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Posts Tagged ‘Goals’

Project Status

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on April 18, 2012| 6 Comments »

Almost a month ago, I posted this set of priorities:

  1. Finish the revision to “The Music Box” and decide what to do with it.
  2. Get ready to query FIRE AND EARTH.
  3. Start THE BARD’S GIFT.
  4. Revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL.
  5. Prepare BLOOD WILL TELL for e-publishing.

I’m doing pretty well on these goals.

  1. I’ve finished the revisions to “The Music Box” and have it out to one reader. I’ll probably seek more readers at the beginning of the month, and then decide what, if anything, I need to change before e-publishing it. There simply isn’t any other market for a romantic fantasy novella. I’m also waiting to hear about a novelette, “Becoming Lioness”. It’s currently out on submission and I expected to hear back almost a month ago. Maybe that’s good news. If not, I’ll be e-publishing that one, too.
  2. I’ve now sent out nine queries on FIRE AND EARTH and gotten one request for a partial.
  3. I’ve started THE BARD’S GIFT, but only barely.
  4. I’ve just about completed the revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL. I’ll be looking for new readers soon.
  5. I haven’t yet done anything about preparing BLOOD WILL TELL for e-publication.

So, here are my current priorities:

  1. Keep querying FIRE AND EARTH.
  2. Complete the revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL and find a couple of new readers to see if I’ve solved the problem of the slow beginning. The revision should be complete by the weekend.
  3. Mark up the revision notes for the last segment of BLOOD IS THICKER. That’ll only take a couple of days at most. I’m not ready to actually start on the revisions, yet, though.
  4. Then I’m going to concentrate on getting BLOOD WILL TELL e-published. That’ll also involve getting way more serious about some marketing.
  5. And once all of that is out of the way, I can go full bore on the first draft of THE BARD’S GIFT.
  6. I’ll probably tinker with the first draft of MAGIC’S APPRENTICE during any slow spots on THE BARD’S GIFT.

That’ll do for at least the next month, don’t you think?

 

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A Look Back

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on January 4, 2012| 4 Comments »

This is the last post about resolutions or goals for a while. I promise.

The turning of the year is a time not only to look forward to what we want to accomplish in the coming year, but also back on how well we did last year.

My 2011 Goals:

  1. Get MAGE STORM out on submission. 

Yes. It’s even gotten one request for partial and another request for the full manuscript. I’ll keep querying it at least until SEVEN STARS is ready, about April.

  1. Keep writing and submitting short stories. It’s not the primary focus of my writing, but it is good practice. The publication credits wouldn’t hurt, either.

By my records, I made nine submissions of three different short stories in 2011. No publications, but I did get an Honorable Mention in Writers of the Future.

  1. Finish two books this year.  Current candidates (subject to change without notice) DREAMER’S ROSE (which is in rewrite) and SEVEN STARS (which will be a first draft)

Yes. SEVEN STARS and MAGIC’S FOOL. I very nearly finished BLOOD IS THICKER, too. DREAMER’S ROSE is on the shelf until I figure out how to fix it.

  1. Learn.  There is always more to learn. 

Yes. Of course, there’s still more to learn out there.

  1. Read widely in the YA genre.

Yes, again.

  1. Never give up. Never surrender.

Well, obviously. I’m still here, aren’t I?

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Goal Tracking

Posted in writing, tagged , , on November 28, 2010| 1 Comment »

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.

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