2014 Goals and Hopes

Happy New Year everyone!

I seem to recall not setting any goals this time last year. That's probably why it feels so much like this last year was without accomplishment.

Goals:

1- Finish the superhero book before mid-January

2- Finish my Woven rewrite before February's end at latest

3- Edit Woven to its most polished by mid-April

4- Elevator pitch, query, and synopsis for Woven by mid-April

5- Write at least one other book this year

6- Edit at least one other book this year

Writing Goals: Now to 2013's End

All right. I didn't post writing goals at the beginning of the year. Now, I'm posting this list to keep myself accountable.

1- Finish my rewrite of Woven by October's end.
2- Spend October world-building and plotting on a new idea
3- Write said new idea in November (First-ever participation in NaNoWriMo here I come)
4- Revise Woven in December and have it ready for betas in the new year
5- Plot and world-build another book somewhere in there

Forgive me if blogging becomes a scarcity. I'm beginning a new job in a week and my schedule is going to be in flux.

What are your goals?

When I Should Be Writing

I should be writing every day, every afternoon or evening. Whenever the hours are mine to command. Lately, when I should be writing I've been playing video games or mindlessly surfing the internet or watching something on television. (Mind you, the pickings are slim in the summer.) When I should be writing or working on writing-related projects (like plotting and world building) I'm not. But that's going to start to change this week.

This week I've put up the video games and am pulling out the laptop again. It's time to refocus on goals and dreams.

2012 Goals Report

With the close of another year comes the time to check in on my goals and see how I did with them. (Probably not the best way to achieve goals, set them and not even think about them again for a year.)

My 2012 writing goals can be found in the 2011 goals report post, but I'll recap here.

Well, I queried Woven (then titled Mirror, Mirror) but not before mid-year like I'd hoped.

I wrote 1 book and 1 novella this year so that's sort of hitting goal. (Which was to write 2 books this year.)

I did not edit either of those books to get them query-ready.

I did attend a writer's conference this year, which was fabulous.

Sadly, I did not do NaNo this year.

So about half and half where meeting my goals is concerned. Sigh. I don't know that I'm going to set any goals for the coming year. (More about that in my next post.)

What are your goals for the year?


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Here's to you...

2011. Here's a toast to you.

I thought that as the year draws to a close I'd look backward.  I posted my 2011 writing goals here on the blog.

I hit all but one of those.  My poetry efforts have slacked off.  And, if I'm being honest, my motivation to continue writing poetry has vanished since leaving grad school and no longer participating in poetry workshops, readings, and not having people around me to regularly read/critique my poetry and help keep me motivated on that front.

But I hit every other goal that I posted here on the blog.

I revised Lodestar to death.

I queried Lodestar, albeit only a little.

I wrote two books.  Truth or Dare and Mirror, Mirror.

As the year ends, not only am I looking back but I'm looking forward.  My goals for 2012:

1- Query Mirror, Mirror before mid-year
2- Write 2 more books this year
3- Edit at least 1 of those books and get it ready for querying
4- Attend at least 1 writer's conference this year
5- Participate in NaNoWriMo for the first time ever

So, what are your goals for the year of writing ahead?

Goals and Dreams as an Author

Last week, Rachelle Gardner blogged about goals as a writer.  (What?  I write blog posts a week in advance so the rest of the week was full when this came up in my reader.)

I commented the following:

"I want to be read.  I want to be respected as an author who has a valuable and worthwhile voice to contribute to the conversation of the genre I'm going to publish in.  I want to touch the heart of someone who reads the words I write.

"That's all.  I don't dream of J.K. Rowling fame or having my books made into movies.  The money either of those would bring is just a mega-bonus to achieving my dream of seeing my name on a bookstore shelf. (It'd be nice, but I do try to stay realistic in my goals.)"

What I left off the comment was this:

One way that I've found helps me to define my goals in this publishing journey is to compare author events.  Which one strikes the chord with me?  The ones where literally hundreds of people show up, making it impossible to make a meaningful, if brief, connection with their readers as the author signs readers' copies of their book?  Or the ones where a hundred and fifty people attend, equally if not more interested in the presentation the author is there to make than getting their copies of the authors' book(s) signed?

For me, it's the latter.  I'm on this road to be read, to touch the heart of a reader and make them realize that maybe they have a voice, too, and if they can't express it themselves they can find the strength within to do so at some point.  That's what reading and characters are, to me.  They're meant to be larger-than-life explosions of what a reader may be facing, showing them that whatever demons are lurking can be vanquished.

Honestly, if one person reads something I wrote and they come out better for it, stronger for it, I've done my job as a writer.  I've impacted them through words and that's the best gift I can receive as a writer.

2010 Gone

Wow.  Another year gone.  This one's definitely had its ups and downs.  2011 will be much the same.

In January of this year (2010), I posted a list of my writerly goals for the year.  The post can be found here.

Of those, I only hit 2 of them.  Big ones, mind you, but only 2.  (Finished Oracles Promise and Lodestar with minor revisions to the latter and shelving the former.)

This year, my goals are thus:

1- Revise Lodestar
2- Query Lodestar (At some point in the year.  I'm no fool so I'm not going to set a concrete deadline for that one.)
3- Write 1 or 2 books more.  After all, I want to be an author.  Someday I hope to have deadlines.  I need to for sure get my act together for speeding up my writing process.  I can't write only 1 1/3 books in a year.
4- Finish 1 poetry collection, of whichever length, and try to get it published, too.

Happy New Year everyone!

Goals

Back on January 1 I posted my writerly goals for the year.

The original post can be found here.

I thought it would be a good time to check in on my goals, now that a couple of months have passed.  I may do this every couple of months.  Or not.

Well, looking at this list, I've accomplished one goal.

I finished Oracles Promise.  Which was my primary goal for the year.  Now I'm working on the second goal of revising this manuscript.  At some point I'll have to move on to writing Lodestar which is another goal on my list.  But for now I'm content to read and work on revising my completed manuscript.

How are you doing with your goals this year?

Footloose and Fancy-free Friday 1/1

Wow.  A new year.  A new decade.

The last one's been crap.  (The decade.  Last year was pretty okay.)

But they've also been good in their ways.

I lost and loved and achieved many things in this past decade.

It started with loss and ended on a low note.

Here's to 2010 and the whatever this decade will be called.

Writerly goals for 2010:

Finish Oracles Promise.  (70,280 words written.  Only 19,720 to go!)
Revise it.
Write Lodestar. (12,829 words written.  Only 62,171 to go!)
Revise it.
Be query-ready on some project by September/October.  (That's realistic, right?)
Finish my poetry collection titled ...Futile and get it polished for contest entry by August

That's it.  Those are all the goals I'm going to set.  No resolutions.  Just goals.

Happy new year everyone.

WiP Wednesdays 12/30

Remember when I said the universe had it out for me?

Yeah.  Spoke to soon.

The universe loathes me.

I've still got nearly 22,000 words to write for Oracles Promise.  That is so not going to happen before the end of the year.  I'm beginning to wonder if the universe plans for me to never finish this book.

At what point do I cave and move to the next project?  When do I wave the white flag of surrender and tell the universe she wins?

After all, I've been working on this book since I was in high school.

Now I'm soon to embark on my third degree since graduating from high school.  And I'm still not done with the dumb book.

I so wanted to swear right then.  Sigh.

That's all.  I'll now move on to the actual WiP update.

I've accomplished very little by way of writing since last I posted any sort of update on here.  I know I seem to have been away for a very long time.  Between being sick with the cold that would not go away and the holidays that landed upon me with very little warning, I had very little time to do anything but tread water to stay afloat.

I have, though, revamped the outlines for the first two books in the Sunstone trilogy.  I lost 3 chapters or so from book 2 and moved their principle contents to chapters in book 1.  Then I had to hurry to get ready for work so I didn't really have time to do any more writing that day.  And it was the first day back to writing in probably a good week and a half.

It's been slow-go as far as progress trying to jump back into the book and writing mode.

That is all.

Writing Goals

You know that feeling of being watched?  You can tell someone's got it out for you.  That's the universe staring at you.  The universe tends to have it out for you.  She likes to interfere with your best-laid plans and your well-intentioned goals.

Like the goal of being done with Oracles Promise before this Saturday.

Not. going. to. happen.

The universe has it out for me.  She threw a killer cold my way and I've been lucky to get from my bed to the couch.  Forget trying to pound out the words that I need to finish before Saturday.  New goal= finish by Christmas.  I'll be lucky if I do, but it at least takes some pressure off.