2017 Goals

Writing Goals

• Finish Editing Novel with HTRYN
• Publish Novel
• Publish Dowsers on Wattpad
• Edit Hourglass
• Be more active in writing communities.

These are some really big goals that I need to hit, and this is just for my writing, not anything else. Yikes. I'd better get my life organized and break it down a bit.

I want to publish this year. That is my biggest goals. It's scary and exciting to think that I'm pushing myself to get to this stage, but that is just the general goal. It's a pretty big process that I have broken down into parts that I'll be doing as I edit. There are some things that I won't be able to do until after I finish editing but for the most part, I have everything broken down. I have tasks that I need to do.

First and foremost, I need to edit.I have a novel that needs to be published in June. I need to edit everything. I'm almost done with the editing process so, it's all about finishing, come January.  I want to edit my novel Hourglass because it's going to be my next novel I publish. This also coincides with my finished editing with HTRYN

Publishing Dowsers...yeah. It might be a little later but I have another story I can start posting in January called Spliced. It's a Sci-fi retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This will be available on Wattpad.

I have several writing communities that I'm a part of. I would like to be more active in them this coming year. Actually participate in assignments/challenges.

That is basically my goals for next year in a broad term.

Spliced [A Retelling]

My novella Spliced is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I wrote it back in February for Tell a Fairy Tale day. It currently stands at 27k but that is before the edits. As much as I wanted to start the year off with Dowsers, I don't think that's going to happen. Dowsers has a lot of editing to go and it's generally, really long. I can at least post this while working on Dowsers.

I'm hoping to do a new retelling this year. I haven't decided what though. I was either going to do a Cyberpunk version of Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard King. I guess I'll have to figure it out later.

Writing Short Stories When You Usually Write Novels

Writing a short story is something I feel like every writer should know how to do. It doesn't matter if you say that you "only write novels" because there is going to be a time where short stories are needed. Short stories have multiple purposes.

How Short Stories Might Benefit You:

• You want to give your readers a little extra. Your readers are important. I can't stress that enough. Sometimes giving them a little something extra isn't going to kill you. Writing a short story is a good way of doing that. Say you have a side character that your audience just loves. Why not give them a little short story in that side character's point of view. It doesn't have to be related to the original story but be sure to give it a plot on it's own.

• Helps you omit needless words. If you don't want to give into your readers, then at least use it as practice to omit needless words. It will force you to stay focused on the plot and try not to generate subplots, since it is a short story.

• It opens up other opportunities. Anthologies being one of them. Or for those who aren't published yet, short story contests. There are a lot of them. Anthologies and contests are a good way to get your name out there so use it to your advantage.

• You learn to gain control. This might sound a little weird but I was one of those people who would try to write a short story and ended up writing a whole damn novel. I learned to tone it down. It taught me how to control my story, keep things on the right path because your characters really don't have the control of the story, you do. When your character's veer off, that's you trying to explore your options or you just really have a hard time following your own directions. 

 I'm sure there are other ways that short stories can benefit but these are the immediate things that came to my head.

Now that we know how short stories can benefit you, lets move on to how to write one. I'm a novel writer. I know how hard it can be to cramp a story into a limited amount of words. But I learned.

For this short story contest I decided to enter, the guidelines for the story were:

• Any genre
• No more than 3,000 words
• Due November 31st

It was a pain in the ass.  I had a great story planned out but then I realized that it was too damn long. Something had to go but what? Everything varies for me. I don't always do the same method twice in a row but these are the basics of my process.

• Figure what I wanted from the story. That meant plot. I needed a small plot that had a lot of impact and could intrigue readers to continue. So knowing what I wanted for a general plot was important.

• Keeping characters limited. There are only two characters that the readers know the names of and one that everyone refers to as "Boss" but you don't get to know him as a character very well. Keeping characters limited means that you will have to not fill your story with a ton of characters. That will just make it drag. Keep the characters that have an important role. 

• Throw everything into an outline. I advocate outlines more than anyone I know. I love outlines. They are the way I keep everything in line. I even outline blog posts. By throwing what you have into an outline, I was able to establish three major parts of the story that were 1,000 words a piece and it was more than enough for what I was writing. It will also keep you from veering off into something that it shouldn't be.

• Write what's important. This is the only way I didn't go over the limited amount of words. I only wrote down what was important to this plot. When you have subplots or a series, you'll probably have to write a lot more than in a short story. Novels are more complex than short stories. I only have one plot for this story. Keep only what's important to the story. 

It might look like a lame little list here but it works for me. It's as simple as it can get really. It's a short story, after all.

Wattpad & How I Use It

Wattpad is a website I had heard about a few years ago, and even have an account through them. I wasn't sure about it for a long time and never really explored until a few months ago. I wanted to read something but couldn't afford to buy any new books at the time. I had the Wattpad app on my Kindle and decided to give it a try.

I discovered a lot of good reads on there and thought I would look into it more on my computer. There is a rather large writing community on there, and with further exploration, I realized that I could use it to my advantage.


How I use Wattpad:

• To get over my fear of showcasing my work. This is a big one. I plan on publishing a novel soon and if I can't share my work, then I don't think I'll be able to handle it as a writer.

• To get feedback. Feedback is important. I'm not the best writer and I know I have room for improvement so why not get feedback from readers to help me improve my writing.

• To find Beta Readers. This one is a little iffy. I noticed a lot of people on Wattpad flake after a certain point in time. It's annoying, but there are a few people who really stick with you.

• To make writing buddies. There are a ton of people who will gladly be your friend. Frankly, I find that the ones I find randomly are the ones that stick with me the longest. 

• To explore the writing community. In general. There is a massive writing community. As there should be, considering it's a writing website. It's a good place to get tips and ideas from other people. There will always be an occasional asshole but there are some really nice people on there.

• To post stories that I want to share but not publish. This one might sound a bit weird. I have a huge stack of novels that need to be edited and another stack of stories that I won't consider publishing. I know that sounds weird but these are just novels and stories that I don't want to publish. Why? I don't know. I don't think I got really excited about these novels in particular. One was a challenge from the WriYe forums while my District Pluto Novellas were just for fun. I wanted to try something new. They were stories out of my comfort zone. While I don't want to publish them, it doesn't mean  that I don't want to share them.  

There are various other ways you can use Wattpad to benefit you as a writer. It's good to take advantage of what you can especially if you are like me and have certain stories that you have no intention of publishing. Maybe one day, I'll consider taking them off Wattpad and get them professionally edited for self-publishing, but that's not on my to do list.