Meredith Mansfield, Author

Well, it’s the time of month and almost the time of year for measuring our progress against our goals.  Since I blogged about goalsetting a little while back, I might as well blog about the other side of the equation.

My goals for the month were:

1. Get half-way through the third draft of MAGE STORM.
2. Complete revisions on a short story and submit it to Writers of the Future.
3. Make some progress on SEVEN STARS.
4. Make a decision on whether BLOOD WILL TELL is actually YA or not.

It was a challenging set of goals.  My progress:

1. I completed the third draft of MAGE STORM, not just half-way.  Initially, it was a little intimidating to be dealing with four critiques on the entire novel at once. Once I built up some momentum, I didn’t want to stop until I got to the end.
2. I’m still working on the short story. It is just possible that I’ll complete this goal this month, but it’s looking more likely to be a few days late.  For WotF, I’d rather take the extra time and have it be right. The actual deadline for the quarter isn’t until December 31st. I’m in very good shape to make that with weeks to spare.
3. Well, I made some.  Not a lot, but this goal was nebulous enough that just about anything counts.
4. The jury is still out on this one.  Of four responses I’ve received so far from people who read a lot of YA, the voting is running three to one for adult rather than YA. Again, I don’t know that I’ll have made a final decision (and so completed this goal) by month-end. Either way, BLOOD WILL TELL is likely to get a rest while I start querying MAGE STORM next year.