Always quirky, sometimes sweet speculative fiction

Tag: progress on goals (Page 1 of 3)

September Goals Round-Up 2016

cat-typingIt’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, maybe that’s why I suddenly feel like I’m this cat ;p

This past month I wrote the entire first draft of Charming Rivals (16,300 words), did a revision of Glass Slippers, and also wrote, edited, and submitted Hanabi to Kitsune (5,700 words). That’s 22,000Β  brand new words (there’s a reasonable number of new words in revision, but it’s much harder to track).

After several months and only really scraping together a couple of thousand words and almost the only editing I did was with professional editors for stories I’d already sold, to suddenly slam out 22,000 words and then some in one month feels like powering through.

Now to see if I can maintain the momentum.

For October I’d like to:

  • Revise Charming Rivals and start getting feedback on it.
  • Take the feedback from my writers group for the first 5,000 words of Glass Slippers and use it
  • After the above get feedback on Glass Slippers as a whole and revise
  • Assuming the above is completed hire an editor and begin the process of professionally editing Glass Slippers
  • Write the first draft of Nix, Naught, Nothing (the third Charming For Hire story from the Retailored Fairy Tales world

I also hope to find the time to tinker with the new My Book Table 3 plugin which I backed on Kickstarter. I want to check out this ‘beautiful page’ mode and see how sexy it is πŸ˜€

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Mid-Year Goals Reassessment

scrunched paperThis last three months – bleh! Scrunch them up and toss them in the bin!

Not only the loss of this time but a long term plan I sat down and worked out with a friend mean I need to do some goal reassessment. I know it’s not really mid-year, but shh ;p

So, most of my goals are remaining the same:

Goal #2 – Be the best president I can be of my writers group, Vision Writers.

Goal #6 – Work with as many editors as I can.

Goal #7 – Find some dedicated beta readers.

Goal #8 – Keep Learning.

A couple of goals are changing slightly, becoming more specific to fit my more accurate long-term plan:

Goal #3 – Work on my several novellas will remain basically the same, just more specific, with a set list of titles to focus on.

Goal #4 – Keep writing and selling short fiction. Same as above, I have a set list and order, though there is a tiny amount of wiggle room with this one should inspiration strike.

And a few goals have been tossed out for now while I focus on ‘the plan’. There is one new goal:

Goal #1 – Stick to the plan. Which essentially is, while I will continue to traditionally publish some of my short stories I will also be releasing several novellas and longer short stories set in my Retailored Fairy Tales world.

So keep an eye out, I’ve got a few more stories coming out this year (keep an eye out for the Kickstarter for the anthology which will hold Glass Bones next month), so if you’re keen to be updated don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter.

 

Going For Goals – May 2016

4576127693_94c35d2ae4_zI did so well in April I worry it might be hard to follow. I can’t help but wonder, I set less goals for April, then got more done than expected. Should I follow that model?

Nah!

  • Finish Charming Rivals
  • Using Vision Writers feedback clean up (working title) Kitsune In Space, give it an actual title, and submit to the anthology I wrote it for
  • Tinker with the possibility of a print edition of The Troll’s Toll. I worry it’s too short to be worth making into a paperback, but I’d like to try and see, even if I end up wasting a couple of days learning the software only to discover it is a futile effort, I’ll still have learned how to wrangle the software for future endeavors
  • Set up a submission for the Richelle Prize
  • Sit my ass down and really try to nut out the ending of (working title) Skeleton Romance so I can finish it
  • Start, ideally finish, first draft of Naught For Charming

Stretch goal:

  • Work on one of those NaNo novels I never finished (at the moment I lean far more towards Tucca of the Tides, but we’ll see)

I’m probably setting myself up a bit for failure considering this first week and a half of May is filled with social events (autism seminars, a destination wedding, packing for extended holidaying around aforementioned wedding) but hey, aim high πŸ™‚

March Goals Round-Up 2016

Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons

Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons

March was a fairly busy month, with two long weekend trips away (one to see my parents before they headed-off on an around Australia trip they won’t return from until Christmas, and the other an extended Easter holiday), the Aurealis Awards ceremony, and Xander’s last few weeks of his first ever term of school (plus first week of school holidays ;p ). Not that that stopped me, only slowed me down a touch.

Regarding goal #2 (being a killer president(not to be mistaken with president killer ;p )) I went to the Aurealis Awards Ceremony in my official capacity. I couldn’t help but bask in the glory of Vision Writers presence at the ceremony as our founders were MCs, past presidents and members presented awards, received awards, and my VP was a judge in the horror categories. If you want to read a more thorough run-down check out the post on the Vision Writers Website. I also did a lot of work on the upcoming Vision Writers anthology (mostly people and time wrangling, but you’d be surprised how much effort that can take sometimes).

Goal #3(work on my novellas) went swimmingly as I completed the first draft for Glass Slippers (though went quite over the projected word count ;p ), and finished my final revision of The Troll’s Toll before it’s upcoming publication(more to come on that very soon!).

Regarding goal #8(keep learning) I’ve been listening to podcasts nearly all month. A huge backlog of The Creative Penn podcasts, the new The Self Publishing Formula podcast, and the Kobo Writing Life podcast. If I haven’t learned a few new things in listening to easily 20+ hours of podcasts then I either am omniscient and all knowing, or too thick to learn ;p

No significant reportable progress on the rest of the yearly goals, but some pretty solid results on what I did get done.

In regards to my March specific goals:

  • Write Sugar Cane and Swamp Monsters (projected length 7,000 words): I wrote 6,000 words of it then realised that I was going to go waaaaay over the word limit for the anthology I wanted to submit to. Also my conflict at the start was poor. Very poor. And that’s being generous with myself. I’ve come up with a better plot outline and will work on it later in the year.
  • Write Glass Slippers (projected length 15,000 words): Finished the first draft at just over 30,000 words. It’s a pretty solid first draft, with only one trouble area I’m aware of ATM. Currently letting it percolate before revising.
  • Begin revisions on both Sugar Cane and Swamp Monsters and Glass Slippers: This was a stupid idea. Stupid. I realised if I did rush both first drafts and try to revise them for submission by the end of the month I’d just end up submitting severely sub-par work, so I scrapped this goal entirely, because there’s no point submitting junk. It doesn’t matter how badly you want to be a part of that anthology, you won’t be if you send the editor rushed rubbish. Better to miss out and not give yourself a name for submitting crap.
  • Help with the promotion of the release of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #63 (which contains my story Gaps) and Leading Edge #68 (which contains my story Charming): Lol, neither ended up releasing this month. Leading Edge will be out any day now though – watch this space for further news!
  • Complete plot outline for first Charming Sequel: Yes and no. I realised what was wrong/missing in the plot outline I did last month. The problem is this needs to be two separate stories. I’ve got a very good idea for the first half of the split(needs to be properly outlined still), and last month’s outline mostly takes care of the second part(just needs irrelevant parts removed).
  • Complete plot outline for (working title)Kitsune In Space: Done, and I can’t wait to write this story, Japanese shape shifters in space, and a trans character = my hands up in the air like I’m on the best roller coaster ever. I also spent a whole day working on the kanji for the main characters names(this matters, here’s why).
  • Figure out the plotting problems with the end of Skeleton Romance(working title) so I can finish the novel: I’ve made a little headway on this, but nothing significant
  • Complete final revisions on The Troll’s Toll so it’s ready for editors: Yes I did this one! It’s being proofread/copy edited as we speak! You’ll be seeing and hearing a lot about The Troll’s Toll over the next couple of days/weeks πŸ˜€

All up I kept pretty busy in March, and April doesn’t look any quieter.

Fabruary Goals Round-Up 2016

fabThe goal I probably did the most work on last month was Goal 2 – being a good president to my writers group. Our group is working on an anthology to celebrate its 20th anniversary. I spent a lot of time hunting down old members and trying to contact them. I discovered there’s a surprising number of successful authors who don’t have websites, or social media, or any easy way to contact them >.< So if you are a published past member of Vision and didn’t get a message from me, that might be why (or I never heard you were a past member). I also had several other things to do with the anthology front and back matter and edits organisation. Also I worked on a presentation plan for anΒ  appearance at BWF again – but in a different way this time! And dealt with a website outage. Busy busy!

Goal 3, working on my novellas saw some attention, with me utilising some beta reader feedback for The Troll’s Toll and writing a further 10,400 words in Skeleton Romance(working title). I also did a plot outline for a couple of novellas I’ll be writing soon (The Charming Sequel and Glass Slippers). Also wrote the first 1,500 words of Glass Slippers.

Goal 4, write more short fiction. I wrote the first 4,500 words of Sugar Cane and Swamp Monsters, a new short story, and wrote a plot outline for another short story I want to write for an upcoming anthology(which the working title is almost too ridiculous to even say outloud).

Goal 6, work with as many editors as I can, went well. I worked with editors (a team of them πŸ™‚ !) on Charming,Β  a different editor on God’s Chosen, and yet another on Glass Bones – and that was just in February. When you count my January edits I’ve worked with five different editors (or groups of editors). An exciting start, and I’m sure learning lots(which of course satisfies goal 8, keep learning ;p ).

In regards to my February specific goals:

  • Finish the first draft of Skeleton Romance(working title) – I wrote another 10,000+ words, but came across a problem, I have two antagonists whose narratives need wrapping up. My original plot outline was only concerned with wrapping up the romantic and platonic relationships and the self-growth of the protagonist, not the antagonistic stuff. What an over sight! And i made some pretty nasty villains who are going to be harder to polish off that i at first thought. It’s going to take a bit longer than I thought. Again. also, there is nothing novella length about Skeleton romance now – it’s a novel ;p
  • Get betas back for The Troll’s Toll and utilise feedback – I did so. The Troll’s Toll now has a more solid ending and a lot of lovely compliments ;p
  • Get betas back for Foxworth and utillise – I’ve only had one beta reader get back to me. I was so busy with the anthology and the edits for my professional sales I forgot all about this goal until this very moment ;p Time to send a few polite emails.
  • Write the new Charming sequel – I didn’t write it, but I did get the plot outline done. I still feel there’s a little something missing from the story though, so I’m researching a lot of lesser known fairy tales trying to find the missing puzzle piece (plus, reading fairy tales is fun πŸ˜€ )

My stretch goal, to write some more flash fiction, was sort of done. I’ve come up with 3 new short stories and started a couple of them, but none of them are flash fiction, they’re all 7,000 words or longer in their projected length. They’ll still suit my purpose of getting more stories to try and sell traditionally though ;p

All up, I think I did make February Fabruary. It was a busy and productive month.

January Goals Round-Up 2016

checklistWith three new acceptance letters for short stories received this month it was certainly a good start to the year.

I also got a great start to the working with editors goal(#6), since two editors (one for one of the new stories and one from a while back) have worked with me already.

Goal 3 went well too as I did a good amount of work on The Troll’s Toll novella, and wrote a huge amount in the Skeleton Romance novella.

In fact I made progress on my yearly goals #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8. (Can’t remember what the goals were? Read this post(scroll to the bottom if you only want to know what goals I set))

For my January only goals:

  • Write β€˜Skeleton Romance’ – I wrote 32,800 words. It’s not finished, but a good chunk is done
  • Prep a years worth of writing prompts for the Vision Writers website – completed
  • Make the new banner for the Vision Writers website – done
  • Continue updates of the Vision Writers website – done most of it, still some more to work to do though, and it will always need updates
  • Final review of The Troll’s Toll to prepare it for beta readers – I did indeed
  • Find beta readers for The Troll’s Toll and reciprocate – Found some, got some back (not all yet), still working on reciprocating for all of them (some haven’t sent me anything yet – storing up favours I guess ;p )
  • Send Foxworth to the Foxworth Feedback Community for beta reading – yes. Haven’t got any back yet though. Memo to me: give beta readers set date to have feedback returned by ;p

I didn’t get around to either of my stretch goals, but stretch goals are just that – the goal you do when everything else is done.

I also had a nice long chat with a good friend/writer/mentor to help me focus on a business plan and all the fiddly bits underneath the bonnet of that phrase.

Not a bad start to the year, but the start of the year is usually easy – you’ve got all the enthusiasm from New Years resolutions. Can it be maintained all year long?

 

picture sourced from pixabay

March Goals Round-Up 2015

dramaThe month started out well enough, then my body decided to abandon me(more than one trip to the hospital to check baby was doing better than I was and fortunately she was fine even though I was not) and by the time I recovered from that my life decided it needed some more drama on top of that – but let’s not get bogged down in that.

I achieved goal #5(start my newsletter). Yes goal #5 is completed. Done and dusted at last and you can sign up here and get the free bonus ebook of ‘Stolen Hearts’.

Goal #4 (writing and submitting short stories) I wrote 6,000 new words in two different short stories. One(working title: Light In The Deep) was intended for a specific anthology but I blew the word count out of the water and haven’t even finished the first draft so I (β•―Β°β–‘Β°οΌ‰β•―οΈ΅ ┻━┻ and started writing another story(working title: The Broken Mirror) since to trim Light In The Deep down to word count would take out too much of what I love about the story.

Also – kind of goal #4 related – both Short Circuit and Stolen Hearts were listed as honourable mentions for Twelfth Planet Press’ Years Best Speculative Fiction 2013 anthology. I totally would have missed that without the keen eyes of Shane Halbach (thank you πŸ˜€ ).

Goal #6(keep learning) was furthered by watching a Holly Lisle webinar and joining Critters (but because of the drama I’ve fallen behind πŸ™ ) so I’m working hard on that as always.

And lastly goal #1(being a good president to my writers group) kept me busy with trying to reorganise a new meeting date since our usual ‘first Sunday of the month’ meeting day was Easter Sunday. Still don’t know for sure if I’m doing a great job, but no one’s tried to depose me yet ;p

February Goals Round-Up 2015

feb goalsFor such a short month I was surprisingly busy, but at least I managed to get a lot done.

For goal #1 (being a good president to my writer’s group) we’ve commenced work on an anthology to celebrate 20 years of Vision Writers writing and critiquing one another. The anniversary is next year, but as most people who know about publishing are aware it’s not as simple as snap your fingers and done, so we’ve a long road.

I also organised and ran my first writers retreat. It was all Vision Writers members, but it wasn’t an official Vision event. We all had a great time and you can find out a little more about it here if you’re interested. I would like to do it again, but not any time too soon – not with baby on the way ;p There’s so much organisation that you might not realise is involved.

In regards to goal #2 (final revision and editing for Storybook Perfect) I still haven’t started it, but that’s because I only want to revise one book at a time, and I’m working on goal #3 which is the revision of Written By The Stars. I’ve been using holly Lisle’s How To Revise Your Novel course to help me get as much done in one pass as possible. For most of last year I was stymied by the massive world building lesson, lesson 7, but I finally defeated the daunting lesson and moved through another 6, I’m almost finished πŸ˜€

Regarding goal #4 (writing and submitting more short fiction) as usual I killed it. I think I’m very much in love with short fiction, which is funny considering one of my very early posts about finding them difficult ;p

I wrote an extra 3000 words in ‘Foxworth'(previously known as Tubby) based on the group’s feedback, and according to those who gave the story a second read through made it even better. I also finished ‘Couples Counselling’ at a total of 3358 words and submitted it to my writers group for critique. Then I wrote a new flash fiction piece called Ella’s Baby (500 words) and did some editing on the novella ‘The Troll’s Toll’. Because of The Troll’s Toll’s larger length I’m seriously considering self publishing it as it’s length makes it a hard sell to just about every market I know of.

I’ve been working towards goal#5(starting a mailing list) too – finally! I have formatted two ebooks and made my first cover, all working towards the freebie for signing up. I’m repackaging a competition winning story that’s now out of print. You’ll see the results very soon.

Goal #6 (keep learning), well I learned lots through goals 1, 3 and 5 and even (as you always do from good feedback) some from goal 4, so still chugging along.

On wonderful, but slightly less goal orientated notes, I enjoyed my 3 year blogiversary and I added Goodreads buttons all over the website πŸ™‚

How’d you go with the shortest month of the year?

January Goals Round-up 2015

There should be a ‘belated’ in brackets at the start of that title ;p

As mentioned yesterday I not only went on a writers retreat but organised the whole damn thing(including lunches and dinners), so the end week of January was a crazy rush for me – hence utterly forgetting to do my goals round-up.

I sent out only a couple of stories (most of my polished ones were sent out at the end of last year so are still awaitng acceptance/rejection), but I did do a crazy massive edit on Glass Bones to make it an acceptable word count for a particular magazine running a theme I thought it very apt for. I took Glass Bones from 8,400 words to 6,000. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but somehow I did(I might post about that more soon).

I wrote a new short story ‘Tubby’ based on the writing prompt I created for the Vision Writers website. Tubby came in at 2,300 words and I submitted it to my writers group for critique. I also got back to work on Couples Counselling(an idea I had last year) and wrote an additional 1,800 words in it. So goal #4 is chugging along quite nicely.

As far as goal #1, being a good president to my writers group I think I’ve been doing well. This is based on a lack of hate mail and no one throwing rocks at the back of my head ;p . No, really, I’ve based that on me getting to work on the Vision Writers website, updating pages, getting the start of a regular blogging schedule underway – including making up (what I hope are) new and original writing prompts. Not to mention the writers retreat (despite it not being an official group event I’m sure it fostered happiness within the group), lots of organising for that!

While I didn’t touch #2 or #3, number three did get a thorough going through at the retreat, but since this is a January round up we can’t count work done in February.

All up, a good, but very busy start to the year πŸ™‚

Getting Onto Goals Already

Most of you know I’m the kind of person who gets straight to it – and you’re right.

You can see me blogging as the new president of Vision Writers over on their official site! The copy is a teeny bit cheesy, but hey, I’m a gouda kinda gal ;p

Keep an eye on that blog for writing prompts and meeting recaps. I hope you’ll subscribe to see what the group’s doing.

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