Current Project: Derby book
Status: Ch-ch-chuggin' along
Yes, this is another post on goals. I know several of us have done that lately, but this time of year it's hard to avoid. Don't you think? I know it will help me increase my motivation by posting my goals to the world. Hello-ello-ello-ello. The world of the internet is so vast!
My GREAT BIG GOAL OF 2010 (yes, it deserves all caps because this is going to be a good year, folks), is divided into four connected parts.
1) Finish the roller derby book by the end of July, well, preferably middle of July. I'll be heading to Scotland (still can't believe it!!!!) at the end of the month, until a few weeks into August. That will give me about a month to think about the book, take a break from it, and return home to edit the heck out of it.
2) Edit the book in September to get it in tip-top shape. I tend to not do a lot of editing as I go, so a whole month sounds reasonable to me. But if I'm ahead of the game, I may edit chunks of the book as I go, maybe a few chapters or something. Also during September, I need to revisit my agent wish list. Things have changed in the past couple of years since I was seriously doing agent research.
3) Send out queries in October to agents and editors who will accept them. If nothing else, I'll *finally* get PRO status.
4) Sign up for the Golden Heart contest in November. I think I'll be out of town for the Golden Rose and won't have the MS polished by then, bummed to miss out on the feedback opportunity. But I think it's time I give the Golden Heart a go.
I guess I'll add a fifth part of the goal - continue blogging on my personal blog throughout the year so when I begin querying, I will have re-established my Web presence. That's the bear about the name change, I already had a fairly established Web presence for an unpub as Lisa Pulliam - had talked to a lot of people anyway. Sort of starting fresh, but that's a good thing. :)
Out of all the goals people have been sharing on here, and sharing on the loop - I'd love to hear which goal you think is going to be most difficult for you. Clearly, for me it's finishing the book because I obviously struggle with that :)
7 comments:
You have a good set of goals, Lisa. And very doable if you just stick to writing a few pages every day.
I think the one goal I may not make is the getting the third book finished by the end of the year. Only because I'll have two releases coming out in the fall and I'll want to devote time to the promotion of those. Until then I just have regular promo stuff that isn't as time consuming as a new release.
Whew! That's gonna be awesome and so busy at the same time, Lisa! I know you can do it, though. Because you're cool beans like that. ;D
I'm actually in a similar place as you. At the LATEST I will finish my own novel by November. I'm shooting for mid-summer, though. Anything beyond a year I won't be allowing, though. I'm so excited to have a finished ms before the end of the year!
Editing will be a breeze, because once I have something down, I find it incredibly simple to fix what's wrong or tighten things up. It's the whole working with transferring brain images and emotions into words that's hard!
And after all that, I'll start sending it out. Oh, goody. D:} We'll see how this goes. ^_^
Good luck, all you busy ladies out there! And when in doubt... eat chocolate! ;)
Katie - I prefer editing any day of the week. Putting new words on paper is worse than, well, trying to get my gremlins to clean their rooms.
Your goals sound great, Lisa. I don't know how you find the time to go to school full time, work full time, participate in derby, do all your extra curricular stuff AND write. I'm really in awe. Totally.
As for me...hm...I'm so not a new years goal person (or a resolution person). Right now, my short term goal is to get the proposal for TEMPTED off to my agent in the next month. After that? Gosh, I don't know. A lot will depend on whether my adventure series sells. If I'm still waiting when the proposal is done, I guess I'll start something else. Though at this point I have no clue what that is. Writing goals are different for me now that I'm working under contract. They're not goals so much as deadlines. Because with a goal you can sluff it off and you're the only one who cares. With a deadline? Eh, not so much.
Hi, Lisa!
You've done a great job of laying out your goals and they sound very reachable. Hooray for you for doing that!
The most challenging part of meeting writing goals for me is not the goal itself, but finding the balance between those goals and the other parts of my life that need attention.
However, I'm getting better at finding that balance and focusing on the goals I've written down instead of getting sidetracked by shiny, new projects. :)
You will do it!
You CAN do it!
You are already doing it!
Go Lisa!
For me the hardest thing is keeping momentum. When I have it, it's awesome. When I lose it, it sucks. Right now, I've lost it and it just plain sucks. For me the challenge is establishing and sticking to a routine. It's very hard for me to get back on the wagon so to speak. However, all of my goals hinge on my getting my mojo back, so I better shake my juju makers and conjure some up pronto.
Yay, Lisa! You can do it!
And Wavy, so can you!
When I sent my goals into the wild, so to speak, I didn't mention querying and submitting. I do plan to do that, too, but I didn't want to make it a goal. I want to focus on writing and not let the scary part derail me. :-)
The hardest part for me is the beginning and the end. Thinking up the proposals and finishing the books. Wait, I'm not too fond of the middles most of the time, either. Edits are okay, but not the kind that come from NY. Those are little pressure cookers. Ah, it's all wonderful and it's all scary. I guess that's writing.
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