The calm before the storm...
I have three stories coming out later this week. Web-based stories at Interstellar Fiction and Buzzy Mag and the email pre-release of my story at Daily Science Fiction. (The latter will go live on their website next week.)
There's also the October issue of Kazka Press going live on Monday; the stories I selected as guest editor for their flash fiction contest will all be up on that day.
So I'm going to be blogging and tweeting quite a bit about these stories as they come out this week. I hope that you enjoy any which you end up reading.
Before I get to this week's links, here's a quick rundown of my writing goal progress for the month. I don't have my October goals fleshed out yet. I'll aim to have those up soon, quite possibly Monday.
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - Done.
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete. - Done.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time. - Didn't happen. I'm somewhat disappointed about my lack of progress on this one.
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element.
- Done.
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest.
- This didn't end up happening. It's going to be a close thing at this point to see if I get something submitted.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - Done.
I'm calling this "fair." I did get some good work done this month but I've also let some things slip and for one of them (the Codex contest) I'm running out of time.
But that's the month that's passed. For now, let's move on to this week's writing-related links; I hope that some of
them are useful to you.
Showing posts with label #writemotivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #writemotivation. Show all posts
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Monday, September 24, 2012
Three-Quarter Mark September #writemotivation Checkin
A quick check-in with my Monday #writemotivation status. Technically this is the last one for September, but there's still a decent amount of month left.
By the way, it looks like next week I'm going to have a ton of cool things to share with everyone. Not only will the issue of Kazka-Press I'm guest-editing the flash fiction for come out, but it looks like I may have as many as three stories of my own releasing next week. I'll post links as I have them.
While my monthly goals aren't going fabulous (more on that below), I am going to meet one of my goals for the year this weekend by attending the local science fiction convention Context. I'm only planning to be there Saturday, but that looks to be by far the busiest day. If you're going to be there and want to say "Hi", let me know! I am also planning to be at Philcon later this year.
Now, as far as this month's goals have gone...
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - Doing just fine here.
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete. - Done.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time. - I'm officially bailing on this goal for the month, in favor of trying to accomplish goals 4 and 5.
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element. - I have a first draft and someone who's agreed to critique the story for me. Now I need to get a second draft done (tonight, most likely), send it to the critiquer, and then work with their feedback. I might not make 9/30, depending on the speed of my crit partner and how long it takes me to work with their changes. But I feel much better about this goal than before.
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest. - No new progress here. I may be able to get this done later this week.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - This is done and I've also received feedback from one reader. The other reader will likely have feedback to me within a few days.
By the way, it looks like next week I'm going to have a ton of cool things to share with everyone. Not only will the issue of Kazka-Press I'm guest-editing the flash fiction for come out, but it looks like I may have as many as three stories of my own releasing next week. I'll post links as I have them.
While my monthly goals aren't going fabulous (more on that below), I am going to meet one of my goals for the year this weekend by attending the local science fiction convention Context. I'm only planning to be there Saturday, but that looks to be by far the busiest day. If you're going to be there and want to say "Hi", let me know! I am also planning to be at Philcon later this year.
Now, as far as this month's goals have gone...
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - Doing just fine here.
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete. - Done.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time. - I'm officially bailing on this goal for the month, in favor of trying to accomplish goals 4 and 5.
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element. - I have a first draft and someone who's agreed to critique the story for me. Now I need to get a second draft done (tonight, most likely), send it to the critiquer, and then work with their feedback. I might not make 9/30, depending on the speed of my crit partner and how long it takes me to work with their changes. But I feel much better about this goal than before.
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest. - No new progress here. I may be able to get this done later this week.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - This is done and I've also received feedback from one reader. The other reader will likely have feedback to me within a few days.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Monday #writemotivation Goal-Check
September is a #writemotivation month so with it being Monday, that makes it time for goal-check! This is also about the time I usually do a check at how I'm proceeding towards my goals for the month, with it being mid-month.
I'll put the gory details below, but I'll cut right to the chase. My progress stinks. Stinks, stinks, stinks.
There are a variety of reasons for this but mostly it boils down to having underestimated the amount of work I needed to do for several writing-related tasks which weren't on my list below combined with worse-than-usual time management on my part. There are other factors, too, but those are the two biggies.
So, what I need to do is make better choices going forward. I've made a bit of progress there. As much as I enjoy the weekly Liberty Hall flash fiction contest I skipped it this past weekend and I think I'll probably skip it again this coming weekend unless I've made miraculous progress on the goals which aren't going well for the month.
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - No issues so far. A lot of my writing time in the past week has been critique work for various groups I'm a part of. This is all good work to be doing, but between not using my time efficiently and having that work, it means my own productivity hasn't been what I would have liked it to be.
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete. - Done.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time. - I haven't made any progress on this at all. In a way, this is one I'm really frustrated about because it means I don't have new stories going out the door. On the other hand, this is one where there's no time element except what I choose to impose upon myself. Which brings me to...
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element. - As I mentioned last week, I had one idea, started developing it and decided it didn't feel like a good fit. And I haven't gotten back off square one. I really want to make this my top writing priority for the next week. (I do still have other writing-related things to work on which I can't just set aside, specifically reading the submissions for Kazka Press and critiquing the rest of the stories from this month's Shock Totem flash fiction contest.)
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest. - I still have an idea for this story which I think will work but which I haven't fully fleshed out yet. I'd like to get the first draft done by 9/30 since the story is due in by 10/6, but if I had to push it all into those first six days of October, I probably could stand to do so.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - This is done and I'm just waiting on feedback from one version before I call this done and get it put online. One thing that I spent a LOT of time on this past week was going through iteration after iteration of possible cover designs with some people online. On the one hand, I seem to have a much better cover plan than I originally had and I did get some good new resources for fonts. On the other hand, I'll be spending a bit of money on the art and I spent multiple hours working through various versions of the cover in the last five to seven days. Ultimately, this is probably time I could have spent better or, at the very least, I could have prioritized this effort further down my list. But, that's why I do these write-ups. To see where I've made poor choices and try to learn from them and not repeat them!
I'll put the gory details below, but I'll cut right to the chase. My progress stinks. Stinks, stinks, stinks.
There are a variety of reasons for this but mostly it boils down to having underestimated the amount of work I needed to do for several writing-related tasks which weren't on my list below combined with worse-than-usual time management on my part. There are other factors, too, but those are the two biggies.
So, what I need to do is make better choices going forward. I've made a bit of progress there. As much as I enjoy the weekly Liberty Hall flash fiction contest I skipped it this past weekend and I think I'll probably skip it again this coming weekend unless I've made miraculous progress on the goals which aren't going well for the month.
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - No issues so far. A lot of my writing time in the past week has been critique work for various groups I'm a part of. This is all good work to be doing, but between not using my time efficiently and having that work, it means my own productivity hasn't been what I would have liked it to be.
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete. - Done.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time. - I haven't made any progress on this at all. In a way, this is one I'm really frustrated about because it means I don't have new stories going out the door. On the other hand, this is one where there's no time element except what I choose to impose upon myself. Which brings me to...
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element. - As I mentioned last week, I had one idea, started developing it and decided it didn't feel like a good fit. And I haven't gotten back off square one. I really want to make this my top writing priority for the next week. (I do still have other writing-related things to work on which I can't just set aside, specifically reading the submissions for Kazka Press and critiquing the rest of the stories from this month's Shock Totem flash fiction contest.)
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest. - I still have an idea for this story which I think will work but which I haven't fully fleshed out yet. I'd like to get the first draft done by 9/30 since the story is due in by 10/6, but if I had to push it all into those first six days of October, I probably could stand to do so.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - This is done and I'm just waiting on feedback from one version before I call this done and get it put online. One thing that I spent a LOT of time on this past week was going through iteration after iteration of possible cover designs with some people online. On the one hand, I seem to have a much better cover plan than I originally had and I did get some good new resources for fonts. On the other hand, I'll be spending a bit of money on the art and I spent multiple hours working through various versions of the cover in the last five to seven days. Ultimately, this is probably time I could have spent better or, at the very least, I could have prioritized this effort further down my list. But, that's why I do these write-ups. To see where I've made poor choices and try to learn from them and not repeat them!
Monday, September 10, 2012
End Hiatus, #writemotivation Check-In, and Revised Blogging Schedule
My blogging hiatus is over. On the one hand, it was nice not to feel time pressure to work on blog posts and to use all of my writing time for fiction work. On the other hand, there were some nights when some low-stress blog writing might have been more enjoyable than trying to make something work that wasn't wanting to work fiction-wise. (Whether that latter is actually an "other hand" or just another way of describing the blog post work as being something which "keeps" me from fiction is a debatable matter.)
But, anyway, I'm not planning to extend the hiatus at this time, though I may choose to engage in them a bit more often than I have in the past if it feels appropriate/necessary.
I am making changes to my blogging schedule but they have no impact on my Monday/Thursday/Sunday routine on this blog; the changes are entirely on the Write Every Day blog. That blog will be shifting to a Wednesdays-only format. Details are in this blog post.
September is a #writemotivation goal-check month. Here's how I'm doing with about 1/3rd of the month gone.
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - No issues so far.
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete. - As described above, done.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time. - Sigh. Zero so far.
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element. - I had one idea, started developing it and decided it didn't feel like a good fit. So I'm back to square one here.
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest. - I have an outline of the story but haven't gotten any farther than that.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - Done! Hurray! One reader has provided feedback already and it was largely positive. Waiting to hear back from another reader before making (final?) revisions to it.
On the whole, I feel fairly good about this. Two of the six are firmly checked off the list and a third is in a good place. But there's still a lot of heavy lifting to do if I want to get all six done this month so I'd better get to it!
But, anyway, I'm not planning to extend the hiatus at this time, though I may choose to engage in them a bit more often than I have in the past if it feels appropriate/necessary.
I am making changes to my blogging schedule but they have no impact on my Monday/Thursday/Sunday routine on this blog; the changes are entirely on the Write Every Day blog. That blog will be shifting to a Wednesdays-only format. Details are in this blog post.
September is a #writemotivation goal-check month. Here's how I'm doing with about 1/3rd of the month gone.
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - No issues so far.
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete. - As described above, done.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time. - Sigh. Zero so far.
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element. - I had one idea, started developing it and decided it didn't feel like a good fit. So I'm back to square one here.
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest. - I have an outline of the story but haven't gotten any farther than that.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - Done! Hurray! One reader has provided feedback already and it was largely positive. Waiting to hear back from another reader before making (final?) revisions to it.
On the whole, I feel fairly good about this. Two of the six are firmly checked off the list and a third is in a good place. But there's still a lot of heavy lifting to do if I want to get all six done this month so I'd better get to it!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Celebrating a Year of Writing & Monthly Goal Checkin
(I'm on a blogging hiatus until September 10th. Enjoy the end of August and the start of September!)
Today marks the 365th day since I officially started keeping a Daily Writing Chain. In any year but a leap year (which this happens to be), that would mark one full year. In celebration of keeping to my routine on a daily basis for all of that time, I've put all three of my Kindle-published items on sale for today, Friday, and Saturday.
"Write Every Day" is only 99 cents (regularly $3.99) for that time period and the two short stories I've e-published are both free. I hope that you'll download one or all of these and that you enjoy them if you do so.
Overall, the last 12 months of writing have been very productive. If my numbers are correct, I've written first drafts of 63 short stories, 1 novelette, and 1 novel in that time. Focusing specifically on the 63 short stories:
This leads nicely into a discussion of my writing goals for August and September. How'd I do in August?
1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - Essentially on target. (One "Write Every Day" blog post got up slightly into the next day in my time zone. While I try to post on the calendar day the post is intended for, I don't really consider this a serious "miss.")
2) Write at least one new story. - Done. I've written four new stories this month, none of them flash.
3) Submit at least three stories for the first time. - My goal for today and tomorrow is to make this happen, even though I'm still at zero. I'm going to say that I'm going to get it done and if I don't meet up to that, I'll acknowledge that when I'm back from my blog hiatus.
4) Write 10,000 words of new fiction. - I'm just under 10,000 words at this point. Like with #3, I intend for this to get done before September rolls around.
5) On 8/31, 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." - I'm at zero here. This is a low-priority goal for me at this point. If I get done with #3 and #4 before the end of the month, I might try to get this done.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - I made more progress on edits but it's unlikely I'll send this out before the end of the month. Still, it might happen.
7) Launch at least one new eBook. - This isn't going to happen this month.
So, a big incomplete right this moment, but with the potential to still hit a majority of my targets with some effort today and tomorrow.
And now, my goals for September. These are very much focused around trying to fix the things that feel broken in my writing process right now. Also, note that September is a #writemotivation month, so I'll be putting up goal status reports every Monday starting on the 10th.
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - This should be very revision-heavy this month. (A while back, I added the option to do 45 minutes of focused revisions for my Daily Writing Chain goal. It's a good idea, but I've done a poor job of using that option to get things done and out the door.)
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time.
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element. - This is kind of a specific goal, but it's time-based and something I want to accomplish, so I'm including it.
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest. - Again, specific but time-based.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - If I get feedback from them early enough in the month that I think I can launch the eBook of this novelette, I'll do that in September as well.
That should be enough to keep me busy. Good luck with all of your goals, big and small!
Today marks the 365th day since I officially started keeping a Daily Writing Chain. In any year but a leap year (which this happens to be), that would mark one full year. In celebration of keeping to my routine on a daily basis for all of that time, I've put all three of my Kindle-published items on sale for today, Friday, and Saturday.
"Write Every Day" is only 99 cents (regularly $3.99) for that time period and the two short stories I've e-published are both free. I hope that you'll download one or all of these and that you enjoy them if you do so.
 Write Every Day ($0.99) | |
 Levels of Trust (Free) (Crime/Thriller short story) |
 Gravity's Pull (Free) (Science Fiction short story) |
Overall, the last 12 months of writing have been very productive. If my numbers are correct, I've written first drafts of 63 short stories, 1 novelette, and 1 novel in that time. Focusing specifically on the 63 short stories:
- 17 have sold.
- 20 are currently out on submission
- 17 need to be revised and submitted
- 4 were posted as freebies on my blog
- 1 was self-published
- 4 have been retired/"trunked"
This leads nicely into a discussion of my writing goals for August and September. How'd I do in August?
1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - Essentially on target. (One "Write Every Day" blog post got up slightly into the next day in my time zone. While I try to post on the calendar day the post is intended for, I don't really consider this a serious "miss.")
2) Write at least one new story. - Done. I've written four new stories this month, none of them flash.
3) Submit at least three stories for the first time. - My goal for today and tomorrow is to make this happen, even though I'm still at zero. I'm going to say that I'm going to get it done and if I don't meet up to that, I'll acknowledge that when I'm back from my blog hiatus.
4) Write 10,000 words of new fiction. - I'm just under 10,000 words at this point. Like with #3, I intend for this to get done before September rolls around.
5) On 8/31, 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." - I'm at zero here. This is a low-priority goal for me at this point. If I get done with #3 and #4 before the end of the month, I might try to get this done.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - I made more progress on edits but it's unlikely I'll send this out before the end of the month. Still, it might happen.
7) Launch at least one new eBook. - This isn't going to happen this month.
So, a big incomplete right this moment, but with the potential to still hit a majority of my targets with some effort today and tomorrow.
And now, my goals for September. These are very much focused around trying to fix the things that feel broken in my writing process right now. Also, note that September is a #writemotivation month, so I'll be putting up goal status reports every Monday starting on the 10th.
1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - This should be very revision-heavy this month. (A while back, I added the option to do 45 minutes of focused revisions for my Daily Writing Chain goal. It's a good idea, but I've done a poor job of using that option to get things done and out the door.)
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time.
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element. - This is kind of a specific goal, but it's time-based and something I want to accomplish, so I'm including it.
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest. - Again, specific but time-based.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - If I get feedback from them early enough in the month that I think I can launch the eBook of this novelette, I'll do that in September as well.
That should be enough to keep me busy. Good luck with all of your goals, big and small!
Monday, July 30, 2012
July #writemotivation Goals Wrapup and August Goals
With the month coming to a close, I'm looking back to see how I did at meeting my goals for the past month and looking forward to set goals for August.
July Goals
1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - Done, assuming I get all of my words in for today and tomorrow.
2) Write at least one new story. - Done. In fact, I wrote a total of seven new stories. They're all short, but it's been my most productive month in terms of number of new stories completed in a long time.
3) Submit at least four stories for the first time. - Done. I thought I might exceed this by a bit, but I'm pleased to have met it.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - Done.
5) On 7/31, 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." - This one didn't happen. I have one pending blog post, but it's somewhat time-specific, so I'll be using it soon.
6) Launch at least one new eBook. - As previously discussed, this didn't end up happening.
Moving on to August...
August Goals
1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc.
2) Write at least one new story.
3) Submit at least three stories for the first time.
4) Write 10,000 words of new fiction. - I'm increasing the goal after multiple months of meeting 7,500 words without much difficulty. I want to push myself a bit more for the rest of the year in terms of getting a slightly higher total word count done. I won't end up anywhere near what I had originally conceived of as my word count goal for the year (250,000) but increasing my monthly target will feel like a step in the right direction.
5) On 8/31, 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."
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - I made some progress on this earlier in the month but then set it aside again. A couple of solid writing sessions and I should be able to get this ready for other people to look at it again.
7) Launch at least one new eBook.
July Goals
1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - Done, assuming I get all of my words in for today and tomorrow.
2) Write at least one new story. - Done. In fact, I wrote a total of seven new stories. They're all short, but it's been my most productive month in terms of number of new stories completed in a long time.
3) Submit at least four stories for the first time. - Done. I thought I might exceed this by a bit, but I'm pleased to have met it.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - Done.
5) On 7/31, 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." - This one didn't happen. I have one pending blog post, but it's somewhat time-specific, so I'll be using it soon.
6) Launch at least one new eBook. - As previously discussed, this didn't end up happening.
Moving on to August...
August Goals
1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc.
2) Write at least one new story.
3) Submit at least three stories for the first time.
4) Write 10,000 words of new fiction. - I'm increasing the goal after multiple months of meeting 7,500 words without much difficulty. I want to push myself a bit more for the rest of the year in terms of getting a slightly higher total word count done. I won't end up anywhere near what I had originally conceived of as my word count goal for the year (250,000) but increasing my monthly target will feel like a step in the right direction.
5) On 8/31, 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."
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - I made some progress on this earlier in the month but then set it aside again. A couple of solid writing sessions and I should be able to get this ready for other people to look at it again.
7) Launch at least one new eBook.
Monday, July 23, 2012
July 23rd #writemotivation Update
July is a #writemotivation goal-check month so every Monday this month I'm blogging about my goals and how I'm coming along with
them.
July Goals
1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - On target. Adding in the "Write Every Day" blog posts has made this a bit more of a challenge than usual. My intention had been to have those prepped a week ahead so I could just let them post at midnight each morning, but that hasn't worked out too well so far. I'll see if I can get a better handle on that in the upcoming weeks.
2) Write at least one new story. - I've actually finished first drafts (or more) of six short stories this month. They're all very short; the longest is just over 2,000 words, but I'm very pleased with the overall output.
3) Submit at least four stories for the first time. - I'm still sitting at three here, but I don't think I'll have any problem getting a fourth out the door. I might try to go beyond this a bit, if I can make time in the next week.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - I'm just shy of this total now; I should surpass it easily.
5) On 7/31, 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." - Adding the Write Every Day blogging which I mentioned above has sort of taxed my blogging time. I don't think it's "too much"; rather, I think I just haven't found the right routine/schedule yet. I hope to get more on track with this in August.
6) Launch at least one new eBook. - I'm not going to be releasing the item I had originally planned as being my July release; I simply haven't put enough time towards it. It still needs another pass through of revisions and then one more round of critiquing and revisions before it's ready to go. I have a mystery short I might release though the one mystery I already released ("Levels of Trust") has been my slowest-selling item, so the incentive to work on another straight mystery title is slim.
I hope that everyone working on #writemotivation this month is having a great go of it! See you for another goal check next Monday!
July Goals
1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - On target. Adding in the "Write Every Day" blog posts has made this a bit more of a challenge than usual. My intention had been to have those prepped a week ahead so I could just let them post at midnight each morning, but that hasn't worked out too well so far. I'll see if I can get a better handle on that in the upcoming weeks.
2) Write at least one new story. - I've actually finished first drafts (or more) of six short stories this month. They're all very short; the longest is just over 2,000 words, but I'm very pleased with the overall output.
3) Submit at least four stories for the first time. - I'm still sitting at three here, but I don't think I'll have any problem getting a fourth out the door. I might try to go beyond this a bit, if I can make time in the next week.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - I'm just shy of this total now; I should surpass it easily.
5) On 7/31, 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." - Adding the Write Every Day blogging which I mentioned above has sort of taxed my blogging time. I don't think it's "too much"; rather, I think I just haven't found the right routine/schedule yet. I hope to get more on track with this in August.
6) Launch at least one new eBook. - I'm not going to be releasing the item I had originally planned as being my July release; I simply haven't put enough time towards it. It still needs another pass through of revisions and then one more round of critiquing and revisions before it's ready to go. I have a mystery short I might release though the one mystery I already released ("Levels of Trust") has been my slowest-selling item, so the incentive to work on another straight mystery title is slim.
I hope that everyone working on #writemotivation this month is having a great go of it! See you for another goal check next Monday!
Monday, July 16, 2012
July 16th #writemotivation Update
In last Monday's blog post I mentioned that I was going to add a "Special Projects" option which I could use once per month to my Daily Writing Chain. I did this for the first time one night last week, getting a whole bunch of my stories which had been sitting around back out the door. The final tally was seven submissions and one pre-submission query. So far I've received a go-ahead to submit based on the query and a rewrite request from one of the seven submissions. Woo-hoo!
Writing-wise in general, things keep trucking along with no major news to report. Since July is a #writemotivation goal-check month, the rest of today's post is devoted to looking at my goals for July and how I'm coming along with them.
July Goals
1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - No problems here. I feel like adding the "Special Projects" option worked well this month; I'll wait several months, though, before deciding if I want to keep it as a feature of my Daily Writing Chain.
2) Write at least one new story. - Done (and then some).
3) Submit at least four stories for the first time. - I'm at three now. Two of the stories I sent out during last week's Submit-o-Rama were first timers and I had sent out one prior to that. Over the weekend I did significant revisions to a longer story and put it up for critique on a site where I'm a member. I may or may not try to get that story out the door yet this month. If not, I shouldn't have too much difficulty finding some other suitable target.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - I'm solidly on target for this, with just under 5,000 new words of fiction written so far this month.
5) On 7/31, 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." - I'm still at zero. There's a fair chance I won't meet this goal, though I might if I prioritize it highly enough.
6) Launch at least one new eBook. - Like I discussed in last Monday's #writemotivation goal check, there's a very good chance I won't end up releasing an eBook this month. The item I had planned to release in July needs more work and there isn't an obvious second choice. I may try to get two out in one month to "catch up" but if I end up releasing a total of eight eBook titles in 2012 rather than nine, I won't feel like that's a major "miss" goal-wise.
I hope that everyone working on #writemotivation this month is having a great go of it! See you for another goal check next Monday!
Writing-wise in general, things keep trucking along with no major news to report. Since July is a #writemotivation goal-check month, the rest of today's post is devoted to looking at my goals for July and how I'm coming along with them.
July Goals
1) Keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - No problems here. I feel like adding the "Special Projects" option worked well this month; I'll wait several months, though, before deciding if I want to keep it as a feature of my Daily Writing Chain.
2) Write at least one new story. - Done (and then some).
3) Submit at least four stories for the first time. - I'm at three now. Two of the stories I sent out during last week's Submit-o-Rama were first timers and I had sent out one prior to that. Over the weekend I did significant revisions to a longer story and put it up for critique on a site where I'm a member. I may or may not try to get that story out the door yet this month. If not, I shouldn't have too much difficulty finding some other suitable target.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - I'm solidly on target for this, with just under 5,000 new words of fiction written so far this month.
5) On 7/31, 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." - I'm still at zero. There's a fair chance I won't meet this goal, though I might if I prioritize it highly enough.
6) Launch at least one new eBook. - Like I discussed in last Monday's #writemotivation goal check, there's a very good chance I won't end up releasing an eBook this month. The item I had planned to release in July needs more work and there isn't an obvious second choice. I may try to get two out in one month to "catch up" but if I end up releasing a total of eight eBook titles in 2012 rather than nine, I won't feel like that's a major "miss" goal-wise.
I hope that everyone working on #writemotivation this month is having a great go of it! See you for another goal check next Monday!
Monday, July 9, 2012
Monday July 9th #writemotivation Update
First off, I have publication dates to announce for two of my short stories. Nature will be running "An Unsuitable Job for a Human" in their July 12, 2012 issue. It should be available to read on-line beginning in the late-afternoon of the 11th for readers in North America. Also, Every Day Fiction will be running "Present Company" on July 24th. I'll post links as soon as these are available for reading.
July being a #writemotivation month, I'm going to be posting status update on my goals for the month every Monday. Before I get to that though, I wanted to mention a new wrinkle I'm adding to my Daily Writing Chain. My current goals are to write 500 words every day (which can take the form of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, blog post writing, and/or critiques for other writers) or spend 45 minutes on intensive revisions.
Well, I've gotten massively behind on my fiction submissions/re-submissions. Enough so that it's going to take me an hour or two some day to get stories that are ready for submission out to market.
Now I don't normally want to include time spent submitting stories as "writing" time for my Chain. But it seems that every once in a while I might have a "Special Project" of some kind that's truly writing-related but that doesn't fit my existing criteria.
So I'm going to try letting myself have one "Special Project" day per month for my Chain. I have to spend at least an hour of serious, focused work on that project and it has to be something that genuinely helps move my writing career forward. I'm going to give that a try this month (with a day in the very near future where I blast through a bunch of submissions as my July "Special Project") and keep it as an option for now. If it starts to turn into a nuisance, I'll get rid of it. But I think it will prove a valuable option which, at once a month, shouldn't really decrease my overall output in any notable way.
As always, I'll let everyone know how this goes and whether it is something that I think is useful as an option for people or if it's something that I think poses challenges or risks I haven't considered so far.
So, with that in mind, let's go on to the #writemotivation July progress report below the jump!
July being a #writemotivation month, I'm going to be posting status update on my goals for the month every Monday. Before I get to that though, I wanted to mention a new wrinkle I'm adding to my Daily Writing Chain. My current goals are to write 500 words every day (which can take the form of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, blog post writing, and/or critiques for other writers) or spend 45 minutes on intensive revisions.
Well, I've gotten massively behind on my fiction submissions/re-submissions. Enough so that it's going to take me an hour or two some day to get stories that are ready for submission out to market.
Now I don't normally want to include time spent submitting stories as "writing" time for my Chain. But it seems that every once in a while I might have a "Special Project" of some kind that's truly writing-related but that doesn't fit my existing criteria.
So I'm going to try letting myself have one "Special Project" day per month for my Chain. I have to spend at least an hour of serious, focused work on that project and it has to be something that genuinely helps move my writing career forward. I'm going to give that a try this month (with a day in the very near future where I blast through a bunch of submissions as my July "Special Project") and keep it as an option for now. If it starts to turn into a nuisance, I'll get rid of it. But I think it will prove a valuable option which, at once a month, shouldn't really decrease my overall output in any notable way.
As always, I'll let everyone know how this goes and whether it is something that I think is useful as an option for people or if it's something that I think poses challenges or risks I haven't considered so far.
So, with that in mind, let's go on to the #writemotivation July progress report below the jump!
Monday, May 28, 2012
May #writemotivation Wrap-Up and My June Goals
I'd say something about this having been another challenging week for me but, well, that would feel a bit redundant -- haven't they all of late? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Eh... Maybe.
I've managed to keep my Daily Writing Chain alive throughout the weekend through sheer stubbornness combined with a gentle nudge from my wife. I really think I would've declared Saturday my first "mulligan" day if she hadn't encouraged me to put the effort in to getting words down for the day. I really appreciate her willingness to encourage me in this sometimes-crazy-seeming activity.
This will be my final #writemotivation check-in post for May. I've done a poor job of keeping in touch with my hashtag cohorts but hope that it's been a good month for all of them and I'll look forward to July when -- if all goes well -- I'll be more active.
Without any further ado, here's the status on my May goals:
1) Except for a Memorial Day Weekend blogging hiatus, keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - As I mentioned above, I've done this. Just barely some days, but I've done it.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - Everything is as it was last week. I've completed the "write" portion. The "submit" portion looks shakier by the day, though if I can dedicate two hours or so to taking a final pass through a story, I should be able to meet that goal.
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. - Also where it was last week, no editing has started. However, I did a bit of tangentially-related work last week, writing some new words which will probably go into the final draft of the project.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. (REVISED GOAL: Write an additional 2,500 words of fiction between 5/21 and the end of the month.) - 3,138 words of fiction written in the past week gets me to a total of 11,701 for the month, meeting both the original and revised goals
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." - This one should be fine. I have a new post for 5/31 partially completed.
6) Launch at least one new eBook - Done. "Levels of Trust" is live on Amazon.
Before we close the books on the goals for May, I want to define my June goals. And here they are:
I've managed to keep my Daily Writing Chain alive throughout the weekend through sheer stubbornness combined with a gentle nudge from my wife. I really think I would've declared Saturday my first "mulligan" day if she hadn't encouraged me to put the effort in to getting words down for the day. I really appreciate her willingness to encourage me in this sometimes-crazy-seeming activity.
This will be my final #writemotivation check-in post for May. I've done a poor job of keeping in touch with my hashtag cohorts but hope that it's been a good month for all of them and I'll look forward to July when -- if all goes well -- I'll be more active.
Without any further ado, here's the status on my May goals:
1) Except for a Memorial Day Weekend blogging hiatus, keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - As I mentioned above, I've done this. Just barely some days, but I've done it.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - Everything is as it was last week. I've completed the "write" portion. The "submit" portion looks shakier by the day, though if I can dedicate two hours or so to taking a final pass through a story, I should be able to meet that goal.
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. - Also where it was last week, no editing has started. However, I did a bit of tangentially-related work last week, writing some new words which will probably go into the final draft of the project.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. (REVISED GOAL: Write an additional 2,500 words of fiction between 5/21 and the end of the month.) - 3,138 words of fiction written in the past week gets me to a total of 11,701 for the month, meeting both the original and revised goals
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." - This one should be fine. I have a new post for 5/31 partially completed.
6) Launch at least one new eBook - Done. "Levels of Trust" is live on Amazon.
Before we close the books on the goals for May, I want to define my June goals. And here they are:
Monday, May 21, 2012
Monday May 21st #writemotivation Check-In
Like I said in my Sunday Links post, the month has flown by for me. There's been a ton of great writing news, which is awesome, though I feel like I've been running short of time to do a lot of new writing work in the last several days. I did do critiques on about 20,000 words of fiction not too long ago and both of the people that I sent notes back to seemed to find them useful. So, that's been good. But since finishing a new story last Monday I've only made a small amount of progress on one of my ongoing fiction projects. I've still been writing every day, one way or the other, but I'm beginning to get a slightly "itchy" feeling about not having made much headway on fiction for almost a week.
And, on the whole, I feel like that's a good thing. It certainly could be a bad thing if I was letting it turn into negative self-talk or otherwise letting it get me down. But I think of it the same way that I hear some people talk about feeling antsy if they haven't exercised recently. It means that my brain is expecting me to be doing this thing and is reminding me that I really should spend some time on it soon! And since this "thing" is something that I really, really want to continue to make progress on, I'm not going to complain about that.
I'm going to do one thing, though, to give myself a bit of an extra nudge. I've already well surpassed my monthly fiction writing goal (as I'll discuss further below) but I want to take the last 1/3rd of May and aim to add an additional 1/3rd to my goal word count. So another 2500 words of fiction for May for me. There's no reason this should be hard, but it will be another little carrot out there to keep striving towards.
With this being Monday, it's time to update my goal status for the month for #writemotivation. Next Monday (or thereabouts) I'll have a final wrap-up for the month and also define my June goals.
1) Except for a Memorial Day Weekend blogging hiatus, keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - This has been going just fine. There've been some days recently when I've done close to the minimum 500 words for my Daily Writing Chain, but that's why I keep the number at that (relatively) easy target. The days I need to be able to have lots of time for other things, I do.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - I've completed two new stories this month, though neither has been submitted yet. There's a slim chance, I suppose, that I'll miss the "submit" portion of this goal as both the two I've completed are off with beta readers. If that happens, it happens, though I'll certainly keep the goal in mind as I plan the rest of my work for the month.
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. - I received feedback on this but haven't started on revisions yet.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - Even with several days recently with little or no fiction writing I'm at 8,563 for the month. If I meet my "bonus" goal above of another 2,500 words I'll be over 11,000 for the month.
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." - This one should be fine, unless I have to use one of my two reserved items for 5/31 itself.
6) Launch at least one new eBook - Earlier this week, I thought it was a bit less likely that I'd do one this month. However, there's a short story that's a reasonable length for a standalone $0.99 short which might be a good candidate for ePublication. It's a mystery/crime story which, on the one hand, means that it doesn't "fit" with my first ePub in terms of being a natural followup in the same genre. On the other hand, that means there's a dearth of good short fiction markets for it. I like this story quite a bit but couldn't find anywhere that I'd want to send it. I'm going to sleep on it for a day or two more, but I might go ahead and... if you'll pardon the saying... pull the trigger on making this one my May eBook.
Finally, an additional piece of news. As you may have seen, I've had an absolutely phenomenal run of sales recently to various publications. This news isn't a "sale" per se since no money is involved, but the one and only micro-fiction (Twitter-length story) in my inventory has been accepted by trapeze magazine and will be run on their site in the near future. I generally don't submit to non-paying venues but there are only a handful of paying venues for micro-fiction. Trapeze is run by Stephen Ramey, and I'm glad that he wanted to publish it on the site. As always, I'll let everyone know when it's available to read.
#writemotivation folks and others, have a fantastic week and be sure to be safe if you're traveling over Memorial Day weekend!
And, on the whole, I feel like that's a good thing. It certainly could be a bad thing if I was letting it turn into negative self-talk or otherwise letting it get me down. But I think of it the same way that I hear some people talk about feeling antsy if they haven't exercised recently. It means that my brain is expecting me to be doing this thing and is reminding me that I really should spend some time on it soon! And since this "thing" is something that I really, really want to continue to make progress on, I'm not going to complain about that.
I'm going to do one thing, though, to give myself a bit of an extra nudge. I've already well surpassed my monthly fiction writing goal (as I'll discuss further below) but I want to take the last 1/3rd of May and aim to add an additional 1/3rd to my goal word count. So another 2500 words of fiction for May for me. There's no reason this should be hard, but it will be another little carrot out there to keep striving towards.
With this being Monday, it's time to update my goal status for the month for #writemotivation. Next Monday (or thereabouts) I'll have a final wrap-up for the month and also define my June goals.
1) Except for a Memorial Day Weekend blogging hiatus, keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - This has been going just fine. There've been some days recently when I've done close to the minimum 500 words for my Daily Writing Chain, but that's why I keep the number at that (relatively) easy target. The days I need to be able to have lots of time for other things, I do.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - I've completed two new stories this month, though neither has been submitted yet. There's a slim chance, I suppose, that I'll miss the "submit" portion of this goal as both the two I've completed are off with beta readers. If that happens, it happens, though I'll certainly keep the goal in mind as I plan the rest of my work for the month.
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. - I received feedback on this but haven't started on revisions yet.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - Even with several days recently with little or no fiction writing I'm at 8,563 for the month. If I meet my "bonus" goal above of another 2,500 words I'll be over 11,000 for the month.
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." - This one should be fine, unless I have to use one of my two reserved items for 5/31 itself.
6) Launch at least one new eBook - Earlier this week, I thought it was a bit less likely that I'd do one this month. However, there's a short story that's a reasonable length for a standalone $0.99 short which might be a good candidate for ePublication. It's a mystery/crime story which, on the one hand, means that it doesn't "fit" with my first ePub in terms of being a natural followup in the same genre. On the other hand, that means there's a dearth of good short fiction markets for it. I like this story quite a bit but couldn't find anywhere that I'd want to send it. I'm going to sleep on it for a day or two more, but I might go ahead and... if you'll pardon the saying... pull the trigger on making this one my May eBook.
Finally, an additional piece of news. As you may have seen, I've had an absolutely phenomenal run of sales recently to various publications. This news isn't a "sale" per se since no money is involved, but the one and only micro-fiction (Twitter-length story) in my inventory has been accepted by trapeze magazine and will be run on their site in the near future. I generally don't submit to non-paying venues but there are only a handful of paying venues for micro-fiction. Trapeze is run by Stephen Ramey, and I'm glad that he wanted to publish it on the site. As always, I'll let everyone know when it's available to read.
#writemotivation folks and others, have a fantastic week and be sure to be safe if you're traveling over Memorial Day weekend!
Monday, May 14, 2012
Monday May 14th #writemotivation Check-In
Each Monday in May I'm posting a check-in status for my monthly #writemotivation goals. This is an opportunity for me to reflect on how things are going with the month and also to communicate with other writers participating in the #writemotivation mutual-encouragement activity.
1) Except for a Memorial Day Weekend blogging hiatus, keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - Going fine so far.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - I have written one new story (about 1000 words) but will not be submitting it right now. It's for a private forum competition and I'll be waiting to see what feedback I get from that before sending it out for a regular submission. I've got a couple of new stories in process as well.
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. - I'm expecting to get going on this later this week.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - I didn't have any one breakthrough day this week but I did get up over 5,000 words for the month which puts me well above pace.
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." -On target
6) Launch at least one new eBook - Still intending to do this, assuming I have an appropriate item to prepare and launch. I'd say this is down to about an 85% probability, as it depends on multiple factors. Still, it's high on my priority list.
Whether you're part of the #writemotivation community or not, I hope that your goals for May are off to a good start. Lots of month left, let's get some great things done!
1) Except for a Memorial Day Weekend blogging hiatus, keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - Going fine so far.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - I have written one new story (about 1000 words) but will not be submitting it right now. It's for a private forum competition and I'll be waiting to see what feedback I get from that before sending it out for a regular submission. I've got a couple of new stories in process as well.
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. - I'm expecting to get going on this later this week.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - I didn't have any one breakthrough day this week but I did get up over 5,000 words for the month which puts me well above pace.
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." -On target
6) Launch at least one new eBook - Still intending to do this, assuming I have an appropriate item to prepare and launch. I'd say this is down to about an 85% probability, as it depends on multiple factors. Still, it's high on my priority list.
Whether you're part of the #writemotivation community or not, I hope that your goals for May are off to a good start. Lots of month left, let's get some great things done!
Monday, May 7, 2012
Monday May 7th #writemotivation Check-In
It's a #writemotivation month again, so every Monday I'll be blogging about how things are coming with meeting my goals for the month.
Some Mondays I might talk about some other things too, but today's been rather hectic, so I'm going to keep this brief.
I hope that everyone in #writemotivation is off to a good start; I will see about getting around to see your check-ins soon myself.
1) Except for a Memorial Day Weekend blogging hiatus, keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - Well, no interruptions so far.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - I have written one new story (about 1000 words) but will not be submitting it right now. It's for a private forum competition and I'll be waiting to see what feedback I get from that before sending it out for a regular submission.
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. - The person who is planning to look at the first draft of the main portion of this project is intending to get to reviewing it in the next few days. Once I get that feedback, I'll see about trying to move forward with it.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - I'm standing at 1,722 words for the month right now which is almost exactly on pace. I'm hoping to get one good writing day in this weekend and get several thousand words written.
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." - I've done the work to get to having two of these ready to go now. Let's see if I can "avoid" having to use them between now and the end of the month.
6) Launch at least one new eBook - I don't know which will be my May eBook, but I'm still intending to meet this goal, probably very late in the month.
Some Mondays I might talk about some other things too, but today's been rather hectic, so I'm going to keep this brief.
I hope that everyone in #writemotivation is off to a good start; I will see about getting around to see your check-ins soon myself.
1) Except for a Memorial Day Weekend blogging hiatus, keep all my writing routines -- Daily Writing Chain (aka Seinfeld Chain), blogging schedule, etc. - Well, no interruptions so far.
2) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - I have written one new story (about 1000 words) but will not be submitting it right now. It's for a private forum competition and I'll be waiting to see what feedback I get from that before sending it out for a regular submission.
3) Make revisions to my non-fiction project based on feedback and my own editing of it. - The person who is planning to look at the first draft of the main portion of this project is intending to get to reviewing it in the next few days. Once I get that feedback, I'll see about trying to move forward with it.
4) Write 7,500 words of new fiction. - I'm standing at 1,722 words for the month right now which is almost exactly on pace. I'm hoping to get one good writing day in this weekend and get several thousand words written.
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." - I've done the work to get to having two of these ready to go now. Let's see if I can "avoid" having to use them between now and the end of the month.
6) Launch at least one new eBook - I don't know which will be my May eBook, but I'm still intending to meet this goal, probably very late in the month.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Revision Day New Words Waiver
Thursday 3/29 is the day which I've made as my "revision day", as defined in my March monthly goals.
I'll put up a post late Thursday or on Friday to let you all know how Revising Day 1.0 goes for me. Wish me luck!
"Have a short story revising day where I get at least three stories into a form where I am ready to send them out for beta or submission."I'm giving myself a one day waiver from my daily writing chain. If I meet that goal, getting three stories ready to go on to their next "level", then I'll check off my "500 words" box in my chain for the day. Of course, Friday, it's right back to the new words routine but this will be a little reward for getting a lot of work done on stories which need some attention.
I'll put up a post late Thursday or on Friday to let you all know how Revising Day 1.0 goes for me. Wish me luck!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Monday March 26th #writemotivation Weekly Status
This is the last Monday in March, so it's the last "official" #writemotivation checkin for the month. Even with everything that's not gone to plan this month, the past weekend made this a fantastic writing month for me with a total of three short fiction sales, including my first ever "professional rate" sale. Both of the other two sales are semi-pro rate sales to Kazka Press, one for their monthly themed flash fiction contest and one for their monthly unthemed longer short story contest. Each of these latter two are scheduled to be released on April 1st, so in under a week, I'll have two shiny new links to add to my Publications page.
1) Read my first draft of "Adrift" and create something akin to a "beat sheet" for it. - Once again, this isn't happening this month. I suspect I won't create an "Adrift"-related goal for April, simply because I have no reason to believe my schedule is going to get any easier next month than it has been this month. As I've said before, I do want to return to this sometime, but when I have limited writing time as I currently do, coming back to this is not at the top of my priority list.
2) Have a short story revising day where I get at least three stories into a form where I am ready to send them out for beta or submission. - I've got Thursday scheduled off work. Unless I have too many other things which I have to tackle on Thursday, this will be revising day. Can I get three stories done in that day? We'll see. It's a bit of an ambitious goal.
3) Write 7,500 words of new fiction including at least one new short story. - Probably not happening at this point, though I did complete multiple flash-length (under 1000 words) stories.
4) Keep all my writing routines -- Seinfeld Chain, revised blogging schedule, etc. - Still going strong here. There are lots of days when I've only gotten that bare minimum of 500 words in for my daily writing chain, but I have kept it alive.
5) On 3/31, have one non-time-sensitive blog post written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - No updates on this. I still have two which are nearly done that I just need to finish up. It's simply a matter of actually getting it done, and there's no good reason not to get it done.
6) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - Done.
7) Decide if I am going to attend Marcon (a local science-fiction convention) in April or not. - Also done. The answer is "no." I'll still look for another convention to attend this year.
8) Complete a first draft of my non-fiction project. - Well, I had thought that the main portion of the work was done last week, but I was mistaken. I actually had a bit more to add. That's part of what I've done this week. I've also started on the Bonus Features and lined up someone to do a "sanity check" on the first draft of the main portion. I feel good about the progress here.
Looking back on my words from last week, I find it interesting to see how a few days can change things. I had said: "I haven't had any large successes yet, but I've had small successes and [...] believe that the large successes are possible with perseverance and effort. I fully intend to keep on pushing through towards those large successes."
Little did I know just how close I was.
Congrats to everyone who made progress towards their goals this month and thank you, very much, for your kind words and encouragement. It really does mean a lot.
1) Read my first draft of "Adrift" and create something akin to a "beat sheet" for it. - Once again, this isn't happening this month. I suspect I won't create an "Adrift"-related goal for April, simply because I have no reason to believe my schedule is going to get any easier next month than it has been this month. As I've said before, I do want to return to this sometime, but when I have limited writing time as I currently do, coming back to this is not at the top of my priority list.
2) Have a short story revising day where I get at least three stories into a form where I am ready to send them out for beta or submission. - I've got Thursday scheduled off work. Unless I have too many other things which I have to tackle on Thursday, this will be revising day. Can I get three stories done in that day? We'll see. It's a bit of an ambitious goal.
3) Write 7,500 words of new fiction including at least one new short story. - Probably not happening at this point, though I did complete multiple flash-length (under 1000 words) stories.
4) Keep all my writing routines -- Seinfeld Chain, revised blogging schedule, etc. - Still going strong here. There are lots of days when I've only gotten that bare minimum of 500 words in for my daily writing chain, but I have kept it alive.
5) On 3/31, have one non-time-sensitive blog post written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - No updates on this. I still have two which are nearly done that I just need to finish up. It's simply a matter of actually getting it done, and there's no good reason not to get it done.
6) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - Done.
7) Decide if I am going to attend Marcon (a local science-fiction convention) in April or not. - Also done. The answer is "no." I'll still look for another convention to attend this year.
8) Complete a first draft of my non-fiction project. - Well, I had thought that the main portion of the work was done last week, but I was mistaken. I actually had a bit more to add. That's part of what I've done this week. I've also started on the Bonus Features and lined up someone to do a "sanity check" on the first draft of the main portion. I feel good about the progress here.
Looking back on my words from last week, I find it interesting to see how a few days can change things. I had said: "I haven't had any large successes yet, but I've had small successes and [...] believe that the large successes are possible with perseverance and effort. I fully intend to keep on pushing through towards those large successes."
Little did I know just how close I was.
Congrats to everyone who made progress towards their goals this month and thank you, very much, for your kind words and encouragement. It really does mean a lot.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Monday March 19th #writemotivation Goal Status
The past week has probably been my least productive writing-wise since I dove back into writing last August. I'm okay with this, because it's been with good reason and my life has been productive in non-writing ways and I've continued to move forward a little bit at a time on my writing. Being honest with myself, there are going to be some more low-writing-productivity weeks ahead of me.
With it being Monday, it's time for my weekly #writemotivation goals status check-in.
1) Read my first draft of "Adrift" and create something akin to a "beat sheet" for it. - As with last week, this is still not started. I do still want to get back to this project, but for the moment, there simply are other projects that I am more motivated to tackle. Right this moment, I'm thinking that I might decide that I won't write a different first draft novel in November for NaNoWriMo if I don't devote at least some serious time to the first draft of Adrift, instead using November to tackle a second draft of Adrift. I don't want to build up a stockpile of first draft novels, after all. We'll see...
2) Have a short story revising day where I get at least three stories into a form where I am ready to send them out for beta or submission. - I scheduled this for late next week. If nothing goes awry between now and then, I should have 7-8 hours where I can work on this. If circumstances force me to defer this, then I'll try to do this in April.
3) Write 7,500 words of new fiction including at least one new short story. - I finished the longer short I had been working on. 7,500 words of new fiction seems a bit unlikely at this point, especially since I'm planning on a revising-intensive day (See #2). I can't rule it out, though. If I could get a couple of good 2-3 hour chunks of time with a solid idea I was ready to write, then I could still potentially make this goal.
4) Keep all my writing routines -- Seinfeld Chain, revised blogging schedule, etc. - On target. As I said last week, this is still my top goal for the month. I feel that if I come through the current "storms" with my routines intact, it will be a big momentum boost when I have more time available again. That said, I'm trying not to take this to the level of superstition or what-have-you. If I break the chain, or miss a blog post, then I just have to get back to it the next day.
5) On 3/31, have one non-time-sensitive blog post written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - I still need to finish/polish one of the two most-of-a-first-drafts that I wrote last week. There's really no reason (barring a new crisis) that I shouldn't get this done.
6) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - I still need to mail out my story for the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine monthly contest. It's printed now, though!
7) Decide if I am going to attend Marcon (a local science-fiction convention) in April or not. - This goal has been "met" in that I've decided I won't try to fit this into our schedule. I'll still look into conventions later this year towards my overall goal of attending at least one convention in 2012.
8) Complete a first draft of my non-fiction project. - The main portion of the work is done. I want to work on some secondary portions ("Bonus Features" if you will...) of it before I'd call it complete. This is another goal which I should reasonably be able to complete.
I really do appreciate having the structure around my goals which the #writemotivation folks help provide each other. It would be so easy to tell myself that I didn't have time for writing in my life right now, but that would be an excuse. I haven't had any large successes yet, but I've had small successes and have received lots of input that leads me to believe that the large successes are possible with perseverance and effort. I fully intend to keep on pushing through towards those large successes.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope that your own March writing is going well.
With it being Monday, it's time for my weekly #writemotivation goals status check-in.
1) Read my first draft of "Adrift" and create something akin to a "beat sheet" for it. - As with last week, this is still not started. I do still want to get back to this project, but for the moment, there simply are other projects that I am more motivated to tackle. Right this moment, I'm thinking that I might decide that I won't write a different first draft novel in November for NaNoWriMo if I don't devote at least some serious time to the first draft of Adrift, instead using November to tackle a second draft of Adrift. I don't want to build up a stockpile of first draft novels, after all. We'll see...
2) Have a short story revising day where I get at least three stories into a form where I am ready to send them out for beta or submission. - I scheduled this for late next week. If nothing goes awry between now and then, I should have 7-8 hours where I can work on this. If circumstances force me to defer this, then I'll try to do this in April.
3) Write 7,500 words of new fiction including at least one new short story. - I finished the longer short I had been working on. 7,500 words of new fiction seems a bit unlikely at this point, especially since I'm planning on a revising-intensive day (See #2). I can't rule it out, though. If I could get a couple of good 2-3 hour chunks of time with a solid idea I was ready to write, then I could still potentially make this goal.
4) Keep all my writing routines -- Seinfeld Chain, revised blogging schedule, etc. - On target. As I said last week, this is still my top goal for the month. I feel that if I come through the current "storms" with my routines intact, it will be a big momentum boost when I have more time available again. That said, I'm trying not to take this to the level of superstition or what-have-you. If I break the chain, or miss a blog post, then I just have to get back to it the next day.
5) On 3/31, have one non-time-sensitive blog post written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - I still need to finish/polish one of the two most-of-a-first-drafts that I wrote last week. There's really no reason (barring a new crisis) that I shouldn't get this done.
6) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - I still need to mail out my story for the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine monthly contest. It's printed now, though!
7) Decide if I am going to attend Marcon (a local science-fiction convention) in April or not. - This goal has been "met" in that I've decided I won't try to fit this into our schedule. I'll still look into conventions later this year towards my overall goal of attending at least one convention in 2012.
8) Complete a first draft of my non-fiction project. - The main portion of the work is done. I want to work on some secondary portions ("Bonus Features" if you will...) of it before I'd call it complete. This is another goal which I should reasonably be able to complete.
I really do appreciate having the structure around my goals which the #writemotivation folks help provide each other. It would be so easy to tell myself that I didn't have time for writing in my life right now, but that would be an excuse. I haven't had any large successes yet, but I've had small successes and have received lots of input that leads me to believe that the large successes are possible with perseverance and effort. I fully intend to keep on pushing through towards those large successes.
Thanks for stopping by! I hope that your own March writing is going well.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Monday #writemotivation Goals Status
One other side effect of some of the personal issues I mentioned in Sunday's post is that I may be keeping blog posts a bit on the short side for the moment. Today will be one of those days, as I'm going to just keep this to a quick rundown of goal status.
Also, there's a good chance that my goal progress will lag early this month. Depending on how things go with the issues we're working through now, it honestly may end up just not being that great of a month in general for my goals. If that's how things work out, then that's how they work out.
1) Read my first draft of "Adrift" and create something akin to a "beat sheet" for it. - Not started, though I have done a tiny bit of thinking about this and discussing it with other writers.
2) Have a short story revising day where I get at least three stories into a form where I am ready to send them out for beta or submission. - Not yet scheduled, though I'd really like to do this still. If I don't have to take time off of work for other reasons, I'll try to do this late in March.
3) Write 7,500 words of new fiction including at least one new short story. - I was ahead of pace, but I've fallen behind pace. However, I've completed two new short stories (both flash-length) and am very close to finishing a longer short.
4) Keep all my writing routines -- Seinfeld Chain, revised blogging schedule, etc. - On target. This is officially my #1 goal (priority-wise) for the month now. My wife and I talked about this some one night recently, one of the days when I'd been driving all over Ohio... I mentioned I thought I might just take the night off and she reminded me that I always feel better after I've spent time working on writing, even if it's on something relatively low-intensity. She encouraged me to go ahead and put the time in and I'm glad that she did and glad that I did.
5) On 3/31, have one non-time-sensitive blog post written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - Well, I had one. And then I used it Thursday when things got crazier. The good news is that the "low-intensity" writing I did a couple of nights recently was working on first drafts of blog posts. I didn't actually finish either one, but I have good starts on two such non-time-sensitive posts. But I do need to finish one (and not use it before 3/31) to meet this goal.
6) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - This will be done as soon as I mail out my story for the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine monthly contest.
7) Decide if I am going to attend Marcon (a local science-fiction convention) in April or not. - I suspect the answer here is going to be a no. Which is OK. There are plenty of other conventions I can attend within close driving distance later this year.
8) Complete a first draft of my non-fiction project. - Not much progress on this in the last week. I may try to work on this more in the upcoming week.
Thanks to all the #writemotivation folks who stop by. I hope that you're all having lots of success so far with your March goals and that the rest of the month treats all of us well.
Also, there's a good chance that my goal progress will lag early this month. Depending on how things go with the issues we're working through now, it honestly may end up just not being that great of a month in general for my goals. If that's how things work out, then that's how they work out.
1) Read my first draft of "Adrift" and create something akin to a "beat sheet" for it. - Not started, though I have done a tiny bit of thinking about this and discussing it with other writers.
2) Have a short story revising day where I get at least three stories into a form where I am ready to send them out for beta or submission. - Not yet scheduled, though I'd really like to do this still. If I don't have to take time off of work for other reasons, I'll try to do this late in March.
3) Write 7,500 words of new fiction including at least one new short story. - I was ahead of pace, but I've fallen behind pace. However, I've completed two new short stories (both flash-length) and am very close to finishing a longer short.
4) Keep all my writing routines -- Seinfeld Chain, revised blogging schedule, etc. - On target. This is officially my #1 goal (priority-wise) for the month now. My wife and I talked about this some one night recently, one of the days when I'd been driving all over Ohio... I mentioned I thought I might just take the night off and she reminded me that I always feel better after I've spent time working on writing, even if it's on something relatively low-intensity. She encouraged me to go ahead and put the time in and I'm glad that she did and glad that I did.
5) On 3/31, have one non-time-sensitive blog post written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - Well, I had one. And then I used it Thursday when things got crazier. The good news is that the "low-intensity" writing I did a couple of nights recently was working on first drafts of blog posts. I didn't actually finish either one, but I have good starts on two such non-time-sensitive posts. But I do need to finish one (and not use it before 3/31) to meet this goal.
6) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time. - This will be done as soon as I mail out my story for the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine monthly contest.
7) Decide if I am going to attend Marcon (a local science-fiction convention) in April or not. - I suspect the answer here is going to be a no. Which is OK. There are plenty of other conventions I can attend within close driving distance later this year.
8) Complete a first draft of my non-fiction project. - Not much progress on this in the last week. I may try to work on this more in the upcoming week.
Thanks to all the #writemotivation folks who stop by. I hope that you're all having lots of success so far with your March goals and that the rest of the month treats all of us well.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Dissecting the Short Story Returns & #writemotivation Goals Status
Last month I ran a pair of surveys to see which genre magazines and major pro-rate on-line venues were read frequently by people visiting my blog. The results are further down the page. A total of 12 votes for print magazines came in from 17 voters, or approximately 2/3rds of a print venue per voter. A total of 22 votes for online magazines came in from 15 voters, or approximately 1 1/2 online venues per voter. (There were two more options in the online poll, which presumably accounts for a bit of that skew.)
The point of these surveys was to see what publications might be best for a revival of the Dissecting the Short Story series. I've determined that doing story dissections for mystery fiction just isn't in the "sweet spot" of my readership and that looking to utilize online publications, particularly ones where a story is available to be read on-line for free or a very small cost, is probably the best approach.
Here's my plan:
Total Voters: 17
Total Voters: 15
The other order of business today is my weekly #writemotivation update. Just like in January, those of us in the #writemotivation activity are posting statuses for our March goals every Monday. Here's my current status (past the jump)
The point of these surveys was to see what publications might be best for a revival of the Dissecting the Short Story series. I've determined that doing story dissections for mystery fiction just isn't in the "sweet spot" of my readership and that looking to utilize online publications, particularly ones where a story is available to be read on-line for free or a very small cost, is probably the best approach.
Here's my plan:
- Within the next week or so I'll identify three stories which meet the criteria I described above (In an online publication, available to read free/cheaply, from a pro-rate market) and create a poll on my blog so people can vote on the three choices. The three stories will also all be ones which have been published very recently.
- Voting will be open through the end of the month.
- In early April, I'll publish the dissection of the selected story and also set up a new list of three choices.
- I plan to try this for two or three months and see if it increases the level of discussion around the stories. From there, I'll determine whether I'll continue the series or put it back on hiatus.
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine | 1 (5%) |
Analog | 2 (11%) |
Asimov's Science Fiction | 4 (23%) |
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine | 1 (5%) |
Fantasy & Science Fiction | 3 (17%) |
Interzone | 1 (5%) |
None of the Above | 11 (64%) |
Apex Magazine | 2 (13%) |
Clarkesworld | 5 (33%) |
Daily Science Fiction | 5 (33%) |
Flash Fiction Online | 1 (6%) |
Lightspeed/Fantasy Magazine | 4 (26%) |
InterGalactic Medicine Show | 1 (6%) |
Redstone Science Fiction | 1 (6%) |
Strange Horizons | 3 (20%) |
None of the Above | 7 (46%) |
The other order of business today is my weekly #writemotivation update. Just like in January, those of us in the #writemotivation activity are posting statuses for our March goals every Monday. Here's my current status (past the jump)
Monday, February 27, 2012
March Goals for #writemotivation and 11 Questions from the Writer's Campaign
Thursday I will review my goal progress for February and also talk about the future of the Dissecting the Short Story Series. Today, I'm going to lay out my goals for the month of March.
1) Read my first draft of "Adrift" and create something akin to a "beat sheet" for it. - I'm hoping that having a more tightly-define goal for working on this will help keep me directed on it.
2) Have a short story revising day where I get at least three stories into a form where I am ready to send them out for beta or submission.
3) Write 7,500 words of new fiction including at least one new short story.
4) Keep all my writing routines -- Seinfeld Chain, revised blogging schedule, etc.
5) On 3/31, have one non-time-sensitive blog post written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new."
6) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time.
7) Decide if I am going to attend Marcon (a local science-fiction convention) in April or not.
8) Complete a first draft of my non-fiction project.
I've been doing a bad job of following up on this month's Writer's Platform-Building Campaign. This has been a combination of not having given it a high enough priority when I had time and then having some personal circumstances arise which cut back on the time I could spend on the computer some days recently. I still intend to get around to the blogs of everyone in my groups, but I'm not going to try to do the challenges, etc. this time. I'm sorry that I haven't been a better Campaigner this time around.
About a half-dozen people have tagged me to answer 11 questions as part of the campaign. Rather than trying to answer 66 questions, I've chosen one of the taggers (Melissa Sugar) and will answer her questions. Follow past the jump to see the Q&A.
1) Read my first draft of "Adrift" and create something akin to a "beat sheet" for it. - I'm hoping that having a more tightly-define goal for working on this will help keep me directed on it.
2) Have a short story revising day where I get at least three stories into a form where I am ready to send them out for beta or submission.
3) Write 7,500 words of new fiction including at least one new short story.
4) Keep all my writing routines -- Seinfeld Chain, revised blogging schedule, etc.
5) On 3/31, have one non-time-sensitive blog post written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new."
6) Write and submit one or more short stories for the first time.
7) Decide if I am going to attend Marcon (a local science-fiction convention) in April or not.
8) Complete a first draft of my non-fiction project.
I've been doing a bad job of following up on this month's Writer's Platform-Building Campaign. This has been a combination of not having given it a high enough priority when I had time and then having some personal circumstances arise which cut back on the time I could spend on the computer some days recently. I still intend to get around to the blogs of everyone in my groups, but I'm not going to try to do the challenges, etc. this time. I'm sorry that I haven't been a better Campaigner this time around.
About a half-dozen people have tagged me to answer 11 questions as part of the campaign. Rather than trying to answer 66 questions, I've chosen one of the taggers (Melissa Sugar) and will answer her questions. Follow past the jump to see the Q&A.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Final January #writemotivation wrapup
With January basically over, this will be both my final #writemotivation wrapup for the month and also my overall evaluation of my goals for the month.
1) Spend time in the first half of January analyzing my first draft of "Adrift" and time in the second half of January planning the second draft. - As discussed in previous posts, I got nowhere with this goal in January and have deferred it to February.
2) Write 25,000 words of new fiction including at least one new short story. - I crossed 16,000 words of fiction writing on the 29th and I'll probably end up somewhere close to 17,000 by the end of the 31st. This has me at pace for 200,000 words on the year. I feel fairly good about where this ended up even though I was about 33% short of the goal itself.
3) Keep all my writing routines -- Seinfeld Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - As of tonight, this is done. Just a quick reminder, there will be no Wednesday or Friday posts this week as February is starting and I'll be switching to a Monday, Thursday, Sunday routine.
4) On 1/31, have one non-time-sensitive blog post written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - This is complete.
5) Submit one or more short stories for the first time this month. - Done. So I've completed the entire "Write 1/Sub 1" goal for the month.
It's been nice getting the support from #writemotivation folks throughout the month. I'm looking forward to seeing what we'll have cooked up for March.
1) Spend time in the first half of January analyzing my first draft of "Adrift" and time in the second half of January planning the second draft. - As discussed in previous posts, I got nowhere with this goal in January and have deferred it to February.
2) Write 25,000 words of new fiction including at least one new short story. - I crossed 16,000 words of fiction writing on the 29th and I'll probably end up somewhere close to 17,000 by the end of the 31st. This has me at pace for 200,000 words on the year. I feel fairly good about where this ended up even though I was about 33% short of the goal itself.
3) Keep all my writing routines -- Seinfeld Chain, blogging schedule, etc. - As of tonight, this is done. Just a quick reminder, there will be no Wednesday or Friday posts this week as February is starting and I'll be switching to a Monday, Thursday, Sunday routine.
4) On 1/31, have one non-time-sensitive blog post written and ready for future use on a day when I'm not able to post something "new." - This is complete.
5) Submit one or more short stories for the first time this month. - Done. So I've completed the entire "Write 1/Sub 1" goal for the month.
It's been nice getting the support from #writemotivation folks throughout the month. I'm looking forward to seeing what we'll have cooked up for March.
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