Jan

30

Month End Evaluation of Goals

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Back on October 22, I posted my writing goals for 2009. As a review, here’s what they were:

January 2009

  • Revise TMA, one chapter per week, minimum 1k words revised per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • Start checking out agents currently accepting submissions.
  • Do Create A Culture & Create A Language for Zaan for Storm King’s Eye.

January is more or less over, so let’s see how I did:

  • I did not get the revisions done, but I did submit the three chapters to my writing group.
  • Completed one crit. I think.
  • Did not start looking for agents.
  • Did not do Create a Culture/Create A Language for Zaan.

Not a very good start to 2009. A big part of not getting the last two things done on my list was, well, because I forgot about the existence of these goals. I have since found the huge planning binder – you know, the one I put in a “safe place” – and will faithfully work from it starting February 1st. After the Superbowl is over.

Dec

11

I can’t believe I did that!

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So, I’m about to start work on Chapter 15 of TMA, and decide to read through Chapter 14. To my dismay, I discover that not only is it incomplete, but it’s not even the most recent version of it. I log into my writing group’s website and find out that I uploaded this incorrect, incomplete version. At first, I thought I could recover the chapter from the thumb drive I’m using to back this stuff up, but two days ago I copied evreything off my desktop onto the drive, overwriting everything.

I’m trying not to panic. I worked on the chapter on my old laptop, so I fire up the old monster. Luckily, it’s got all the stuff I wrote during Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any of the stuff I wrote afterward. So, I’ve lost two, maybe three pages of work. Needless to say, I’m angry at myself for doing it, but at least I didn’t lose everything.

I’ve got a Gmail account, so what I’m going to do from now on (or at least try to remember to do) is email whatever chapter I’m working on to that account. That way if I do something stupid like this again, I won’t panic and won’t lose as much as I did this time.

Oct

22

Writing Goals for 2009

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The Muse 2008 Online Writers Conference is now over, but it was a real blast. I wasn’t able to participate as much as I’d hoped to, but I did learn a lot. The workshop that influenced me the most was “Burn Those Bunny Slippers”. It was about helping yourself treat writing more like a job/profession – how to set goals, get your family’s support, and so on. The most important thing it did for me was to get me to actually sit down and create some concrete goals, rather than just relying on “oh, I’ll try to do this”. So, without further ado, here are my goals for 2009…

January 2009

  • Revise TMA, one chapter per week, minimum 1k words revised per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • Start checking out agents currently accepting submissions.
  • Do Create A Culture & Create A Language for Zaan for Storm King’s Eye.

February 2009

  • Revise TMA, one chapter per week, minimum 1k words revised per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • Check out agents currently accepting submissions.
  • Do Create A Culture & Create A Language for Mirander for Storm King’s Eye.

March 2009

  • Revise TMA, one chapter per week, minimum 1k words revised per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • Check out agents currently accepting submissions.
  • Complete Create A Plot system for Storm King’s Eye.

April 2009

  • Revise TMA, one chapter per week, minimum 1k words revised per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • Check out agents currently accepting submissions.
  • Do research for TMA #2

May 2009

  • Complete TMA polishing – 1 chapter per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Check out agents currently accepting submissions.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • Research for TMA #2

June 2009

  • Put together submission package for agent search.
  • Submit first agent query.
  • Write Storm King’s Eye – minimum 1000 words per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • Start Create A Plot for TMA #2 – working title “Ravenous”?

July 2009

  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • Start writing Storm King’s Eye – minimum 1000 words per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • If get response from agent, act on it. If rejection, submit to next agent on the list.

August 2009

  • Write Storm King’s Eye – minimum 1000 words per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • If get response from agent, act on it. If rejection, submit to next agent on the list.

September 2009

  • Write Storm King’s Eye – minimum 1000 words per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • If get response from agent, act on it. If rejection, submit to next agent on the list.

October 2009

  • Write Storm King’s Eye – minimum 1000 words per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • If get response from agent, act on it. If rejection, submit to next agent on the list.

November 2009

  • Write Storm King’s Eye – minimum 1000 words per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • If get response from agent, act on it. If rejection, submit to next agent on the list.

December 2009

  • Write Storm King’s Eye – minimum 1000 words per day.
  • Submit minimum 3 chapters to crit group.
  • Do required 6 crits for writing group.
  • If get response from agent, act on it. If rejection, submit to next agent on the list.

Mar

4

What’s up For Tomorrow

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In my last blog entry, I talked about research. Specifically, how to deal with the realization you need to do some more research when you’re in the middle of writing. I was going to look at how to organize your research today, but I’ve got too many things on my plate. Check back here tomorrow for that discussion.