us through a routine several times at a nice, manageable tempo. Just as I'm feeling pretty good about it, she says, "Let's speed it up," and the whole thing just falls to pieces. The secret, she says, is to relax, make your movements smaller and keep your feet directly underneath yourself. And if I can remember to do all that, it works.

When writing a first draft of a story, I don't have much trouble with working in smaller bits. It's seems perfectly reasonable to grab fifteen minutes here and there to dash off a few paragraphs. While it's preferable to have a block of time, I can manage writing in a catch as catch can manner. Maybe because I can smooth things out a bit when I go through for a quick clean-up before I submit to the group. After all, it's just a first draft.

Revisions have been another issue. For some reason, I have convinced myself that I need substantial blocks of time to work on rewrites. I'm not sure why. Probably more as an excuse to not work on them, truth be told. But that excuse goes away today. It's time to take Suzanne's advice and apply it to this part of my life.

What excuses do you make for yourself?

December Goals

Obviously didn't get much done on the writing front last month. Didn't even manage to keep up with blogging. I did, however, think a lot about revisions. Not just for MMG, but for Vesta and TNN as well. Neil Gaiman has said, "Thinking about writing is not writing." While I hate to disagree with the great and powerful Mr. Gaiman, thinking about writing is definitely an important part of writing. Especially in the revision process. What's working, what isn't? Which characters are three-dimensional and which are only two (sorry, guys, but one-dimensional isn't possible)? Do I have a well-defined goal for my protagonist? Am I beating him/her up enough? Is the setting visible for the reader? Etc, etc, etc.

I did get my one critique done. This month, I also have only one critique to do. Next month will be the same. So no excuses there.

But it's December, with all that entails. Even with all the days that have things planned, there are more than enough that do not. So, can't really use that as much of an excuse. Dammit.

Three writing goals this month:

--Finish all Christmas shopping/decorating and card sending by 7th and mail packages by the 10th
--Work on MMG revisions
--Complete CWC critique (0/1)

Why is Christmas stuff a writing goal? Because something that like can become a major distraction when I do sit down to write. The old "I should be . . ." [fill in the blank] instead of sitting here.

So, that's it. Ali's is "get stuff done." I like it. What about you?