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June accountability, July goals

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Last month, I was a little worried about my goals because I had some other big plans. So, how did it go?

GoalsJune accountability

  • Start editing the newest novella. Hoping to make it through the first quarter or third.—DONE. I got through the first quarter of the paper edit and entered about 2/3s of that onto the manuscript, and sent it off to my critique partners. Unfortunately, my paper edit included one note “add an entire new chapter here.” Which I have yet to do. Bet my crit partners loved that part.
  • Read through Tomorrow We Spy again and apply latest round of critique notes; send to beta readers—I had to push the readthrough back to the end of the month, after the beta round, but I did incorporate my critique partners’ notes and sent it off to beta readers! So DONE!
  • READ. A lot. DONE! My husband and I left our kids with my mom and took our tenth anniversary trip, cruising to Juneau and Skagway, Alaska, then driving (and riding a train) through the Yukon, then visiting Fairbanks, Alaska, and Denali National Park before ending in Anchorage. It was fantastic! But more later—when I have pictures. For now, I’ll just say, because of all the driving and flying, I read eight books. Woot!
  • Think about website and marketing stuff even more. There was definite thinking.
  • Get beta reader feedback and incorporate, getting the novel ready to go to my editor—beta reader feedback is trickling in, and I’ve finished the readthrough. Notes are incorporated and I’m about to click send!!

Woot!

July goals

I spent almost half of last month preparing, traveling and recovering. This month, I’ll get to spend a couple weeks with my family visiting. I’m super excited—but I’ve still got to fit the work in!

  • Get a cover. The fun part!
  • Edit the next half of the rebelliovella and send to critique partners.
  • Get back edits, incorporate, and proof.
  • Format and typeset.
  • Read two books on marketing.
  • Keep thinking about website stuff. Seriously. Maybe even think about doing something, eh?

What’s up for you this month?

Photo by Celestine Chua

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News & Contests

May accountability; June goals

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Last month, I was really daunted by my goals, things I’d been chipping away at way too slowly for months. So, how did it go?

GoalsMay accountability

  • FINISH THE NOVELLA—DONE. Sort of. You see, one of the reasons this novella was so tough was that . . . it wasn’t a novella at all. I deluded myself even after I passed the projected 30,000 word count halfway through, even when I hit 50,000 words, even when I finished at 62,000 words. I could cut it back, I told myself. Other than all these scenes I need to add . . . So now I have a new problem: when am I going to find time to edit a full novel??
  • DO THE EDITS—done. They’re not all entered, but the last few are sitting there in my file waiting for me.
  • Do rewrites on Saints & Spies—with the novella turning into a novel, I decided to move this a little later.
  • Participate in a sale event (more on that coming up later in the month!)—check! Not as successful as my last big sale, but still a big bump!
  • Think about marketing & website stuff.—did some of this. More to come.

Whew! That looks like a ton of progress!

June goals

I know, the month’s half over. But here’s what I wanted to get done starting at the beginning of the month.

  • Start editing the newest novella. Hoping to make it through the first quarter or third.
  • Read through Tomorrow We Spy again and apply latest round of critique notes; send to beta readers.
  • READ. A lot. I need to recharge!
  • Think about website and marketing stuff even more.
  • Get beta reader feedback and incorporate, getting the novel ready to go to my editor

I think I can?

What’s up for you this month?

Photo by Celestine Chua

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Writing Life

April accountability; May goals

Normally, I post about my goals on the first Friday of the month, but with all my conference posts last week, it seemed like a pretty full week blogging-wise.

GoalsApril accountability

Reporting on my goals for last month

  • Top priority: finalize my presentations for (and attend) the LDStorymakers conference!—Yep! It went really, really amazingly, wonderfully well. My classes were all packed, and I was almost moved to tears to see so many people as dedicated to learning about the craft as I am.
  • Second priority: Finish those last 5 Whitney reads!—Yes! Just in the nick of time, too. But now I’ve read almost as many books this year as I did last year—and I want to read more! It’s so much easier and more fun than editing!
  • Seriously, write that dang novella.—Um, no. I got some words here, but this is still not done.
  • Deep edit Spy Another Day 3 and incorporate cultural feedback.—My cultural feedback was delayed, but honestly, I had to put this project on the back burner myself, too.
  • Reread Saints & Spies to begin the publication phase!—No.
  • Write new stuff for next writing craft book.—just no.

May goals

You guys, I’m struggling a little here. I’ve had this novella on my to-do list for I don’t know how many months, and it’s really dragging. Plus I can’t find it in me to get these edits after working my editing fingers to the bone for the last year. I love the story, but I really don’t want to work on it anymore. I’ve given myself time away from it, and all that’s done is make me want even more time—and I’ve kind of promised this book is coming out this summer. I want to keep my deadlines—my commitments. I’ve already dropped one book from my production schedule, and I feel like if I drop any more, I’ll lose what little momentum I have.

So, this month, I must

  • FINISH THE NOVELLA—I have finally started to move the needle on this! Yay!
  • DO THE EDITS
  • Do rewrites on Saints & Spies
  • Participate in a sale event (more on that coming up later in the month!)
  • Think about marketing & website stuff.

Normally, with only five things on my list, I pat myself on the back for my reasonable expectation. But considering how long some of these “list-cicles” have already been on there, and how little progress I’ve made, I’m definitely daunted this month, and already feeling the pressure.

What’s up for you this month?

Photo by Celestine Chua

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Writing Life

September accountability, October goals

How. Is. It. October.

It’s the first Friday of the month! I’m reporting on my goals for September and setting new ones for October. Come join in!

September accountability

We’re settling into the school routine here. And, uh, that’s kind of it. I worked hard this month, but I made time for my kids, a cousin’s wedding reception, a visit from my sister and other important stuff.

So, what did I get done?

  • Goal for the sequel: Deep edit, incorporate beta feedback, read aloud, send to editor—I deferred reading it aloud—oh, dang, I was supposed to be doing that last week. Ugh. But other than that, check check check!
  • Finish back cover copy and get cover for sequel—I got the cover! The back cover copy is up, but I still need to have my designer convert the cover to a print version.
  • Finish Character Arcs & send to betas—did that!
  • Set up a big promotion for I, Spy—did it!
  • Run Promenade booth—did it only once. Got rained out the last week.
  • Critique—yep!
  • Start something new (and SHORT)?—started and finished!

Whoa.

October goals

While we’re welcoming two new nieces into the family this month, other than getting their gifts ready, I have nothing big planned in my personal life this month. Which probably means something big will happen on its own, right?

  • Complete edits on & read aloud Spy for a Spy.
  • Proofread Spy for a Spy.
  • Pull together promo materials for Spy for a Spy. (sensing a theme?)
  • Research & plot Nano novel
  • Maybe write another novella? Have to do something to stay sane amidst the marketing and editing 😉
  • Edit the novella I wrote last week.
  • Edit Character Arcs & do all that pre-launch publicity stuff.

Why do I always make more work for myself?
What’s up for you this month?

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Writing Life, Works, News & Contests

August accountability, September goals!

It’s the first Friday of the month! I’m reporting on my goals for August and setting new ones for September. Come join in!

August accountability

I spent the first third of the month on vacation with my family, the next third recovering/unpacking/preparing for school, and the last third sending my kids back to school!

My second child started school this year, and she loves it so far.

  • Send the sequel to I, Spy out to my usual beta readers, plus probably a few more & incorporate their feedback—on the last day of the month, I got this DONE! I had to rip the novel apart, and I hope I sewed it back together okay. Within hours of sending it, I opened it to a random page and found a continuity error. Oy.
  • Prep the sequel to I, Spy to send to editor (and do it!)—Um, no. This month!
  • Start something new! My optimistic goal: 12,000 words on something new. Should be doable….?— AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ha. HA.
  • Read, read, read! Still working on that digital TBR, but the physical one is calling to me, too.—Moved most of this to this month, but I did read 🙂 .
  • Unpack: tackle the garage, landing place for most of the stuff we brought over in the month after we “officially” moved.—We’ve made some serious headway here. But by “we” I mean “my beloved husband.”

September goals

With the baby down for an afternoon nap, my third child sometimes doesn’t know what to do with herself! I’m hoping to convince her to take the occasional nap (she needs it even more than I need her to do it). We’re still getting into a routine, but I’m hoping things will settle down a bit and I can get some serious work done—fast.

I’m going to break out all that I hope to accomplish this month. Because I’m crazy like that.

  • Sequel: Deep edit, incorporate beta feedback, read aloud, send to editor.
  • Finish back cover copy and get cover for sequel.
  • Finish Character Arcs & send to betas.
  • Set up a big promotion for I, Spy
  • Run Promenade booth
  • Critique
  • Start something new (and SHORT)?

How . . . ? Can anybody loan me a couple extra hours a day?

What’s up for you this month?

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News & Contests

Predicting the future: plans for 2013!

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Happy New Year! I hope your holiday was fantastic, and didn’t involve, I don’t know, your first trip to the ER in 25 years or something like that (yay! Pleurisy!). I love a fresh beginning (and a clear bill of health 🙂 ), but I don’t particularly feel inclined to make New Year’s Resolutions (basically ever). However, I do have big plans for this year.

Over the last year and a half, I’ve really become devoted to scheduling to help achieve my goals easily, and this year is no different.

2013 fireworks

Blog schedule in 2013!

Last year, I created a blog schedule with themed days, which I sometimes even stuck to. Each month, I’d write out post ideas for each of those days. This made blogging pretty easy! So I’ll try to continue that pattern this year, but I’m changing up my days a bit. In 2013, we’ll look at:

  • Mondays: ups & downs of the writing life
  • Tuesdays: the Neverending TBR pile
  • Wednesdays: Writing craft
  • Thursdays: TBA
  • Fridays: all kinds of fun

I’ll also be working on several writing guide PDFs this year, including last year’s marketing series, and updating some of the older PDFs throughout the year.

Writing in 2013

Naturally, I’ve got big plans in writing, too. I actually made up a day-by-day production schedule last month—leaving the end of the year a little open, but still. Kinda scary, huh?

If I can keep up with my schedule, I’ll finish two new books and a short novella this year. Unfortunately, I’m already behind in my schedule (I really hope this isn’t indicative of the future!), so I’ll probably be playing catch up a bit this month—but I’ll writing that novella and starting on one of my novels. My production schedule also takes into account lots of editing and critiquing—but I actually tried not to push myself too hard.

Writing slower

Yes, shockingly, one of my goals for 2013 is to write slower.

I wrote two new novels in 2012, in a combined total of less than six weeks. I kind of love letting my fictional worlds consume me, and I found that writing so much, so quickly had some definite advantages in quality (no, really!)—but also some distinct drawbacks.

To put it bluntly, writing isn’t my only—or even my most important—responsibility. I’ve got three small children, and I’m not going to plant them in front of the TV forever. So one of my most important goals this year is to be more careful about my writing time. I’ll still shoot for a decent amount of words when I’m drafting, but it’s less than half of my 2012 daily drafting goal. I really don’t want to spend more than ~4 hours a day on my work, and most or all of that while my kids are at (pre)school or asleep.

I absolutely believe you have to guard your work time—but novels aren’t the only things I’m working on right now, and I’m pretty sure my fictional characters can wait much better than the real characters who awe weawwy, weawwy hungwy!

What do you think? What do you hope to achieve in 2013? Come join the conversation!

Photo by Kotomi Yamamura

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Technique, Works

Writing in the New Year

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Happy New Year!

It’s a time for making resolutions (for those things that sound good but we won’t really do) or setting goals (for those things that we actually want to do).

So here’s my favorite advice on setting goals. (It’s from me, but I had to get it somewhere at some point, right?) A goal you really want to achieve should be:

Written down
It’s even better to put them in a place where you can find them, see them often, and hopefully be reminded of them often. (Maybe next to those pieces of praise you’re going to tape to your wall 😉 .)

Specific
“Get better at writing” is too vague—if you finally learn the less/fewer rule tomorrow, are you done? We all always want to improve our skills, but a better goal would be to pick a specific skill to work on—to study techniques to create more vivid characters, for example. (It’s still a little vague, of course, but this may be the nature of the beast in this area.)

Use numbers or dates where they make sense: the number of words you write or edit, the amount of time you spend writing, the number of queries and submissions you send out.

Measurable
Whether the measurement is quantitative (like time spent) or qualitative (like more vivid characters), make sure it’s something you can see a difference in. This will probably involve reading something you wrote last year and objectively comparing your writing now. (If you can enlist a willing helper, outside opinion can be helpful—unless they give bad advice.)

Also useful here is to set a deadline for your goals: I want to study these skills by March 1, finish a first draft of my next WIP in 30 days, etc.

Personal
Just because someone else is setting a goal to write two hours a day doesn’t mean you have to. Keep in mind where you are in your writing and your life, and set goals that are suited to you.

Achievable
Aim high—but don’t literally aim for the stars (unless you a.) are an astronaut slated for flight or b.) like falling short). Choose something that you can achieve, but something you’ll have to work for.

Also in this area, it’s important to recognize when your goal isn’t completely (or at all) within your control: unless you also run a publishing company, it’s not your choice whether something gets published. So if you set more than one goal, be sure to include at least one goal that you have control over. On the other hand, don’t set more goals than you can handle or remember.

Broken down
I don’t mean literally broken—I mean that your goals, especially your big goals, should be broken down into specific steps. “Write better” is already kind of broken down if you go with more specific things like creating more vivid characters. But even that can be broken down: read such-and-such a book (by Feb 15), take notes; discuss these techniques with/at X; brainstorm application; spend two weeks going through manuscript to apply notes, etc.

So, what are your writing goals for 2009? Feel free to share them in the comments—or, if you’ve blogged them, put the link into the URL box.

Photo credits: Nobel Prize—Tim Ereneta; writing list—Hannah Swithinbank

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