It's Almost Time...

My mouth dropped open earlier today when I realized we're only four days away from the end of 2012.  The years just keep going by faster and faster.  One of these days I expect to blink, only to discover that I'm in a new year, with no memory of the one I just left.

WARA members are probably groaning as they read this.  They know I'll be pulling out the whip soon.  You see, with only four days left of this year, we're coming to the end of our word count challenge for the year.  And that means we'll be starting a new one.

Hear my evil laughter?  Oh, wait!  That means I have to buckle down, too.  Yikes.  Hear my big sigh?

Get ready...
How many WARA members---or non-WARA members---have given some thought to new goals for the new year?  How many have actually taken steps to get ready to work on those goals?  How many are chomping at the bit to get started on those goals?  (crickets chirping)

If you've participated in this year's Word Count Challenge, it's the best place to start for setting a new goal.  Did you reach your goal?  Did you come close, but didn't quite make it?  Did you find you didn't have nearly the time--or the drive--to stick with it?

Yeah, yeah, I know.  Lots of questions, but answers to them will help.  So will a few tools.

• You'll need a calendar.  I like this one to start with.  It's printable and all of one year is on one page for a great overview.  It also has the option of the availability of more than the current, next and previous month.  And the holidays are listed on the bottom, so I don't have to look them up somewhere else.  Mark off any important dates, such as family birthdays, vacations, times you know you'll be otherwise occupied with life things.  Then transfer that information onto a calendar that gives you space to write on and where you can jot down word count.  (MS Word has calendars and calendar templates that you can print, if you want something plain or don't want to bother with buying a calendar.)  
• Take a look at your 2012 goal (if you had one) and use it as the basis for planning your 2013 goal.  If it was a good year, do it again or maybe even add more words to your goal.  Maybe it was a bad year for you.  Maybe things happened that you didn't know about, but were big enough to put your goals aside, at least for a little while.  Ask yourself it it's possible those same things could happen again.  Or something similar.  If tax time is busy...  If summer leaves you with little time because of little ones...  You get the picture. :)
• Keep Murphy's Law of Goals in mind.  Never heard of it?  It goes like this: When working on a goal, especially a year-long one, life will always intrude.  Don't fight it.  Don't let it beat you.  Deal with what needs your attention, then when you can get back to your goal, do so.  And don't beat yourself up, either.
• Any forward motion, any progress is a +.  The saying, "You can't fix a blank page" has been attributed to Nora Roberts.  Whether she said it or someone else did, it's the truth.
• Just write.  When you find it difficult to put words on paper, don't give up too quickly.  Sometimes getting started is slow going.  Very slow going.  But once started, no matter how slow and painful, it can and often does pick up speed.
• Plan ahead.  It really does help to have some kind of idea of what you'll be writing.  This doesn't mean you have to have a book fully plotted or a synopsis written, but knowing your characters, their GMCs and what the story will be about is a huge help.  Ideas often come at strange times, so try to always have something handy where you can jot the ideas that come to mind.
• Don't quit.  Of course there are times in life where you aren't given the choice of moving forward, but too often people give up when the going gets a little rough.  Lost time can be slowly made up over a longer period of time.  If it isn't, it's okay, as long as you don't give up without giving yourself another chance.
• Take stock .  If you've fallen behind for any reason, rethink your goal.  There's nothing wrong with making an adjustment, no matter how small or large.  If you find you set your goal too low, smile.  Next time you can set it higher.
• If you need some help with setting goals, check out Diary of a Mad Romance Writer.  Yeah, that's my blog, and I have more blog posts than what's probably needed on the subjects of both motivation and setting goals.  And I have LOTS of links for extra help.

I'm tired just thinking about it, but knowing  that working toward a goal is doable, I'm ready to start.  I know what I want to accomplish, I know how I can accomplish it, and I plan to start 2013 with determination and the will to finish.  I hope you all will do the same.  See you January 13!  And Happy New Year!!!

Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right. - Oprah Winfrey

Ninety Thousand - My Magic Number (Melissa Robbins)

This year, WARA has challenged their members to a word writing contest. The winner will be based on percentage completed, so the writer who struggles writing 25,000 words can compete with the published authors who have several book contracts.

Ninety-thousand words. That's my writing goal for the year. Seems pretty daunting, doesn't it? How did I come up with this magic number? Most of the stories I write have 85,000 words, but I have 70,000 words for a story I should finish and 20,000 for one I started last November for Nanowrimo. Ninety-thousand might just finish both stories or at least one!

But 90,000 is still a big number, so I broke it down. Being able to break a goal down in manageable mini-goals is key or you'll go stark-raving mad. I created a spreadsheet with equations. My engineering husband is so proud. For a yearly goal of 90,000, that's 7,500 words per month, 1731 words a week, 246 words a day (Hey, it's a leap year! We get an extra day!). Two hundred forty-six words is less than a page a day. That's doable, right? Okay maybe not for me last week, but editing can really slow a writer down and that's what I was doing. I rocked the word count earlier in the month, so I should still meet my monthly goal. Correction, I will meet my monthly goal.

Since the group is tracking their percentages, I added an equation on my handy-dandy spreadsheet that tracks my monthly and yearly percentage goals. I have reached 78.29% of my goal for January and 6.52% for yearly goal. Another trick I found helpful for tracking are the number rows. One for January 1^st and down the column.

We'll have to see how I do. I'm not one to keep New Year's resolutions, but I prefer to write than exercise, so I may just keep this goal.

SCORE! (Roxann Delaney)

Considering how far behind I am on my writing goals right now, I really shouldn't be giving advice on how to make and reach goals. I should be well into chapter 5, when I barely squeezed by finishing chapter 4 tonight. Late. And it took forcing myself to pull up the file, which resulted in cringing as I typed words that will probably need to be changed. Or cut. Or... who knows? But I finished that chapter.

Behind or not, I know what my goal is, and I also know that if I stick with it--which I will because I have to--I'll reach it, hopefully sooner than planned.

The key to making goals and reaching them is to break a larger or more long term goal into several (or even many) smaller goals. Daily goals are good. For instance, to reach my September 1 deadline, I know I have to write at least one chapter (there are 8) each week. That requires writing three pages per day, each of those eight weeks. If I can write more, great! In that case, I can take a day or two off for something I want (or need) to do. Or, even better, I'll beat that deadline by days or maybe even a week or two. But one way or another, I must write that one chapter per week. How do I know that's the pacing I'll need? Trial and error.

Don't make a goal too difficult to reach, but don't make it too easy, either. Also keep in mind that none of has complete control over our lives. Things happen, but when they do, adjustments can be made. If weekends with family or simply enjoying yourself is a priority for you or the one thing that keeps you sane, don't plan them as writing days...or whatever your goal involves.

Don't beat yourself up if you don't reach your goal with flying colors. Give yourself some time for a small pity party, then sit down and try to determine why you didn't reach that goal. Did you over-book yourself? Adjust for the next time. It may take a while to determine what pace suits you, what's not too much and what's too little.

Use rewards. I wanted to play hidden object games this evening, so I gave myself the go-ahead to do that...for an hour. Then it was nose-to-the-grindstone time. When I finished the chapter (YEA, ME!), I put my work away and played my game. A bigger reward is allowing myself to read my favorite author's latest book when that big goal is met. Choose a reward that works for you.

Goals aren't just for writing, they can be for anything in your life that you want or need to do. So here are a couple of Rah-rahs to help you along:

Just Do It (apologies to Nike)
BIC-HOK (Butt In Chair - Hands On Keyboard. Thank you, Cataromance)
Today I work, tomorrow I get to play!

A New Day

I was desperate for an idea to blog on today until I read Pat Davids’ blog in the wee hours of January 2nd. Her blog and the article she recommended
Look Ahead With Stoicism—and Optimism
were just what I needed in several ways. They revitalized my attitude and turned those hours into a New Day filled with hope and promise! With apologies to the article’s author, I paraphrase a segment I found inspiring:

“Repair, rebuild, and return to writing with enthusiasm. So many forces exist to pull us away from it. We have to do what we can to hold to our goals in the long run.”

Repair. Rebuild. Return. These three words provoked introspection. They inspired glimmers of hope in the midst of a self-pity party. I ended the year like Old Man Time, weighed down and battered by twelve months of hill and valley with a few health-challenged mountains strewn across the path at the end of the year. Looking at 2009 now, with a fresh prospective, it was a mixed year for me. Some writing goals met –that new web design, completed revisions, several queries and submissions (one editor request still shows promise of a sale)-- mingled with goals not met and rejections from agents and editors. Not a horrible year, just an ordinary one. But I want more than ordinary.

To make 2010 extra-ordinary I will:

1. Repair. Take an honest look at the year past. Note limitations and accomplishments with an eye toward what led to each. Ferret out what nuggets of wisdom are to be found and implement change that will turn limitations into accomplishments.

A. Faithfully keep a record of pages written. It’s sort of like pennies mounting into dollars. Words become pages which become books. Keeping a record reinforces that it IS important.

B. Set Yearly goals:

1. To part with Never to Part

2. Keep the Honour Series submitted to agents and editors at all times;

3. Complete the 5th book in the series

C. At the beginning of each month set goals for the month which are delineated into weekly goals. The smaller the goal the more manageable; the more like to be met. Allow for some room for necessary time adjustments.

January Goals:

Continuing from month to month: Write and post blog. Complete Mission Possible

1st week: Complete scene additions on Never to Part.
2nd week: Finalize scene changes in Never to Part:made necessary by the additions.
3rd week: Complete scenes in Never to Part:if necessary. Resubmit.
4th week: Review historical research and story outline on Honour’s Love. Complete Paris escape route. Review and edit Chapter One

2. Rebuild (Confidence). Examine what I do well. Do this each month adding in what was done well for that month.

A. Note my strong points and the success I have had because of them. Remind myself of them throughout the year to reinforce the positive. Use them with deliberation in future projects.

B. Read currently published books in my genre for market research and enjoyment. Study agent and market information sources to keep abreast of what is selling. Target agents and editors accordingly.

C. Continue to study and hone writing skills choosing a topic according to what crops up as I write.

3. Return (to writing with enthusiasm.) Again paraphrased from the afore mentioned article:

“Do you remember the mission? Do you remember why you began to write, what you meant to do, what writing meant to you when you viewed it from the outside, years ago, and hoped to become part of it?

Years in the writing trenches with early and then mixed success had worn me down. With health issues, beau coup medication, and that pesky thing called “life,” writing faded in importance. It still niggled and nudged; still demanded attention, but I was more and more apathetic about it.

Did I remember the mission? No, I hadn’t thought about it in ages.

Why did I begin write? That first story (and most of the others) demanded it. It gave no choice; it had to be written.

What did I mean to do? I meant to write stories of adventure and romance. I did, no, I still do that.

What did writing mean to me? Writing meant—means-- freedom, it means expression, it means my spirit can fly and soar. Just writing that last sentence lifted my spirit. How can I not return to writing with enthusiasm?

If you are fretting about writing, about unmet goals and writing failures as I was, it is time see the New Day before you filled with hope and promise! Time to look to a glass more than half full. Remember the mission. Recall what writing means to you; what it gives back to you. And Write.

SECOND CHANCES

Don’t you just love the new year? I do.To me, January feels like a second chance at making it right. Doing it better. The perfect time to make resolutions and set goals. Like so many others who’ve gone before me, I plan to lose the baby weight (baby is 18 so I think it’s about time, don’t you?) I vow to become a better person. Talk less and listen more. Tell my friends and family more often that I love them. Volunteer. Donate blood. Go, do and see as much as I can. De-clutter my office and my life. Write. Write. And then write some more.

Will this be the year I get that publishing contract? Will I secure another agent? I can hope all I want but nothing will ever happen unless I write. Plain and simple I have to put my fingers on the keyboard to breathe life into the words filling my brain and overflowing from my heart. Words that are meaningless unless I do something constructive with them. Recently, my critique partners extraordinaire and I set goals for the year. We have lofty plans and dreams, for ourselves and for each other.

What are your writing related dreams and plans? Do you want to enter more contests? Complete that first or subsequent manuscript? Join a critique group or additional writing group? Attend a conference or workshop? Take an online writing class? Create a webpage? Submit to an agent or editor? All positive steps toward reaching your writing goals. I find it helps to write down your goals and post them where you can see them every day. Use them to fuel your desires. Write down where you want to see yourself next year when January rolls around because we all know that the older we get the faster time flies. It’s January now. Think of this as your second chance to make it right. Do it better. Do something positive for your writing career. Do something positive for yourself.

My goals: See above list and I also plan to finish two more 100,000 word manuscripts bringing my completed total to six. Okay, I’ve posted my goals and resolutions so now it’s time to post yours. Make it public. Make it real. Make it happen. Take advantage of your second chance.

Hugs,
Reese

Musings

I’ve been burning the midnight oil a lot lately. To no good purpose, I might add. Just to watch time go up in smoke. The ending of a year does that to me, encourages me to squander my remaining resources.

I also find that the final days of December cause me to think more about endings than beginnings. The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Nine has been no exception. It was a bad year for me, and I’m not sorry to see it go.

I wrote next to nothing this year. I reinforced my poor self image by being unreliable in my writing commitments to this blog and to the Mission: Possible! exercise. Over the last two years my writing productivity has ground to a halt yet again. I used to be frightened when this happened. I thought my Muse had died, and that I would never write again.

The good thing about having years of writing experience under my belt is the knowledge halts and dry spells don’t last. You can BICHOK and begin again. If any of you are suffering from doubts or writing blocks, I would suggest you take the valuable suggestions to be found in Rox’s blog of December 29th and put them to use. Start by making specific goals and writing them down on paper. Don’t be too hard on yourself or waste time in recriminations. Move with the flow of the universe and renew yourself with positive thoughts and good fellowship with other writers.

I wish you all good things in the days to come. I offer you a toast: May your days be long and filled with the joy of family and friends. May your imagination be fruitful, and may your writing tools produce many pages. May your work lead you to a publisher’s door, and may you earn the lasting satisfaction of authorship.

Have a Happy New Year!

Coming Soon: A New Year

With Christmas over, it means it's time to think about New Year's Resolutions. "I resolve to fill in the blank in 2010." But while we're all thinking of passing up anything with more than 200 calories, let's focus more on goals for the year, especially writing goals.

What are goals? Dictionary.com defines a goal as the result or achievement toward which effort is directed; aim; end. Synonyms are target; purpose, object, objective, intent, intention. Good words! Even better because they can help us make goals.

Reaching a goal takes effort.

One caution when creating a goal. Aim for goals that can be achieved. A goal needs to be within your control. For instance, a goal of selling a book isn't completely achievable. None of us can control what or when an editor or publisher will buy, but what we can do is write the book and submit it.

If you have a large goal for the year, break it down into smaller ones. Large goals, such as submitting a manuscript, should be a series of small, achievable goals.

1. Find the right publisher for your idea.

2. If research is needed, do as much as possible before starting to write. That doesn't mean that once you're into the writing you can't look up specific information you need, but knowing a little about your hero or heroine's career from the beginning can mean not having to go back and revise later.

3. For those who plot, do it now. For those who don't, and idea of the beginning, middle, and end of your book can be a big help and keep you focused.

4. Writing a book definitely requires writing pages. But what if writing 200 to 300+ pages seems like a daunting task? Break it down! It's been said countless times that if a writer writes only one page a day, at the end of a year there would be 365 pages written. That's equivalent to 91,250 words!

But maybe you aren't ready to submit a book to a publisher. What other goals might you be thinking about?

Coming up with a story idea? Ideas are everywhere! Watch the news, read a newspaper, even watching people in the mall can generate an idea. If you have an idea, but don't know how to work it into a book, try brainstorming with friends or a critique group or partner. 'What if' is great way to put a story together.

Entering a contest? Kick off 2010 with WARA's Right Hook contest in March, followed by our Flyover contest in June, and ending with our HEA (Happily Ever After) contest in November. Work on entering each of these contests throughout the year, and you may end up with a finished book by this time next year. If you're an RWA member, many chapters have contests each year. Those can range from the opening to the first chapter or even a specific type of scene.

Check the internet for more ideas on how to make and achieve your goals. You can start with tips from Renee Knowles' Do You Have a Plan. Good luck!

Self Editing Check List--the Dirty Dozen:

I blogged a few days ago and then realized that some examples might be nice of things to watch for when self-editing. So, I whipped out a dozen for your amuzement.

Attend to these, but in no order of importance:

1. A beverage--Gotta have one--editing is thirsty business
2. Pleasant surroundings--Gotta have one--editing is hard enough
3. Darlings--words and phrases that are so clever you don't want to get rid of them--but they don't fit the story--store them in a darlings file for another story--not this story
4. Repeated words or phrases--when we're on a role we can get hung up using one word or phrase repeatedly for that writing session--Do some theasaurus work.
5. Spell-check lies and substitutes--(1)Spell check may not know the word you are using--add it to your dictionary(2) Spell check sometimes substitues words it thinks you mean--and you don't(3)Spell check may not be working--see above amuzement for amusement....
6. Cut, Copy, and Paste violations--the problem with moving things around is that sometimes the move isn't as seamless as we thought it was, but we don't double check it. Sometimes little orphan words or phrases are left behind making absolutely no sense to a reader.
7. Characterization uh-ohs--characters all sounding the same in speech or movements.
8. Grammar check garbage--grammar check doesn't know what you are trying to say--don't believe it always is correct--it isn't. I split the infinitive. Also a bad move.
9. Passive/Active--Contrary to popular writology, stories need a little passive voice to rest the reader between bouts of action. Make sure they are there and in good interesting shape.
10. Grade level--much of the world doesn't read, but that doesn't mean the readers are simple. Don't only write simple sentences. Do a check once in a while and find the grade level you're writing at.
11. Paragraph and sentence blahs--Paragraphs and sentences that are always the same size become very hard for a reader to follow. Vary them.
12. Left out words or substitued words that seem the same--like life for like.

Setting and Meeting Goals

Many have thought about writing a book--thought about it for weeks, then months, and then years but never wrote it. What is the difference between those who think and those who do? Mainly planning and obstinate doggedness. One way to get that story idea into a finished manuscript and then a published book is to get organized: Set and Meet goals.

This can be trickier than it seems. How many of us have said, “Later today I will outline the first half of the book” or “Tomorrow I will write five pages” and never got close to doing either. I’d have to raise my hand as doing so. To dodge this problem you need to craft a carefully thought out plan that you know you will commit to. Commitment is perhaps the most important ingredient in meeting your goals, so think long and hard about what is important to you as a writer and your writing career.

Here are a few points that may help you get started.

1. Set Priorities: Be it for the next book you mean to write or what you hope to accomplish in the next year you have to break down the tasks involved into manageable “bites” so that you don’t get sidetracked or overwhelmed. Decide what is most important be it writing a book, getting an agent, selling to a publisher (often it is all of these) and then set goals to achieve success.


2. Break goals into yearly, monthly, and weekly parameters.
Think of your goals for the year or a particular manuscript as a color by number book cover. Each time you achieve a goal in the plan you can color in that part of the design. When you’ve finished them all you have the book that goes with the cover.

Let’s say you’ve one manuscript ready to be submitted and you have a story idea for your next book. Your yearly goals could be:
• Get manuscript accepted by agent or publisher
• Write the new book

Now you need to break these down into steps. I sometimes have to sketch these out and then put them into monthly and weekly goals. The weekly goals should be small and incremental, that is they are parts that you build on to reach the monthly and yearly goals. They are part of the larger project broken into steps.
To get a manuscript accepted by an agent/publisher you have to
• Write a synopsis
• Do research to chose an agent or publisher
• Write a query letter
• Do all those things again if you get a rejection

To get that next book written you have to:
• Sketch basic plot
• Develop main characters
• Determine setting
• Write rough outline
• Research as necessary
• Set writing schedule

Take the above goals and determine which you want to meet the first month, etc. and which will be ongoing. Divide them into a workable timetable. Some are going to be reoccurring, like the writing schedule.

3. Have achievable realistic goals. Take a hard look at your slate of goals. Have you taken on too much in each time category? Have you allowed room for inevitable distractions? Are these goals what you truly want to accomplish and in the order that will help you achieve the most success at meeting them?

Meeting small goals builds confidence and enables you to take on larger ones. A single goal of “I will write a book” will doom it. It takes from two months to a year or more to write a book. Most people need the satisfaction of meeting goals in much shorter spans of time. A goal of “I will write a paragraph or two about the heroine’s goal, motivation, and conflict” is much more attainable and leads to the next step--doing the same for the hero.

4. Make your goals concise. A goal that is a broad generalizations makes it difficult to meet and easy to avoid. Stating exactly what is to be done is more likely to result in your doing it. “I will determine the setting--the dates and place of my story. ” It’s easy to know when you have met this goal.

5. Write goals down. Goals that aren’t written down are more easily forgotten, more easily escape our memories. I not only write them down but put them by the computer to keep me on task. It’s easy to put them out of mind with out a reminder. Not so easy if you see them all day, every day.

6. Accept Failure. Murphy’s Law is like Newton’s law on gravity, it happens to all of us. Murphy’s Law states “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” There will always be something that will interfere with your goals--little and big problems; short and long delays. If you learn to shrug it off, put your fingers to the keyboard, and get back on track you will reach the goal. Attitude is key and a positive one will always accomplish more than a negative one. “I can’t” usually means “I won’t” Vent your frustration and then get those fingers moving on the keyboard.

7. Persist. Success with goals, with anything, is 90% or more persistence. BICHOK--Butt in chair, Hands on keyboard. There are many twists and turns, even back tracking on the way to finishing that manuscript and publication. The old Frank Sinatra song “High Hopes” says it all. In part “Just what makes that little old ant; Think he’ll move that rubber tree plant? Anyone knows an ant can’t move a rubber tree plant. So any time your gettin’ low stead of lettin’ go, Just remember that ant. Oops there goes another rubber tree plant!” http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/frank+sinatra/high+hopes_20055241.html

8. Celebrate. Put a line through each goal as you meet it. Put stars by it--whatever works for you. Have a glass of wine. I was going to say play a Free Cell game but we all know where that leads and it’s not to meeting goals. Wine is safer. Chocolate is even better.

9. Stay focused. Stick to your goals. Adjust them, redistribute them over your time line when it’s necessary but don’t loose sight of the end goal. Work your way through the obstacles you confront on your way to it and you WILL reach it!

Everyone works in their own way. What works for me may not work for you. Take the ideas that will help you and please, share yours for setting and meeting goals.

I’ve now meet my goal to blog on Setting and Meeting Goals. Pass those M&M’s!