December Goals

I've been pretty wishy-washy about my goals lately. But it's felt like I needed that in order to figure out my next steps. Which story to work on. That sort of thing. I've definitely decided to work on MMG, since it's the one that's been in the queue the longest (it hates being called "the oldest").

So, without further ado:

--Finish CWC critique(s) (1/1)
--1,250 words a day on MMG

Okay, maybe a little more ado. Since critiques are now due the 1st Sunday instead of the last Monday, I'm counting the December critique. Which is Jenny's for this month.

Where did 1,250 come from? That's about 5 pages. When things are percolating, I can get 5 pages in about an hour. Doable. AND that should get me to Done about the end of January, which is what I was shooting for. All good.

Easy peasy.

September Goals

Once again, a month got away from me.

However, I did set down a loosey goosey outline of what I want to do with MMG going forward. The big thing that will get me moving in the right direction is having a brainstorming session this weekend with Jenny.

Some writers can't talk out a book before they work on it--especially first drafts. They say that it feels as if the book has already been written so it's boring to work on it after that. I'm not one of those writers. I want to talk and play with the plot and characters before I get too far into a project.

I know this isn't a new project. But some of the changes I need to make will, in some respects, make it brand new. So I need to have a session with someone who knows the work. Not only the latest version, but what it was on day one. Jenny's really the only one who has seen all the iterations of MMG. Besides, she loves brainstorming as much as I do.

Other goals for the month?

Reading some books on the craft of writing. I'll revisit some old favorites and check out a few I haven't read. The nice thing about craft books--whatever the craft--is that once you are past the beginner stage, you can skim for what you need.

I'm feeling optimistic about getting some words down this month. Besides, it's cooling off. Fall is when my energy spikes. The stars may be aligning for this revision to move forward.

August Goals

Well, I was a big old slacker in July. No revisions done. Nothing new started--which was on purpose, but still.

So, my goal for August? Get more done than I did in July. Now it's not that I sat around all month. I was cleaning and organizing like a mad woman. I spent a week at some friends' house taking care of their dogs. I danced. I worked--a lot. Just nothing to do with writing.

Well . . . .

That's not exactly true. I was turning things over. Looking at things from all angles. Sniffing them, tasting them. Does this ring true? Would changing that do what I want it to or will it just throw everything else? And would that necessarily be a bad thing? So working on things, just not actually writing.

In August, I hope to actually write. And if it's not on MMG, then something. Pages. Actual proof of writing. New note cards would be good. That would show I know where it's going.

So, goal for August:

--New note cards.

Cool.

April Goals

I didn't make it all the way through the revisions of MMG last month, but I'm pretty happy with the way it's going. I gave 300 pages to CWC on Monday night. They'll get the rest at the end of the month. Feedback is set for the May meeting. Can't wait to find out if it's worth saving or not.

April goals are easy. No critiques to do. Just one thing to finish. So here we go:

--Retype marked up pages. (300/? pages)
--Read through.
--Make any quick fixes found in read-through.
--Print out for CWC and Carrie. And any other takers. (300/?)

What A Rush

And that's actually a double rush. One from being on a new blood pressure medication. The second from getting so much accomplished last month. I definitely like the latter one better.

Just look at all I did (and it doesn't even cover the non-writing related stuff):

--Finish reading MMG with plot questions in mind (300/300 pages)
--Look at all characters and determine if they stay or go (Done)
--Fill out character surveys on remaining characters (Done)
--Review each scene for what it adds (or doesn't) to the story (Done)
--Plot map entire manuscript (Done)
--Revise 1st third of manuscript (Done)
--Complete CWC critiques (2/2)

Yay, me! Everything with a check mark. I like this breaking things down, um, thing. Let's do it again for March, shall we?

--Mark up all of the printout of previous version.
--Write missing scenes.
--Retype marked up pages.
--Read through.
--Make any quick fixes found in read-through.
--Print out for CWC and Carrie. And any other takers.
--Do CWC critiques. (0/2)

I'm really glad there are five Mondays this month.

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.

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.

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?

November Goals

I pretty much rocked October, especially given that it was chock full of extra-curricular activites. I finished everything. Well, everything but getting all the way through TNN. That was due in no small part to doing exactly what I'd said I wouldn't do after it happened with Vesta. After the first feedback session at CWC, I decided to rip everything apart and put it back together --better! faster! stronger!--before the next submission. In a month--right. Please remind me of this when I submit the first part of my next manuscript, whatever that may be.

Time to set goals for November. No NaNoWriMo for me this month. I have tons to revise since Jenny challenged me to put a revised full of MMG through the group soon. And then there's Vesta waiting to be revised as well.

I want to finish the first draft of TNN before I start the MMG revisions. I have maybe 100 pages to go, and there will be a submission due in January. I doubt it will be the rest of the story, but should get everyone close to the end. Of course, the critique for this month. It'll be great to revisit Mary's TF. And then revisions, revisions, revisions. I don't know that I'll finish this month, but I have until the end of March. I, foolishly perhaps, raised my hand on Monday night and claimed March to submit the full.

Should be a busy, but fun month.

September What?

Wow! Six days into the new month. Guess I should post my goals, huh?

Getting my submission ready for CWC cut into my roll on MMG, but it needed to be done. I'm pretty happy with the result as I submitted 98 pages--the longest submission so far. I also finished the critique for Mary.

My goals for September are going to sound familiar, but with a twist.

--Flesh out the rest of TNN and get it ready for submission. [I want this done before I get feedback on the first part. Otherwise, I have a tendency to want to change direction based on comments rather than letting the story unfold the way I first envisioned it. I've learned that people can change their opinion of the first bit after they read the rest. And it lessens future pressure when it comes time to submit.]
--Get revised bio to Ali by 9/7/09. Yeah, not much wiggle room on this one.
--Critique Shane's submission.

And that's it for this month. Didn't expect that, did you? Where's MMG? I figure I've got about 150 pages of TNN to knock out. Using Jenny's writing math, that comes to almost 7 pages a day in order to be done by the CWC meeting on the 28th. That's NaNo level page count. I think that's plenty to shoot for in one month. Especially one month that's already seen a week go by. And one in which I'm taking on a new tap and jazz class.

With that amount of new writing and trying to get my body to move in new and unusual ways, I think I'm pretty much taking on Ali's challenge as well.

How 'bout you?

August Goals

I feel like I accomplished a lot in July. Although when I look at the writing goals and how I did on them, not so much. Still, in a more esoteric sense, I accomplished loads. Because I know exactly what the final (and it will be my final, if not an agent's or editor's) version of MMG needs. It's right there. And this isn't like the other "I kinda sorta think this is what it needs" moments. I know. It feels great. And I've made great strides in that direction. It may take a little longer than I hoped. But I'll know when I'm done.

Anyway, here are the writing goals for August:

--Rewrite of MMG
--Prepare TNN/KoS for submission to CWC
--Do critique (0/1)
--Rework MMG query template with awesome input from Jenny & Mary
--Finish MMG short synopsis

Easy peasy, right?

July Goals

Get me--updating so much lately. Feels pretty good really.

In June I didn't meet most of my goals, although I was close on a couple and did get all my critiques done. This month we don't have any submissions to critique for CWC. I'm going to take it a bit easier on myself, calling it summer break.

So for July I have:

--Rewrite of MMG with new-old structure
--Finish writing room makeover
--Do bio for CWC website
--Look up agents
--Write query letter

June Goals

May seemed like such a long month, yet I didn't really accomplish much writing-wise. About 25 more pages of MMG revised and 25 pages of TNN in pretty good shape for submission this month. Not a lot. But I did a whole bunch of other good stuff. Got back into the habit of writing Morning Pages daily. Started practicing banjo again, complete with sore fingertips on my left hand as I get used to holding down the strings. Really cleaned out the writing room, even the scary closet. And moved the chest of drawers downstairs so there is now room to set up bookshelves. All in all a productive month.

Plans for June? A lot of the same old/same old with a little twist:

--Rewrite of MMG with new-old structure (75/??)
--Rewrite 2nd 25 pages of TNN for CWC
--Prepare short story for submission to magazine
--Do CWC critiques (0/2)
--Finish writing room makeover

I've been flirting with the writing room redo for two years now. There has been this niggling around the sides of my mind saying that I shouldn't get a new writing room until MMG is ready to send to agents. Well, that's horse hockey, as my mother used to say. If I want a redecorated writing room, then wanting it is all that's necessary.

The extra challenge is in getting a short story to a point where I feel it's ready to submit to a magazine. Regular blog readers know I'm not comfortable with shorts, nor am I ever really happy with any of them. So this is a biggie for me.

What do you feel you don't do well that you'd like to do better? How about working on it this month?

The Merry Merry Month

I don't know that anything uber-special has ever happened to me in May, but if I were to name a favorite month, I think May would be it. It's usually a pretty month. Trees and flowers are budding, the grass is turning green (before it dies in June when I fail to water it), the birds are chirping, etc. etc. It's a transitional month, and I like the transitional seasons. It might be interesting to go back and see if I am more or less productive in May.

The goals for this month are posted at the side. I've added a couple more things this month. The first is to write Morning Pages daily. Which is how they are supposed to be done, but I have been slacking off big time. I know I write more when I do my Morning Pages. It could be that they really work. It could be that Julia Cameron has completely brainwashed me. I don't care. They do the job. When I can get all the gunk down on the page--the page that is meant for the gunk--I don't have to deal with it when it's time to actually write. So Pages daily again.

The second unusual entry is to practice banjo at least twice a week. This is another creativity booster. It's fun, even though I have to work at it. It's creative, but in a different way. While it takes time and patience to improve, I am at least good enough to plunk out a recognizable tune or strum chords that I can sing along with. In other words, instant gratification. Writing does give a tangible result--"I wrote 10 pages today!"--but it's a tangible result that can't readily be evaluated. I may think it's brilliant, but it might be veering off into a deadend direction or fails to move the story at all. Or I can think it stinks, but then realize after the whole thing is done that this was the pivotal moment in the story. With music, it's ephemeral but immediate.

I'm also going to start the cleanup of TNN for submission in July (I think it's July, we're doing some rejiggering). In any case, I don't want to wait until the last minute. So we're getting that party started.

So, is there something you can do that's fun and creative but has nothing to do with writing? How about giving it a try this month?

March Goals

Recap of February:

--Finish this rewrite of MMG (400/400 pages)
--Clean up enough of Vesta from NaNo to submit this month (DONE)
--Do CWC critique (1/1)
--UGWP critiques (3/3)

Not bad at all, after the change to "this" rewrite of MMG. Yes, it was a lot of work accomplished. And, yes, it was still disappointing to not be done with the damn thing. But that's the way this game goes. Without further ado (or whinging) here is the plan for March:

--Do rewrite of MMG with new-old structure
--Do CWC critiques (0/2)

I know UGWP critiques are not on the list. I hope to be able to do them, but I won't beat myself up if I don't get them done. I kind of knew the return to Sunday group could turn out to be temporary. If I can keep up great. If I can't, it's time to finally call it quits. Love the people, that doesn't make more time in my month.

Ack! Goals, Again.

It feels like I've just written the goals for one month before it's time to do it all over again.

How'd I do for January?

--Finish really really rough draft of TNN (DONE)
--Rewrite MMG (About 1/3)
--Write flash piece for anthology (Did 2)
--Read first book in Divine Comedy (DONE)
--Do CWC critique (1/1)
--UGWP critiques (3/3)

For February?

--FINISH rewrite of MMG
--Clean up enough of Vesta from NaNo to submit to CWC this month (added)
--Complete CWC critique
--UGWP critique

It's a short month, what can I say?

Reading Goals

I gave my writing goals a week ago. Guess it's time to think about my reading goals for the year. Not that I think we necessarily need goals. Reading for fun is, well, fun and worthwhile for that simple fact. But I do like a challenge and find that I usually come away from one having not only learned something but having had some fun, too.

So, in addition to the ones I pick up just because, I would like to tackle the following this year:

--Read more non-fiction. I tend to only read non-fiction when I'm researching a book. While that's groovy, I'd like to read a little more on current events, history, biography, whatever that has nothing to do with what I'm planning to write. If it creeps in later, so be it.
--Read a couple craft books--writing, that is. There were a few years, back in the beginning of this writer's journey, when I read one craft book after another. Then they all start to bleed into each other. It's probably been a couple years since I read one. Time to pick up a couple old favorites and delve into a few I haven't read before.
--Read some classics. This will include The Divine Comedy, The Iliad and The Odyssey. I've had them on my shelf for years, but haven't gotten around to them. It's time.

Not awfully specific, but enough to give me a rough guideline. Kinda like my writing outlines.

The Year Ahead

As we saw in the previous post, I was a big old slacker failure in 2008. (I'm giggling as I type so obviously I don't feel all that badly about it, which is probably a really bad thing.) So what should I expect from myself in 2009 that would be an improvement? Well, almost anything would be an improvement, wouldn't it? Okay, done beating myself up now.

Here's what I would really like to get done in 2009 with a bit more specificity:

--Finish revision of MMG in January (or be prepared to throw it in a drawer).
--Revise Vesta by end of April.
--Finish draft of TNN by end of February.
--Revise TNN by end of summer.
--Write rough draft of some other novel that I haven't thought up yet by end of year.
--Query Dan and other agents in March (only if MMG is submittable, otherwise wait for Vesta).
--Write flash fiction piece for anthology by mid-January.

Anyone else ready to commit to what they want to accomplish next year?

Year in Review

I just went back and looked at my goals for this year. They were not particularly ambitious. Yet I failed to meet a large percentage of them. Disappointing to say the least. Here they are, with the results, such as they were:

--Finish revision of MMG. (Um, no.)
--Query Daniel and lots of other agents. (No)
--Finish draft of Vesta. (Check)
--Work on short stories and submit. (Not a single one.)
--Possibly start TNN or another new novel. (Check)
**Win NaNoWriMo (Check!)

Holy jeez, that's just sad.

**Addendum: Ali pointed out that I won NaNoWriMo this year and didn't list it. I didn't because it wasn't one of my stated goals. The results are listed (finish draft of Vesta and start TNN). But it was a bit deal so I've added it to the bottom.