Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

Meeting Goals: This is a big one for well, everyone, not just authors but as an author we often have many goals. I need 50K for nano. I need a short story in by this date if I want a shot at that anthology. I have 3 days to whip up a blurb and get it before a agent who's graciously doing a mass reading and critique.

I had goals this year. They were the following:

1. Write 125K. As of right now I'm nearly 20K behind this goal. I am disappointed. 2 years ago I wrote over 175K. Last year I set a goal of 150K and failed. This year I'm failing again. I don't blame fanfic for this. I wrote fanfic in my 175K year. I had the same job. WHat I didn't have was a face book page and twitter and numerous other online distractions. I know where I need work. And I need people to kick my butt for me and it's getting harder to find that.

2. Win Nano - done and done. That novel however is no where near done. It's not even a novel. There is no way it's one novel. A duology or trilogy no doubt. And in true Nano fashion I've abandoned it Dec 1st (but with good reason so I can complete two other nanos past)

3. Edit Machiavelli Moon into something useful - I barely even tried. I have NO idea what my problem is but I'm really going to need pushed on this.

4. Finish Until the Ice Breaks - Failed to do a thing BUT it is now my novel of choice for my writers group and it's only 2-3 chapters from the end. 2012 will see it finished if nothing else.

5. Finish Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron - I WOULD have finished had I not lost my computer. I'm working on the final chapter now so I'm considering it goal met. HOWEVER, I haven't put in an edit from Link in over a year so that's a goal for next year.

6. Finish Riding with Strangers - Once again me and my betas got derailed. I'm pretty ashamed of myself at this point.

7. Start a novel for Temple et al - Yeah, I have 3 pages but I did get a novella for them done so that counts as not being a total loser, right?

8. get something going with my comm nanomowhinging - let's not talk about it and just try again in January.

I don't know what I need to do to meet my goals other than to cut down online time. That doesn't mean LJ. Talking to you guys keeps me sane but i'm pretty sure I can give up some FB time. Today at Krogers I saw gift cards for gardens of time and other FB games and i realized it's gone a little too far.

Yearly word count (and yes this does NOT count a single word of fanfiction) -

107764 / 125000 words. 86% done!

FMA Big Bang -

7106 / 15000 words. 47% done!


Fma_Santa -

151 / 1500 words. 10% done!

Comments

[caffeinified.livejournal.com]

I think I have that same problem. Too many distractions. Of course I also have a fear of putting mediocrity out into the world and ultimately failure. It's so illogical and yet...

I need to learn time management better. Maybe we can both work on cutting down on distractions and time management together.

Also, 105K out of a 125K goal is nothing to scoff at. Congrats on that 105K.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yes and you do have legitimate distractions like a husband who might like attention every now and then. I dont even have that excuse.

Ah mediocrity, we all fear that and yet recent bestsellers prove we probably shouldn't

That sounds like a plan.

thanks. let's see if in the next 3 weeks i can reach that goal

[ital-gal.livejournal.com]

I don't even know how to comment here as I am awestruck by what you do manage to get done..

I do get it about distractions, and internet in particular, and not meeting goals, but you get way more done than I can even imagine...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

haha people tell me that all the time. I don't always see it but i'm a type A stress puppy so...

[enemytosleep]

As mentioned, despite falling short of your goals, you did get quite a lot accomplished this year. Word counts aside, this year had the most publications bought since I've known you. You DO have a lot of thing already written that should maybe be a bigger focus in 2012. Of course I am not a writer, but maybe your goals for 2012 shouldn't have so many new words so much as editing goals for stories already written (so maybe 75K new words and 3 novels edited and pimped to publishers). Just in this post you have SIX novels listed with work already put into them. It would be a real shame if those stories never made it anywhere because you were too focused on writing more. Editing and getting feedback do take time, so you need to set time aside to do that and not overload your plate.

I know I've been rather absent from LJ the last few months, and I can't promise I can help much in the way of editing anything substantial, but I do want you to get these books purchased. So stop feeling like a failure, you loser!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

you are right of course and I had thought about backing down the word count and doing just that.

One thing that will help, frankly all of the Dreamspinner anthologies do not appeal to me this time and only one of the storm moon ones did so there won't be too many side ventures to lure me away.

And thanks for the kick in the butt

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

I agree with Enemy! Both that you've achieved a lot (word counts and a whole bunch of publications, including your first novella! That's well worth being pleased about!) and that you've got a lot of unfinished novels here that need your focus and attention. I vote for making your number one priority getting 1-3 projects completely drafted, then edited.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. I think that my one new writing project (outside of fanfic) will be to continue Riding with Strangers and concentrate on editing the others. One chapter at a time (I find I become a very ineffective editor if I have too many pages to do at once)

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

Good plan!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I hope so. To that end I've brought a few chapters with me so I can send them to the printer so i have something to do over the holiday

[bay115.livejournal.com]

Just real quick, you're going to start with Riding With Strangers all over again? I still have the first three chapters with me and I can send them back to you (Chapters 2 and 3 I still need to get to editing, LOL). Otherwise I'm cool if you want to start the story all over again and I'm willing to look over it.

And yeah, like everyone else a good idea for next year's goal to focus on editing your story more and have your wordcount a little less.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

no not starting over. Just starting from where i left off. those chapters still stand more or less. So you can look at what you have whenever

thanks. i'll do my best

[spiderling.livejournal.com]

You do a lot more than I do! I wouldn't worry about it too much. Are you submitting? That's probably more important than anything! :)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Yep, I had my novella purchased for sale next May/June and I sent in a short story for a vacation anthology.

Now to leave off the short stories and get these novels moving

[spiderling.livejournal.com]

Well there you go! Feel good!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Indeed I do but being the type A pain in the ass I am, I'm never quite happy with my performance

[hierath.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent word count, you should be very please with that :)
I agree with Enemy, you've got about six things on the go here, so maybe you should focus on finishing them off and getting them out there before you start new things - concentrate on stories finished rather than words produced?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I am really

Yes, I agree. My problem is I have a great aversion to editing. I know I HAVE to do it. Doesn't make me want to any more. That's why I have you guys kicking my butt for me. thanks

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

It sounds to me as if you did fairly well, just not as well as you would have liked. Congrats to you again for Nano and for managing over 100K of words last year!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thank you very much

I'm never very happy with myself

[halighfataliter.livejournal.com]

I have to admit the beginning of this post made me laugh -in a nice way of course... That word count is mind-boggling by any right. But, you are also working, have tests and classes to prepare at home and health issues that might make getting motivated harder at times...

So you talk a lot about needing some ass-kicking to get the job done but maybe rewards would work better... (that's how I function anyway :p ). I'd be willing to do something nice for you -within my skills range- for the important "levels" of your goal (can't find another word in English) you'll reach in 2012.

And like everyone else, I think Enemytosleep made a sensible point.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

SNort. I don't even want to think about what those numbers would look like if I put in fan fic. I'm a bit of an overachiever.

Ooo that sounds good. I might like that. Thank you