Tuesday, May 1, 2012

New Story Live on Goldfish Grimm and April/May Goals

First off, my short story "Twenty-Seven Rules for Coping" is now live on Goldfish Grimm's Spicy Fiction Sushi as part of their 3rd issue. There's also a short interview with me on the site.

With a new month just about upon us, it's time to do a final check-in on my April goals and set my May goals. In April I had planned to:



1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - Done.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - Also done. In fact, I wrote five new stories in April and three of them are already on submission.
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. -This didn't happen due to other priorities.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - I ended up nearly doubling this mark with 13,588 new words written for the month. Over 7,500 of those words were written in a one-week span near the end of the month.
5) On 4/30, have two non-time-sensitive blog posts written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - I have one. I could have easily had two, but didn't get around to finishing up the second one.
6) Relaunch the Dissecting the Short Story series on my blog - Done, though I have to say that the relaunched version hasn't seemed to garner any more interactivity than the original version. I'll give it a go for another month or two, but it's possible that this feature will get retired permanently over the summer.

Now for my new goals for May:

1) Except for a Memorial Day Weekend blogging hiatus, keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - Memorial Day weekend (Thursday through Monday) is apt to be a total zoo for me. I am going to plan on skipping some or all of my Thursday, Sunday, and Monday blog posts. I could use "extra" posts I've written in advance, but I intend those mostly for unplanned issues. I do still plan on aiming to meet my Daily Writing Chain goal during those days.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - This is my basic "Write 1/Sub 1" goal for this year; at least one a month.
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. - Bumped back from April.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - After the success of April, I thought about increasing this number but since I know the end of the month is likely to be very hectic for me in general, I decided to keep it where it is. I'll hope to surpass this target, all the same.
5) On 5/31, have two non-time-sensitive blog posts written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - Ideally I won't have to use the one I have completed and I can wrap up the second one I have in progress and be all set.
6) Launch at least one new eBook - When I brought out "Gravity's Pull" earlier this month I knew that it would go nowhere if it was a one-shot deal. I'm intending to launch at least one new eBook every month for the remainder of this year. When it comes time to set 2013 goals, I can evaluate whether this is something I want to keep in my repertoire or not.

Does anyone have any exciting news or goals to share?

11 comments:

  1. Congrats on meeting your W1S1 goals! And good luck with your future goals!

    Enjoyed your story, very creepy.

    My May goal is simply to edit more. I have too many stories piling up that need some extra TLC.

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    1. Thanks, defcon! Glad to hear that you enjoyed the story.

      Ah, editing... :( I need to schedule another "Day of Editing" in my future since I, like you, have some stories piled up that never got to the point where I was ready for them to see the light of day. I think I should make that one of my June goals...

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  2. Congrats on meeting your W1S1 goals and the recent publication.

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  3. Sounds like you are getting all of your ducks in a row. That's a good thing, especially in our profession.

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  4. Thanks for stopping by, Jeff and Michael!

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  5. Plans good, mos def. Enjoyed your 27 story; left you a comment over there. And well done on reaching your April Write1Sub1 goals!

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  6. You've been chugging along with that Write One sub One all year. That's a major accomplishment, not to mention your success in placing those stories :D

    I think it's wise to keep the 7.5k words of new fiction at that mark. So it's less pressure, but damn awesome when you exceed it :D

    I'm sure May will be FANTASTIC!

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    1. Thanks, KT! Yeah, blowing away my April word count goal was pretty darn satisfying. :)

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  7. As I was scrolling down I saw that several of your stories have recently been accepted. Congrats!! I really need to use you as inspiration and start polishing and submitting my short stories. One a month is a great goal. My only #writemotivation goal for this month is to make serious progress rewriting my WIP.

    Wishing you a very productive #writemotivation month,
    Jocelyn

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    1. Thanks, Jocelyn! Best of luck to you with your goals for the month.

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