Always quirky, sometimes sweet speculative fiction

Tag: goals (Page 2 of 3)

July Goals Round-Up 2014

I feel like I talked a big game in my halfway check-up and then fumbled the ball.

As far as goal one – the revision of Written By The Stars – honestly, the size of the task daunted me. The current lesson in Holly Lisle’s How To Revise Your Novel is the world building one, and I need to assess the world in every single scene. Blearg! I’m going to really try and buckle down on this one.

I started the ‘Princess Paladin’ idea I mentioned in my last goals round up, and what I thought would only be around 5,000 words looks like it’s going to round out around 10,000 to have the ending that I’m looking for. Of course I’ve done the old writer trick of having an idea mid-writing and have chased the rabbit, so it might end up being cut back down to 5,000 but we’ll see. So far I’ve written 5,000 words of the first draft.

I’ve watched a few webinars in pursuit of goal four, but it’s just reenforcing my belief that there’s only so much that free webinars will teach you (not to mention 90% of them finish trying to put the hard sell on you of ‘you must sign-up within the next 48 hours for this amazing discount‘). After ten or so of them and reading 1,000+ blog posts with advice for writer’s you start to hear either a lot of the same or a lot of conflicting advice. One good one to check out for marketing though (with no hard sell involved, no sell period actually) is ‘How Not to Be An Evil Marketer‘.
Anyway, I’ve got to put some gumption into it for the rest of the year. How are you all going?

June Goals Round-Up 2014 + Halfway Mark Check

This month just passed I wrote a new short story ‘The Ashes’ and got excited about an old idea in a new time period. I also came up with two more hilarious ideas for short stories I will call ‘Princess Paladin’ and ‘Choose Your Underwear Carefully’. I also found out I’d had my flash fiction piece ‘Anything To Fit In’ recently published(you can read it free here). So my third goal is going quite well.

I’m stuck in the world building lesson for Written By The Stars’s revision. As you can imagine there’s a lot of world building with fantasy, and there are lots of checks the lesson has me make, so goal one is moving along, if somewhat sluggishly with the aide of goal four.

And now, the half way mark has been reached, so my mid-point check up:

In regards to goal one (final revision and editing of Written By The stars) I’m a bit behind where I had hoped to be on this project, but should easily have it knocked off by year end.

Goal two (finishing the first draft of Keys, Clock, Quests), yeah… haven’t done much with this goal at all sadly, but I’m only at the halfway mark of the year, still plenty of time to turn it around. I must admit though this one keeps being prioritised last. I suppose something has to be though…

Goal three (continuing to write and submit short stories), I’ve written a few, ideas for plenty, and submitted quite a few, even had two published so far (Nightfall in the anthology 18 and Anything To Fit In on the website 365 Tomorrows) so this one’s been going quite well.

Goal four (keep learning), I’ve done a few webinars (though I think I’m starting to reach the point where webinars don’t seem to be teaching me anything I haven’t heard before), have taken a couple of Holly Lisle’s courses (How To Revise Your Novel and How to Write Flash Fiction That Doesn’t Suck(the flash fiction one is free), continued to attend my critique group (this is one of my favourite leaning tools and I can’t recommend it enough – a good writers group helps you learn and grow through receiving feedback and giving your own). I think this one’s moving along nicely.

All up things are going smoothly, but I can do better ;p

How are you all going?

Visible Goals

<3 paper clips courtesy of Kikki K

My goals board. <3 paper clips courtesy of Kikki K

For most of last year I had a small cork board on the living room wall. On it I put the goals that had highest priority to me.

Early this year Xander finally gained the climbing dexterity to reach it and – as you can imagine – tacks and toddlers are an unwise mix, so it was pulled down and put away.

This happened while I was down and out with my vertigo so by the time I felt better there was so much work to do the last thing on my mind was my goals board. That is, until I started noticing that everything was being prioritised over my writing. Even things I normally prioritise lower (like playing games – much as I love to it doesn’t earn me money ;p ) were getting done before writing. It wasn’t until today that I pin-pointed why this was happening.

My goals board.

I didn’t have my writing goals somewhere where I would be reminded of them and their importance multiple times a day.

I managed to contrive a piece of cardboard which I can clip my goals onto using paperclips and hang it in the living room. Now I have my visible goals and no toddler terror.

May Goals Round-Up 2014

This month was all about editing. I buckled down and started slamming through revision for ‘Written By The Stars’, using Holly Lisle’s ‘How to Revise Your Novel‘ course. SIDE NOTE: I recommend any course Holly makes. She’s a brilliant writer and a superb teacher, so if you’re a writer and you’re uncertain which courses are worth the money I’d say Holly’s are. No, I’m not an affiliate and I get no kickbacks for recommending you, just expressing how I feel about the courses.

The only downside to revising all month long is my brain is hard core in editing mode. I woke myself up at 3am one night because the dream I was having rehashed information ;p

Hope everyone else is going well as we draw closer to the halfway mark!

April Goals Round-Up 2014

Well this month I attended the Aurealis Awards ceremony in Canberra for my piece ‘Short Circuit’ which was a finalist in the Best Fantasy Short Story category, but as far as progress on my goals for this year goes:

For goal one (finish editing Written By The Stars) I’m working through lesson two of Holly Lisle’s How to Revise Your Novel – which requires a full read through of the novel (after having done a full read through in lesson one as well ;p ) so plugging away on that goal. This also takes care of goal four (keep learning). Everybody loves two birds one stone!

Didn’t touch goal two (finish Keys, clocks, quests first draft) – I like to take things one novel at a time ;p

Goal three (keep writing and submitting short stories): I finished my latest novelette, Look Skyward, this month. I rounded it out at 11,300 words (I only wrote the final 4,300 this month) and I also wrote a 400 word flash fiction piece, Back To Work, about a mother returning to work after maternity leave.

I also made a few Found Fiction drops, both while I was in Canberra and around Brisbane. It’s lot of fun and I plan on planting a few more this weekend.

Not a bad month, but I think I can do better(long time readers will know I always think I’m under performing).

How are you going with your goals?

February Goals Round-Up 2014

This month my goals progress has been somewhat impeded by whatever it is that this constant dizziness is. On the plus side I still made more progress in my writing than in getting a diagnosis.

I’ve been lucky enough to have a few new ideas but not lucky enough to be able to write anything of substance.

I did have a few clear-minded days, but I spent most of that time working on feedback from near-miss rejections and my critique group, thus getting some of my short stories out (or back out) into the submission pool.

Despite my vertigo I did manage go to my critique group meeting at the start of the month. Though I think I scared a few friends no one can doubt my commitment.

And no matter how little I managed to get done nothing can diminish the fact that this month my story Short Circuit became an Aurealis Awards finalist.

I hope everyone out there is making good headway on their goals for this year.

January Goals Round-Up 2014

stare at this real hard for an hour and you'll know how I've felt these last two weeks ;p

stare at this real hard for an hour and you’ll know how I’ve felt these last two weeks ;p

I wrote 11,700 words in a new novelette(working title: Grimoire) as well as two flash pieces (Anything To Fit In at 500 words, and Motherhood at 900 words) and two new short stories (God’s Chosen at 2200 words and Gaps at 5000 words), so am making progress on goal 3(writing and submitting more short stories). 20,000 words, not a shabby start to the year.

I’ve begun the major and (oh please god) final edit of Written By The Stars. I’m being guided by Holly Lisle’s How To Revise Your Novel Class, thus also taking care of goal 4(learning) as well as goal 1(editing Written By The Stars).

All up, fairly productive, though that trailed off with the return of my vertigo (dizzy heads get foggy which makes editing a little difficult and first drafts pretty damn nutty).

Goals Reassessment

Yes I really should have done this earlier in the year, but usually a goal reassessment like this means the removal of goals which are unrealistic. I wanted to keep those goals up as long as possible for something to strive toward.

I did work on every single one of my goals to some extent so far, but many of them are too far from completion to realistically be completed in the less than two months to the end of this year. So a few of my goals will roll over onto next years goals list.

Now, let’s review the goal and where I’m at with them,

Goal #1 – Complete Storybook Perfect’s second book. Yeeeeeah, considering I’ve even been doing rewrites on the first one again, I don’t see that happening.

Goal #2 – Edit Written By the Stars, ideally to a level where it can be sent to agents. I’ve done so many read throughs this year, four when I go back and look at my diary. But I had a big stumbling block that stopped me from making those read-throughs actual edits. I’m pretty sure I have figured out the problem, but it’s going to involve some heavy plotting (that sounds almost sexy). I have to decide between projects and I don’t think I can finish this and the next project, so I have to pick one or the other. Still deciding though, I’m waiting to see what project feels best once NaNo is over and I can focus.

Goal #3 – Complete the first draft of Key, Clocks, Quests. I’ve hit the twist that made me excited to write this story, and I’ve even got them back to the point where they’re back in (almost) control of things, but there’s still a fair way to go. I think it might even be a NaNo length amount left to write. It might be hard to do this one before the year end, but I’m not counting it out just yet.

Goal #4 – Finish a new novel first draft. This one was always going to be a stretch. I’m going to cheat just a smidge and change this to ‘start a new novel first draft’, because by the end of NaNo I should have 50,000 words down in Between Blinks (which I need to add to my ‘current projects’ page), so technically then I’ll have achieved said goal.

Goal #5 – Make short stories, enter competitions and submit to journals. Well this one doesn’t need any correction. Thus far this year I’ve written 7 all new short stories, 5 flash fiction, 2 novellas/novelettes (14,000/17,000 words) and polished 4 short stories started last year to submission quality (or darn close). Two of those stories are successfully published and many of the others are getting from the slush pile to the final decision makers, though ultimately they return with rejections (but feedback riddled rejections, which are quite positive, so yay!). I could probably just sit back on my laurels and rest with this one, but there’s a few more awards and competitions running still so I’m going to keep on submitting.

Goal #6 – Make a newsletter list. I swear if there’s one bit of advice every writer on the internet seems to harp on about it’s the importance of your mailing list. I intend to give a freebie story away when you sign up, but the story I intend to use is tied up with other things right now, so there’s a slight delay on that. I’m waiting for the story to be ready, but sometimes wonder if I should just go ahead and start it anyway and give the gift out when it’s ready.

Goal #7 – Learn. I’ve done plenty for this and I’m nowhere near stopping. I think this is a roll over goal, one that will appear on every goals list for the rest of my life.

 

I’m a little disappointed by how many goals are not done, but at least I’ve made strides toward most of my goals and if I slog it hard enough through the end of the year I might be able to tick off a few more. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see (well, you’ll wait, I’ll be busting my ass off).

October Goals Round-Up

October has been a pretty good month for me, seeing not just my first story published but two of them!

I finally unearthed my problem with Written By The Stars and am going back to try and punch the plot in the gut and fix that(well, you know, after I’ve hit all my NaNo targets).

I finished off the first draft of The Glass Witch, which now totals at 14,000 words (I only wrote the last 6,500 this month though). I started a new flash fiction, but it died in the water when I realised it had no ending, it was just a great start.

I did a lot of NaNo prep, creating a detailed plot outline for the book (and looser ones for the two sequel books) as well as fleshing out the characters and creating a blurb and a one sentence summary. I’ve had a good start on it so far, but that’s to be covered in my November round-up ;p .

I did a lot of submissions this month, sending out reprint requests, putting in applications for awards and novelist retreats as well as the usual anthology and magazine submissions, but as is common with the submission process it will be a little while before I hear back from some of them.

It’s funny, sometimes I feel like I didn’t do much, because I didn’t write a lot new this month, but I did do a lot of final proofing, last checks before sending submissions, critiquing of other peoples work so really I was working quite hard toward my writing career as a whole. It makes me wonder if the ‘write every day’ rule for authors shouldn’t be tweaked slightly to be ‘make steps toward your writing goals every day’, because there’s so much more than just putting new words down on the page.

Now, lets see if I can survive my second NaNoWriMo. Also, here’s my jack-o-lantern in the dark!

A tip for other Aussies carving pumpkins: do it the night before Halloween, because the heat kills them within a few days, but Saturday evening mine was sagging and filled with mold!

A tip for other Aussies carving pumpkins: do it the night before Halloween, because the heat kills them within a few days, by Saturday evening mine was sagging and filled with mold!

September Goals Round-Up

The goals again in case you were curious or can’t remember.

I spent most of September trying to edit Written By the Stars (goal 2 in my list) but essentially I’m just tinkering with sentences and getting mad. There’s something wrong with it and I can’t figure out what. I intend to ask a few people I respect from my critique group if they’d be willing to read it for me in the hopes I can find out what’s wrong or learn that I’m just being a typical picky writer.

I’ve been working some more on outlining and world building for my new first draft (goal 4) but haven’t started writing – I intend it to be my NaNoWriMo project. It’s really a fun and for once not set in an ancient world but an off-shoot of our current world – in Brisbane in fact.

Goal 5, entering and submitting more and creating short stories for such endeavours has been a bit lacking this month. I only created Kina’s Climb and I published that here on my site so can’t really submit it (but you can totally go read it 😀 ). I’d be disappointed with myself if I hadn’t already created 13 new stories so far this year and had 2 successes in submitting. Also I’m getting a lot of my submissions to the final stages, which is a sign of improvement as well.

I didn’t touch 1, or 3 or 6 again. For shame me… I really need to kick into gear on 1 and 6.

As for the added goal of learning, one has only to read my review of the Brisbane Writers’ Festival to know I showed that goal who was boss.

Etrian_Odyssey_IVNot a bad month, but not a glimmering paragon of writerly magnificence. I can do better, but I could have done worse. Particularly with Etrian Odyssey IV sitting in my 3DS calling to me(and I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t give in to its call several nights).

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Storybook Perfect

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑