Current Project: Proofing Sugar High
Status: 1/3 done!
All weekend, I worked on an awesome post about how failure is sometimes the best possible thing that can happen to us. I was upset about not making GH, but I was *good* upset--the kind of upset where you resolve to make what you want happen. THEN, as you can see from Eli's sweet announcement on the sidebar, I got AWESOME news with winning the Great Expectations Contest and a request for the full from the Editor. So, um, yeah, about that failure blog . . . I think I'm a little too giddy right now to don my Commando Wavy attire and get all up in your grill. But, I'm going to try because I still want to talk about planning and goals.
Now, excuse me while I go channel Genene and Lisa for this very un-Bethany posting topic. Oooooom Oooooom Feeling the Need to Buy Office Supplies Ooooom Ooooom Feeling urge to make a spreadsheet Ooooom. Okay. I'm in the right headspace to plan, now. And really, I think that this is 90% of the battle with goal setting. For the last year, I haven't really committed to a plan. Oh sure, I've made goals. Aspirations really. Ideals. And while it looks awesome cross-stiched on a wall (gathering dust, natch), "Write Everyday" hasn't exactly landed me anywhere near my goals. Instead, I miss a day, and I feel guilty and stew, and then it's been three weeks, and then suddenly it's 2009, and I last had a finished MS in 2007, and my purple book of ideas has expanded to Ideas-Exceeding-Life-Expectancy Levels, and lordy, was I really surprised when I didn't final in the GH when I only decided to enter to justify keeping my RWA membership?
Alexis Morgan spoke to our chapter two weeks ago about "Getting Organized to Write." Her talk was my getting organized to get organized moment as it got me in the right headspace to think about what I really want right now. I mulled this over and tried to get myself to drink the "I'm 100% happy being a professor right now. I'm a professor/mother. I don't need another slash right now" kool-aid despite the gnawing ache in my gut whenever I finish a really good book. Maybe I could recommit to this whole writing later . . . a decade or two . . .or get a new goal . . .
I'm really good at lying to myself. Scary good. When I found out that I didn't get GH this year, I realized that I had been holding a lot back from myself. It was a bit like reaching page 303 and realizing that OMG! The heroine has an evil twin! I had this whole fantasy spun out in my head most of which centered around passive success. Lo! I would be discovered! With no further work required on my end.
Except, okay, yes. Lots of work. Something Alexis said that made a lot of sense for me was that you have to know your pace so that when you sell(not if, if is now banned from my vocabulary), you can tell your editor when to expect book 2. Light bulb! When you sell, you have MORE work. Better get started now, as there isn't such a thing as a Book Two Fairy or Publicity Elf. She also talked about having realistic goals that keep you accountable and take fate out of the equation.
Thus, while my driving fire right now is all "Golden Heart," I don't control the judging gods. However, what I do control is putting myself in the best position to reach that goal. So here's my GH 2010 or Bust Plan:
- Weekly goals. I'm breaking down my goals into weekly goals that CHANGE each week. Small concrete tasks that either get accomplished or not. I need recovery from all the XXX words by Y month goals that I never met. New week = New Goal. This lets me take into account what sort of week I have ahead of me and pick that week's goal accordingly. I've got enough small and large tasks to keep my momentum going if I choose wisely each week.
- Overall goals. Keeping my eye on the prize, I'm looking at what needs to be done. I would like to enter three manuscripts.
- Manuscript #1 is the YA which won Great Expectations. I've done revising based on awsome judge feedback from the contest, and this is in good shape, but I'd like to get it a shiny new synopsis and consider whether I need to upsell the romance to suit RWA tastes.
- Manuscript #2 is one of two long-languishing contemporaries. I need to just get over myself already. I'm planning to enter more contests over the Spring and the summer to force myself to draft a synopsis and cut-and-burn along the way.
- I need to get over myself where Manuscript #2 is concerned, because Manuscript #3 is hopefully going to be a new finished MS. As in, yes, actually moving beyond Chapter 1. Right now, I have . . .gulp . . .SIX first chapters rattling around my hard drive. I might need to return in a future blog to play WIP idol with y'all as judges . . .
- I'm including little details in my plan to make it easier this year. For example, I'm putting aside a little money each month to cover contests and to have enough to cover three entries and postage for 3 tons of paper heading to Texas. And postage would be much cheaper if I could ship via muletrain instead of two-days-before deadline concord. So I'm planning to enter and ship #1 & #2 as soon as the contest opens, saving #3 for a last-minute NaNoWriMo push worthy of paying a small fortune in stamps.
**The picture is the best one I found during a quick search, and the only one by far to feature a smoldering hero worthy of a romance blog. It's from this neat historic photo website.
13 comments:
Wavy, I like the photo. ;) And love the post!
And I like your ideas for motivating yourself to get writing. It's always good to ease yourself into doing more and more. And giving yourself the room to do more or less depending on what is happening in your life is good. Just be sure you are always doing SOMETHING. Don't let a week slip by that you didn't either write some or research or plot on the current project. I've found when you let it all go once, it is so much easier to let it keep slipping. Keep your mind wrapped around the project so you can get the most out of the time you do sit down and work.
I have always been if I get a rejection- I jump in and work harder on whatever I'm work on at the time. Just to prove I do deserve to be published. I received a rejection yesterday from an agent. The one I saw in San Fran. I kind of figured as much. She was looking for a mystery and there isn't that much "cozy mystery" in my western. LOL But it was a shot in the dark. I still have seven queries out and most of those are agents who have western clients. So there's still hope.
Fun post and I know great things are in the air for you!!!
Self-motivation is SO important, Wavy, as Paty said. It doesn't work as well for me because I'm stubborn and don't listen to myself very well, but I will listen to others who crack the whip over me. Ha! This is why I needed an agent so badly, and now that I have one, she totally keeps me on track.
Write every day, even if it's only a paragraph or two to add to your WIP. Keep yourself immersed as much as possible, and that includes story dreaming (my personal favorite). If you let it go too long, you'll waste precious time trying to get back into it again.
You seem to like entering contests so maybe you could line up a few you plan on entering and make their deadlines your deadlines. That can also help you stick with a plan and meet goals.
I'm so proud of your win, Wavy! That's just awesome. How's the air up there on cloud 9, huh? :)
Wavy, I like your plan, your energy and your style. I think you are absolutely spot on right about the necessity of being driven. What I have always admired about my friends is the passion with which they approach something -- passion is a very attractive attribute and you have it.
I tend to do what paty does -- take a rejection, turn it into war paint, smear it on my face and start charging. Someone's success often spurs me to reach further and try harder.
The only advice I can add, and it may not be an addition, you may have mentioned it already, is to keep your eye on whatever it is that attracts you to being published. I'd written a couple dozen stories when I decided to try a book and what I thought about as I wrote it was getting the money to buy my son his own computer so he and his buddy would stop commandeering mine. When I started to lag or give-up, I thought about the computer and that is what got me through.
I KNOW you are going to attain what you strive to reach and I am glad you've stopped lying to yourself (ignoring your passion.) If you need a reader for your synopsis, you know where I am.
I like weekly goals, Bethany. I think it's easier to say, "I have to accomplish x, y and z this week rather than putting pressure on myself to get so much done each day, then feeling like a failure when I miss something. I binge and purge with work...some days I'm flying all day long, getting 1000 different things done - writing, promo, edits. And others where the 4 yr old is crawling up my back and I can't do a single thing (ahem...that was spring break, here). My world is much happier (and I'm easier to live with) when I can say, "Okay, I didn't do it today, but I'll get it done this week, for sure." Because I know I will. Obviously, I liked Pat's weekly word goals a lot and really identified with that suggestion.
One of the hardest things for an unpublished writer (in my opinion) is working without deadlines. Forcing yourself to accomplish goals without an external motivation if you aren't internally driven to do so is like banging your head against the wall. I don't think any amount of lectures, conferences or contest wins or losses can inspire a person to be interally driven. You either are or you aren't. And I think that's the difference between successful (working) writers and those who never really get their careers off the ground. You, Bethany, have that internal drive - it's evident in your success (and completion) of law school, your job as a professor, the gusto with which you've thrown yourself into motherhood. And it's clear now with your writing. Even when you weren't writing at the pace you wanted to be writing (due to all of the above), it was still foremost in your mind. You talked to me about it, you blogged about it, you made the effort to stay involved in the chapter and come to as many meetings as you could so you were never totally away from writing. Real life DOES get in the way sometimes, and you shouldn't feel guilty about that at all. The fact you are so committed to not only creating new goals now but achieving them is what matters most.
And I have absolutely no doubt you WILL reach those goals and that you WILL see publication in the not-too-distant future. Like you said, it's not a matter of 'if' but simply a matter of 'when'.
Another great post, Wavy. And congratulations again on winning the Great Expectations contest! Good luck with the request for the full!
We must have been channeling each other during Alexis Morgan's talk. I had so many lightbulb/aha! moments I'm surprised my chair didn't start glowing! The two most important ideas that I took away are exactly the ones you talk about in your post: 1) making a realistic, concrete writing goal that works for me, and, 2) the fact that I need to know my writing pace now, before I'm published.
Sometimes I think I have to hear or read the same thing multiple times (in different ways) before it really sinks in. Like making my goals work for *me*. I, too, have a problem with daily writing goals. But making a weekly goal? Makes total sense. And I really like your idea of keeping that flexible and setting a realistic goal *each* week. I may have to adopt that for myself! :-)
And, boy, do I hear you about lying to yourself. Been there, done that, should get a commemorative t-shirt made! I'm bookmarking your post so I can periodically take stock of whether I've fallen into old bad habits.
Paty--your perseverance never fails to inspire me. Someday I want a t-shirt that says "What would Paty do?" You are the epitome of the right attitude for success.
Karen--I totally need a whip cracker too! I think I did so well in school b/c of deadlines + the risk of disappointing someone else. I'm using contests as deadlines right now, because, hey, it's almost like getting a grade right? :)
Alice,
As always you manage to hit right upon what I need. I tried to answer your question in my head, and in doing so, I figured out which WIP(s) to pursue. I want teenage fangrrls :) I picture my book in a library.
On par with the computer for your son, I picture a hotel room with a hot tub. :) Although maybe I should picture something for Tavy to motivate me too :)
I love your sage advice!
Eli,
Thanks so much for the support. I think small weekly goals is going to be a very positive thing for me. I noticed when I took the class this past semester and I was a student again, how much I like external deadlines, particularly ones that have a firm day of the week attached to them.
Debbie,
I want the t-shirt too! Wouldn't it have been funny if we were both sitting there with glowing chairs. Poor Pat. :P
Let's keep each other honest and on-track!
Yes, Wavy, you and Debbie keep each other honest and on track, but do not forget the Saturday Check-In (I use it, too. Sometimes on a Friday when I picture a word count or progress report due the next day I am motivated to work harder...)
We all have whips and we ain't afraid to use 'em.
No time to post yet, but Wavy your giddy, buzzing high from winning is coming across in your post. lol. Congrats again.
LOL, Wavy!
You did awesome without taping easel-sized pieces of paper all over the room. And nary a colored sticky note on your blog post!
Your enthusiasm and determination are evident in your post. Fantastic!
Knowing yourself is so important in setting goals. As is wanting to do something versus actually making it happen. (Speaking of myself here.)
"Have you ever been surprised by your reaction to something? Have you turned a failure into a fire-up moment for yourself?" Yes! And I'm going to work on that right now as I go back to working on house projects.
Keep that enthusiasm!
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