Calling Down Lightening

Dear Muse:

I know Holly said all I had to do was tell you what I needed, and get out of the way, but I must admit, I’m skeptical. I’m not trying to cast doubts on your abilities, I just don’t know how well you perform under pressure. But I’m not going to pressure you. I just want to clarify my request a little bit more.

I said I needed three unrelated story ideas, ideas unique to me, and based on words and concepts from my Sweet Spot Map, any genre, any length, deadline one week. To be slightly more specific, I would like:

One epic or high fantasy idea
One paranormal idea
One mainstream idea

Also any length, and the deadline is still one week. I know you’re busy playing with the ideas right now, and I just want to thank you in advance, Muse, for what will be, I’m sure, wonderful ideas.

Love,

Me

January

I didn’t come anywhere near hitting my goals for January. At all. Guess that’s what I get for setting such high goals, huh? I’m really not stressing about it, though. I started on the werewolf story, made it to the second chapter, and stalled out, probably because I was writing without any sort of plan. Then I discovered the HTTS class, which I’m going to use on this story. So really, although I’m not actively writing this story, I’m still working on it. (At least, that’s how I’m wording it to myself.)

The zombie story fell by the wayside this month, too. But, my co-writer had a computer meltdown, so we couldn’t really email about things like we normally do. (That’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.) I am currently working on a chapter, though. And it should be finished up today.

I also did a novel swap in January that wasn’t anywhere in my plans for the year. Unplanned, maybe, but greatly appreciated and enjoyed. (Thanks, Dale!) I got some good things out of the crit I received, and as always, learned a lot from the crit I did.

Now, I’m off to work on Lesson Two of the HTTS class: Making a Sweet Spot Map.

What I’ve Been Reading

Caine, Rachel: Chill Factor (01/03/09)
Caine, Rachel: Windfall (01/04/09)
MacInerney, Karen: On The Prowl (01/08/09)
Caine, Rachel: Lord of Misrule (01/10/09)
Frost, Jeanine: At Grave’s End (01/11/09)
Black, Jenna: The Devil’s Due (01/14/09)
Evanovich, Janet: Plum Spooky (01/16/09)
Gaskell, Whitney: Good Luck (01/17/09)*
Banks, L.A.: Bite the Bullet (01/21/09)
Henry, Mark: Happy Hour of the Damned (01/24/09)*

These are the books I’ve read so far this year. Currently, I’m reading three hardcopy books simultaneously, and seven through DailyLit. (Which is awesome, by the way, but I tend to get over-excited and grab a ton of books all at once. Which is why I’m reading seven.)

I see this list is skewed heavily in favor of Rachel Caine. What can I say? I love gift cards for Christmas! And I’ve been dying to read Lord of Misrule for months. Seriously, though, the endings just kill me. And I’m now hooked on the Weather Warden books as well.

Mark Henry was a new author to me. Sort of. I did sit in on one of the panels he was in last year at Conestoga (And yes, the whole zombie sex comment he made contributed to my buying this book–that was too funny to pass up.) This book had me laughing out loud! Zombie fashionistas, a flamboyant vampire, and psychotic baristas? Oh, yeah. I’m there. Normally, footnotes in a fiction book drive me crazy, but these just made me laugh harder. I will definitely be buying Road Trip of the Dead when it comes out next month.

And speaking of laughing, if you want to read a book that will immediately make you feel like your life isn’t as bad as you thought, read Good Luck by Whitney Gaskell.

Interference

Why is it, when you have things all planned out, that something has to come along and interfere with your plans? I had a ton of stuff I needed/planned to do this weekend, and most of it has gone undone. Thankfully, I’m off again tomorrow, so it’s not the end of the world. But still. If I didn’t have to do things tomorrow that I planned to do today, I’d get a lot more done (Was that confusing?).

I’m a compulsive list-maker, and I always fill out my planner on Sunday night for the week ahead. And then highlight it in specific colors for specific projects (Did I mention I tend to be anal about organization, too?). I love being able to mark things off when I get them done, and it drives me crazy seeing things not marked off my list. So, today? Not looking so good. I still haven’t even finished all the things from yesterday I was supposed to do. But I will…eventually. If not tonight, then tomorrow for sure.

So, I’m still working on my projects for this year. Most of them, anyway. Still haven’t done any work for the werewolf story outside of the HTTS class, but I’m letting it stew in my mind. I have a feeling that will work out pretty well for me. I hope everyone else is making progress on their goals for the year. Apparently, I should have added “Be more disciplined” to my own goals.

Falling Behind Already

I did have some big, audacious goals for this year. I wanted to write half of my werewolf story this month. So far, I’m on chapter two. 🙂 For a while there, Chance didn’t have much to say to me, so writing just wasn’t happening. Now, I’m struggling with not knowing where the story goes next. Apparently, writing without an outline just doesn’t work for me. At all. So I clearly need an outline before I go any farther.

Which (sort of) brings me to the next thing: I signed up for Holly Lisle’s How To Think Sideways class. I’m doing the 12-month course, so I’ve only received the first lesson, but I’ve been reading the comments and questions on the boards, and I really think I can get a lot from this class. So I’ve decided to use the werewolf story for HTTS. Which means I won’t be actually writing it just yet. Not that that means I won’t get it done this year. Just that I won’t be doing it exactly when I had planned.

Other than that, I’m in the middle of a novel swap with someone (the Atlantis story), and I’m about to swap the 2YN story with someone else. Of course, neither one of those crits were in my plans for this year, but I’m really enjoying the one I’m working on, and looking forward to the next. I always learn so much doing crits.

And that’s it for me. For now, anyway.

2009: Or, The Year Of Audacious Goals

While I’m satisfied with what I accomplished in 2008, I’m not entirely happy with it. There were several things that I didn’t get done that I really wanted to. But…that’s okay. No matter how much I try, I can’t always do everything. It’s the trying that’s the important part. This year, I made a list of things that I wanted to write or edit, and really thought about whether or not I could do them. And I think I can. So, I made all of them my goals for this year. They are all in the notebook I keep for monthly goals, and I’ve planned out what I’m going to work on in each month (I can’t help it, I’m OCD about planning stuff like that).

I want to either finish, or write first drafts for six stories:
-Zombie story (finish)
-Werewolf story
-Witches II
-2YN II
-Ash’s story
-Mena’s story

I want to edit five stories:
-Tempest of Angels
-Werewolf story
-Zombie story
-Witches II
-2YN II

I want to polish three stories:
-2YN
-Witches
-Atlantis story

I want to start subbing two stories:
-2YN
-Atlantis story

My personal goals:
-Read 165 books.
-Learn one Japanese lesson per month.
-Start a professional website (I sort of gave up on this one last year, but I’m giving it another go this year).
-Run 5 miles in less than an hour.
-Do 10 pull-ups.

And to top it all off, I want to write 300,000 new words this year. Now, this might sound like the most audacious goal of all, considering my word count goal for 2008 was 250,000, and I only wrote 163,000 words. But I’ve set individual word count goals for each of the stories that I intend to write, and if I hit those goals, the 300k will be no problem at all.

So, what are everyone else’s goals?

The Year In Review (Or Things I Did Not Accomplish This Year)

I started off 2008 with ten writing-related goals, and a books-read goal. I met some of them (most of them), but slacked off on others. I learned a lot about writing this year, and about what I’m capable of, which I’ve put into my plans/goals for next year. But here’s how I did on this year’s goals:

Read 150 books: I’ve read 154 books (and yes, that counts Gone with the Wind, of which I lack about 100 pages to read, but I’ll get that done today).

1) Finish first draft of NaNo 2007 (the Atlantis story). Done. I think I finished this in February or March.

2) Start subbing Through Shadowed Stone. Done. I started this in May, and actually stopped subbing it in the summer. Not because of the rejections I got, but because I realized this story isn’t ready yet. It’s on the back burner for now, until I’m ready to tackle its issues.

3) Finish first round edits on Atlantis story. Done. Finished this 12/29/08-Nothing like waiting ’til the last minute. I actually like this story much more than I remembered.

4) Finish first draft of zombie story. Not done. Took a 6-month break from the story, but we’re working on it again now.

5) Finish first round edits on Witches. Done. 10/12/08. I’m not entirely happy with this draft, and I still need to cut a large amount of it, but I cleaned it up some.

6) Finish first round edits on zombie story. Also clearly not done, since the first draft isn’t complete yet.

7) Do NaNo 2008. Done. 100k done.

8) Outline Witches II. Done. Finished the outline in October, and I’m looking forward to writing it, despite the fact that Witches still needs so much work. I have a complete outline for this one, so I don’t think I’ll wander quite so far afield.

9) Finish 2YN class. Done (more or less). It still isn’t quite ready for subbing, and I need to fix my synopsis and draft a query, but it’s been written and edited.

10) Write 250,000 new words. Not done. Not even close. My final word count for the year is 163,570 words. Which isn’t bad, it just isn’t what I’d hoped for. But that’s okay.

This year, I finished up two story drafts. I wrote one complete first draft. I did a lot of writing on the zombie story. I did a lot of editing, a lot of crits, and got a bunch of new ideas that will carry me over into 2009. I’m satisfied with my progress, and happy with what I learned.

Editing and Planning

I’ve been getting a good amount of work done lately. Editing on the Atlantis story is going well. The writing is still much stronger than I remembered, which pleases me. I haven’t made any major changes yet, but I know the latter part of the story will probably need some additional work. Nerina is a much more well-defined character than I remember her being, but being in her head comes back easily to me, and so does being in that world. I think that’s a good sign.

I’ve got two chapters to write in the zombie story. One of them is pretty straightforward. The other will probably end up being dark and tense, with the characters expecting the boogeyman to jump out at any second. (Hey, it’s a story about zombies. What did you expect?) Also on the zombie front, I ordered Mark Henry’s Happy Hour of the Damned. It sounds pretty funny, and I’m looking forward to reading it.

Last, but far from least, I’m still doing pre-work on the YA werewolf story. I was at the mall a few days ago, and saw a pair of shoes that the female MC would definitely wear. They were black Mary Janes with little skulls and crossbones on them.

Me: “Oh, those shoes are perfect for Chance. She would love them!”
My younger brother (looking confused): “Who is Chance?”

And then I went home and happily spent an hour Googling Goth clothes and picking out outfits for Chance to wear. It’s sad, really. And I’m afraid she likes pink. That, to me, doesn’t go so well with the whole Goth idea, but she’s determined she will also have a pair of hot pink Doc Marten boots. Go figure. I don’t even like pink! She’s coming through loud and clear. Now if only her brother, Cade, would start speaking up for himself…

Life After NaNo

Actually, there’s not a whole lot going on, at least not on the writing front. I’ve been editing my NaNo 2007 story (which is still untitled). I’m… surprised by it. I think the beginning of it is very strong, and although it’s early yet, I have hopes that it is better than I remember. (Of course, last year I had big goals for NaNo and for whatever reason, I lost all motivation two weeks in and barely got 50k. Good to know the story is stronger than that.).

I’m in the very early planning stages for a new story, and this one came out of nowhere, and has taken over my brain, demanding to be written now. So, I’m going to start it in January. Just as soon as I get a few more things figured out, and the characters named, and the plot in some sort of rational order. You know, the usual things. It’s something a little new for me. Another YA, but an urban fantasy this time. And, of all things, it’s about a werewolf. Or two. Or six. Not sure, but at least three. I don’t know why it’s grabbed me so much, but it has. Now I need to do some research on Goths to start with. That should be interesting. At least the characters that showed up weren’t emo…