Category: goals

Final Countdown…

…to NaNo, that is. Yes, I finally made up my mind: I’m going for it again this year! This will be my fifth year, and I’ve won every year. The last two years, I’ve set myself the personal goal of 100k, and I hit it both years. This year…I’ll be thrilled with 50k. I work full-time, I’m going to school full-time, and just for fun, I’m prepping for an out-of-state move the first week in December (Me? Trying to do too much? Nah…I’d never do that.).

I just decided two days ago what I’m going to write. While I have the beginnings of an awesome YA paranormal fantasy involving ancient Greek mythology, I don’t have time to develop that world as fully as it deserves. So…I’m going to be writing the sequel to my werewolf story. Most of the basic character development is already done, so I just have to come up with a few new characters and a plot. “Just”…Ha. (Cue manic laughter now…)

Good luck to anyone else out there about to embark on the insanity that is NaNo!

Back To The Grind…

So, I’m back from vacation. I’m not exactly thrilled to be back, really more…resigned/annoyed, but I’m back. I had a great time, except that now I’m tremendously homesick. But hey, what are you going to do?

I’ve actually been writing on the 2YN sequel some since I got back. Not a lot, or anything. I set myself some really modest goals. I only got about 250 words yesterday, and about the same today. But it’s a start. It’s progress. And considering what else I have going on…I’m happy with it.

I also started back to school. Online classes, but I haven’t taken any classes in…we’ll just say “a long time”, so I’m a little worried about the adjustment. I’m taking four classes, and hoping/praying I don’t get overwhelmed. So far, so good, but it just got started, so it’s really too soon to tell.

My goal is to keep up with all my classes (definitely the priority), write about 2k per week, and try to do a little bit of revision on last year’s NaNo story (the faerie story). Oh, and TRY to hit the gym four days a week (which is why I’m up at the crack of midnight). Not to mention work full-time. And possibly try to sleep a little bit in there somewhere…zzzzz…..

January Progress

So, these were the goals I set in January for the entire year:

Write, using HTTS:
2YN 2
Ash’s story

Revise, using HTRYN:
Werewolf story (already in progress)
Tempest
Chasing Shadows
Atlantis
TSS
Zombie story

Other goals:
Go back to school
Start learning Irish
Read 150 books
Blog twice a week
Run a half marathon

I feel like I’m doing pretty well so far this year. I’m into lesson 8 on HTTS for the 2YN sequel, and have a complete line-for-scene outline done. Yay! I’m revising the werewolf story AND dabbling about with revising the zombie story as well.

I’ve done some of my research for going back to school. I know when I have to have the different bits of paperwork in, and I’m pretty sure I’ve decided on a school with a program I’m interested in. I’m a little nervous about going back to school, but excited, too.

The Irish is going pretty well, too. I’ve got some of the basics down, and I found some really cool learning software I want to order ASAP. I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had much time to read, though. Only 5 books in January, I think. The blogging is going well. I’ve hit my twice-a-week goal every week.

The gym…not so much. Working out has been sporadic at best, but I’ve done much better over the last week.

And…that’s all for now, folks!

Goals for 2010

Okay, so you knew this was coming. I can’t help it. I’m OCD about some things. Making lists, especially To-Do Lists, is one of them, and goals for an entire year are like the mother of all To-Do Lists, so here’s mine for the year. Well, some of them. I have a lot of personal goals that aren’t really relevant, and are more like things I want to get done this year (upgrade my computers’ memories, for example), so this is mainly just my writing-related goals.

Write, using HTTS:
2YN 2
Ash’s story

Revise, using HTRYN:
Werewolf story (already in progress)
Tempest
Chasing Shadows
Atlantis
TSS
Zombie story

Other goals:
Go back to school
Start learning Irish
Read 150 books
Blog twice a week
Run a half marathon

Looking back over this list, which is NOT the complete list by any means, I feel I should probably add another one: Learn to function without sleep. So, how about you? What are your goals for the year?

What I Accomplished This Year

So, here are the goals I set for 2009:

-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.
-Write 300,000 words

And here is what I actually accomplished:
-finished zombie story
-wrote werewolf story
-wrote Witches II
-wrote Mena’s story
-wrote about 2 chapters on the 2YN II

-started editing the werewolf story with Holly Lisle’s How To Revise Your Novel class (which is brilliant, by the way)
-polished Witches
-polished the Atlantis story
-polished the 2YN story
-started subbing the 2YN story (and have had 3 partial requests so far, so yay, got a step farther this time)
-wrote 368,771 words

Everything else…didn’t quite happen. But that’s okay, right? I did accomplish a lot this year. I learned a lot. I’m mostly happy with everything I got done. And I have a lot of things planned for next year (What a surprise, right?), which I’ll be posting about tomorrow.

Why, No, I Don’t Have A Life Outside Of Writing (Why Do You Ask)?

And the results for the first week of June are….Success! Well, partial success, anyway. I hit all my word count goals for the week, in all four stories. The zombie story is going, and that’s about all I can say about that. The sequel to Witches is coming along quite well, and staying mostly true to the outline. The werewolf story is flowing very well, and I have the next two or three scenes outlined (and by “outlined”, I mean I have one sentence for each scene). I started writing the sequel to the 2YN story this weekend. It’s flying along surprisingly well, especially considering I outlined the first two chapters only, and hey, finished those this weekend. Looks like there’s some more outlining in my near future…

The editing? Didn’t go so well. I did get about five chapters edited in Witches. Sigh. It needs a lot of editing. Right now, I’m going through back crits from SG, and seeing what I agree with. Most of the crits are spot-on, and the changes make the story much stronger. So, now all I have to do is follow up with those changes through the rest of the story. Didn’t even get started editing Tempest, but I’ll catch up on that. I’m going to try to re-do the outline for that story before I edit, to help keep me in line. Here are my approximate word counts for the week:

Zombie story: 1,500
Werewolf story: 5,500
Witches sequel: 4,000
2YN sequel: 5,500
Editing: 10,000

May Madness

I knew at the beginning of the year when I set my personal goals that I was being overly ambitions. But it seemed doable. It still seems doable, although my brain does not seem to share my belief. For the last two weeks, I’ve written nothing. Nada. Zilch. On the upside, I did get the 2YN story edited. Again. And I’m happier with this draft. Hoping to start sending it out soon. It’s now tentatively titled Charming Dragons. I wrote about 37,000 words in the first two weeks of the month, so May wasn’t a total bust, but I’d hoped to finish the draft of the Witches sequel this month, and that didn’t happen. It didn’t even come close to happening.

However, I do have a spiffy new plan to finish writing the three stories I’m currently working on (zombie story, Witches sequel, werewolf story), by the end of August, along with the sequel to Charming Dragons. And edit Witches AND Tempest of Angels. So, clearly I haven’t passed the overly-ambitious part of the year yet. 🙂 I do have set word count goals every day, and certain days to work on certain stories. I’m hoping the juggling act will keep me from burning out on any one story. At least, that’s the plan.

Now I’m off to brainstorm the new story. Wish me luck!

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.

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.