Always quirky, sometimes sweet speculative fiction

March Goals Round Up

Once again, reporting in on my progress on my yearly goals.

I returned to work on the 1st of the month to Key, Clocks and Quests, intending to get enough of a draft hammered out that I would be able to come up with a working title that didn’t suck the big one. Fell a bit short, but did manage to pound out an extra 7,500 words, so I’m making progress on goal #3.

I also wrote 14,800 words the novelette ‘The Troll’s Toll’ and am down to the very final scene now. The Troll’s Toll was supposed to be a short story, but at 15,000+ words I’m afraid there’s nothing ‘short’ about it. I’m still counting it as work towards goal #5 (write and submit more short stories).

In fact, The Troll’s Toll is the story in which I have had my most productive recorded day ever, typing 8140 words in one day. I know, mammoth! I may perhaps have had a few better days back when I was bedridden with my vertigo disorder, but I wasn’t recording my word counts back then.

I also wrote a flash fiction piece ‘Stolen Hearts’ which I’m intending to submit to Fireside Magazine.

The biggest achievement for me this month was receiving my first acceptance for a short story. I’m eagerly awaiting the edits to come through and looking forward to giving you all more details when they’re available.

As for goal # 7, learning, this month I’ve mostly been reading short stories on my Kindle to see what published shorts are like. I’ve read all the old Fireside magazines, several Aurealis releases, Subversion: Science fiction and fantasy tales of Challenging the Norm from Crossed Genres, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show(awards anthology), Dieselpunk ePulp Showcase, and Phoenix by Chuck Palahniuk (the writer of Fight Club).

I beta read Talitha Kalago’s Lifesphere Inc (very awesome young adult series) and of course have been devouring the critiques for my writers’ group as well, so am working a fair amount with other writers also. This wasn’t really a goal, but it’s something I quite enjoy.

How are you tracking with your goals this month?

7 Comments

  1. Mary Tod

    You must be a planner like me, Kirstie. My goals for March included building a self-publishing plan (check), completing revisions to my novel based on a copyedit (check), making production decisions for Unravelled (close but not complete), solicit input for my second historical fiction survey (not yet complete), find tech support for my blog (check), gather Twitter followers (went from 92 to over 600), analyze market segments (almost done). That feels reasonably productive – so glad you gave me an opportunity to review them!!
    Mary Tod recently posted..Historical Fiction Author … R.N. MorrisMy Profile

  2. Mary Tod

    PS – well done on the short stories!
    Mary Tod recently posted..Historical Fiction Author … R.N. MorrisMy Profile

    • Kirstie

      Thanks Mary, and impressive work on the Twitter followers and your mammoth list. Plans are a great way to help you push forward, even if they are just a loose to do list.

  3. Faith

    8k in one day! That’s awesome, good for you! I love novelettes. It’s the perfect length for me to read in one sitting, and as a writer, I have a lot of fun revising something so short. I feel so accomplished after.
    Faith recently posted..Spock Tours OregonMy Profile

    • Kirstie

      Thanks, I was thoroughly impressed with myself (and may still be strutting even now ;p ). I must confess though: half way through, I was having trouble trying to convey an action in present tense. It would be so easy to write it in past tense though, so I just switched over, now the first half of the novelette is present tense and the second half past tense – it’s going to be one heck of a revision!

  4. Elizabeth Barone

    You are rockin’ it! Way to go. 🙂
    Elizabeth Barone recently posted..Kill Them All: How I Broke Up With My FlashbacksMy Profile

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