2010 Monthly Goals and Support

[MJ]

Ellen, I'm with you on the "I can't believe I keep posting the same goal."

In February I made progress on finishing this Last Draft Before Querying. I wrote my query letter. And I found a new resource: an every-other-week open writing session at a local writers' studio.

At the same time, my paying writing work is exploding. Everyone who decided not to advertise in Q4 2010 now wants something, immediately (as in, contacting me Friday with 8 hours of work they'd like done by Monday).

So my March goal is to keep that open writing session a sacred space, committing to attending no matter what the workload. And, of course, to finish this rewrite and submit!

Although, Janie Pie, knitting a new planet sometimes seems more realistic.

[Gin]

Just a thought for anyone else who feels like they're caught in a never-ending cycle of NON-accomplishment: keep a list/calendar of what you DO accomplish every day.

Not only will it make you see that you are making more progress than you realize, it's useful back-up information if you ever have to prove to the IRS that you're serious about your writing!

[MJ]

Okay, I finally did it. I sent a query.

Not an ideal time, but It. Was. Time.

Now it's time to start the next book!

[Ellen]

Go, MJ! Good luck, and have fun with the next book.

I am ONE SCENE AWAY from finishing this rewrite. Probably won't happen tonight, as we have concert tickets and plan to make it a big night on the town. But this weekend, for sure, I'll be DONE with this damned revision.

[Roben]

Good for you MJ. That's a huge step.
I'm writing some and tinkering a lot.
I did send out one tiny little excerpt to a contest, but it didn't final. That's okay. At least I'm not hiding. : )

[Ellen]

I'm DONE. At last. I know I said right above that I would finish LAST weekend, but I was overambitious as usual. I did finish the rewriting then, but I still had to go through and read the whole thing again for one last round of polishes, and that took me another few days. BUT. It's done now, and it's off to some lovely beta readers, so now I can take a breather from it for a bit until I find out what else it needs. March goal (previously known as January goal, then February goal) -- MET! 

I will probably take it kind of easy in April. I was going to start working on agent lists and query letters and all that, but I honestly don't know if this book is any good as written, so I'm not going to get too far down the ready-to-submit road until I see how much more work I need to do. In the meantime, I'm going to tinker with an old ms that I want to overhaul. So, April goal: pull together a working outline for that revision.

[Gin]

Doesn't "Done" feel great?

No matter how big or small, just finishing something always energizes me. It's part of why I like sub-o-month, because even if I'm not finishing a new story, just sending an old one out to a new place, the submission itself is a project that's DONE, and it motivates me to work on other projects.

[Marion]

OK, life got kind of weird, and some of that was actually good weird, but anyway, I haven't reported on progress. After about 18 months of subs-o-month with "no" as the only response (OK, sometimes it was "NO!!!!"), I got shortlisted, and then I got a "ye$" (different projects).

I have even kept subbing in 2010 in spite of a massive case of CRABBY (the "ye$" helped with that). I have already subbed for April, even, though I have a couple of others planned also.

I would never have been subbing in a disciplined way without this place, and I never would have had the stomach to keep subbing without knowing all you cherries here were also plugging away, putting down the words and getting them out the (virtual) door. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And here's an up side to all the freaking "no"--when you hear it, it's just a stamp (or a click of "send") till you get to claim credit for another sub. I tried to do something every month besides the boomerangs, but hey, I'm making my own sub rules, and boomerangs count.

[Ellen]

Marion, way to go! So glad to hear about your success, and how the Forum has been a good motivator.

To keep this on topic... a report on my goals. Well, I have gotten feedback from one of my lovely beta readers, which was overall pretty reassuring. Things to fix, but it's not a complete wreck. I'm still letting that simmer until I hear back from the others, and meanwhile I'm doing some notes on my April revision project. No outline yet, but there's loads of days left in April!

[ForestJane]

I'm just a newbie, but I'm going to de-lurk and tiptoe in here.

I've been invited to submit a story for an ongoing collection, by an editor who knows of my copyediting and proofing skills.  I've never written anything for publicaton before, but I'm going to take a stab at it.

My goal this month is to finish the story, see if I can poke up a beta reader or two, polish it, and submit it before the May 1 deadline.

[MJ]

Ellen, congrats on finishing, and Marion, way to hang in there. ForestJane, what a fun opportunity! Congrats!

April is hectic for me, so my writing goals are simple: keep querying on book 1, and add 2 to 5 pages a week to the DLD draft of book 2.

[Gin]

It's great to hear from you, Marion, that you're still submitting.

The thing that we tend to forget is just how long the writing process takes. Not just the physical writing, but the lag between original inspiration, all the way through the actual writing, then finding the right market.

I recently had a short story in an anthology, which was inspired a good ten years ago by a phrase I overheard and thought "that should be in a story," but I couldn't find the right story to go with it, and then about three years ago, I found the right story, and meant to submit it during a sub-o-month two years ago, but couldn't get the ending right, so I missed that deadline, and finally scheduled it for sub-o-month about a year ago, and sent it in to a call for subs to an anthology, and eventually it was rejected for that particular anthology, but the editor bought it for another anthology. The good news is that the first place I would have sent it to paid about half what the eventual publisher paid, and had a lot less prestige and fewer readers than the eventual publisher. I'm not a real big believer in things happening for a reason, and it was probably just an excuse for my procrastination, but even when I was missing the first deadline, it really did feel as if the ending eluded me originally because the story was destined for a better placement.

Anyway, time in this business is pretty meaningless. We've just got to keep sending stuff out and rejoicing when something sells, no matter how long it takes!

And that's my goal for April -- as soon as tax season ends on Thursday, settle into more consistent writing. I also want to find a home for a short story that had a publisher, except it went out of business, and it's been rejected recently by an anthology editor, but I just saw a call for subs with a theme that might cover this story (although it's a weird story, so I've got to be resigned to taking a long time to find a home for it), so I'll tweak and send that story for this month's sub-o-month. (Did I mention that I'm getting back on the sub-o-month plan, after skipping January and February?)

[Roben]

I'm almost done with my latest rough draft. Only two short chapters to go. I plan to finish it this week. I'll let it sit for a week or two then do a polish in May. Then my CP will read the entire thing. In June I'll start Lani Diane Rich's Discovery class with a fresh idea, and I'm so looking forward to that class.

I've been feeling the drive to submit, but I'm tamping it down. I always jump the gun and submit early chapters before the story is finished and polished. This time I'm holding back, even on contest entries. I think by June I'll start the submission process, and it will be ready to pitch at Nationals. How's that for a plan? ; )

[Gin]

It's almost the end of the month -- how are we doing?

I found a place to submit a rejected story and did that, so I'm back on the sub-o-month wagon: two months and counting.

I've also been hugely creative the last week or so. Not sure if it's just the joy of being done with tax season or perhaps doing some binge reading or something in the air or what, but it's nice, after a really, really, REALLY long period of mostly slogging instead of getting into the flow. It's been kind of random creativity/productivity, rather than focused on a single project, but any words on the page are better than no words on the page. The plan is to let the creativity flow wherever it wants to go for the next week or so, and then I'll figure out what my May sub-o-month will be.

[Gin]

I just sent my May sub-o-month!

It was supposed to be a second April submission, but, hey, the call-for-submissions deadline was today, and I needed the extra time, so now I'm putting a little red heart sticker on the May box in my submission calendar and mmoving on to other projects.

I'm finding that getting the sub done early (last month's went in by the 15th, I think) gives me a sense of accomplishment that motivates me to work on other projects, and removes the stress of wondering if I'll get a submission done this month. I always figured the pressure to get something out there was good for me, but it can be harmful at times too.