Writing Update: It's Been Slow

Well, this week has been a bit slow. I didn't get a good start on Hourglass and this week has been crazy. My internet has been out and now I don't have power. It's just been hell. I'm actually behind on my critiquing. I'm hoping to get more done when I babysit tomorrow. If I babysit tomorrow.

It's just been and awful week for me.

So here is my small update.

Next week, my goal is to catch up on my critique. I can catch up on writing on my week off.

Bimonthly Goals: July - August

Since it's the first of the month and the end of my other set of bimonthly goals, I thought it would be best to post my new goals for the months of July and August. The list will usually have about ten or so goals for me to try to complete.

So here they are:

• Write 70k of Hourglass or finish
• Keep up with critique partners
• Post on social media daily
• Blog twice a week
• Work on District Pluto series
• Save money
• Contact an editor
• Start up my newsletter
• Unpack Boxes
• Clean out car

These are my goals. I may add some later on, depending on how the months go. Let's see if I can get a little more than half finished this time around.

Writing Update: Life Gets in the Way

This week probably hasn't been my best week in terms of writing/editing. I've been trying to get used to a new schedule at work and I've fallen behind. And tomorrow is CampNaNo. I'm actually really excited about it, and I'll be finished up my novel Hourglass. My goal is to read 70k by the end of my month.

It's going to be hard to hit with my other obligations. I have work, of course, and then there are my critique partners. I have to edit their things. I will probably put my work on hold until the end so that way I can edit what I have so far. I really need to work on it.

Lately, I've been behind on my critiquing, and even emailing my critique partners back. Work has picked up and I'm trying to adjust to a new schedule...it isn't working. It will take time. I don't know what I'm going to do when I start school up again. That's just going to be a mess. I'm working on a schedule. It will sink in eventually.

Writing Update: Beta Readers

This week was pretty productive. I finished Survival Agreement. I'm actually pleased with the turn out and the changes I made to make it more logical. I have one person beta reading at the moment and giving me great feedback. I think I'm going to be looking for another beta reader or two before I schedule a time with my editor. Yay!

One of my goals it to have my brother illustrate parts of my novella. It would be a nice touch to the world and I know a few people who have read the novella would really like seeing parts of it. This is somethings I have to ask him about. He's a very busy man.

I'm currently working on some character development things for Hourglass. Which I plan on finishing the rewrite in July for Campnano. This is going to be a real pain in my ass when it's over and the edits will be awful but the novel will be where it needs to be for the most part. I won't have to do another overhaul. Just revisions and edits.

Well, that's all I have for my update. I'm hoping to have a very productive weekend...I probably won't.

Writing Update: June Goals

May is gone and I managed to complete so many of my goals for May. I'm doing really well on my revisions for my novel, Hourglass. I'm hoping to call for beta readers by the end of next month. The one thing I'm struggling with is coming up with a back cover blurb. This might be due to the fact that I don't have everything figured out yet. I don't have an official outline (which I need to work on) and that's my goal for the weekend. I want to create a formal outline.

On top of the other things I need to work on, the formal outline will be key. I also realized that I was focusing on the wrong thing. Hourglass is my first character driven novel that I have ever written. Usually anything character driven is a subplot. This one is so heavily character focused. I overlooked that. This is all good to know for when create my outline and work on my blurb.

Another story I'll be working on is Survival Agreement. I'm giving the story an overhaul and hoping to polish it up a lot.

Well, I'd better mention my goals before I get a little bit ahead of myself. After this month, I'll only be posting goals bimonthly instead of every month.

June Goals

• Finish Editing Hourglass
• Finish Editing Survival Agreement
• Write the summary for Hourglass
• Look for Betas Readers for Survival Agreement
• Be more active on social media

Well, that looks like a good set of goals. I'll leave it at that for now.

Have a good month of June!

Writing Update: Write, Rewrite, Revise

This whole week has been filled with revisions and rewrites. My first three chapters are being rewritten and it's taking me a long time. I'm probably going to spend the weekend working on creating a new outline with index cards because that's how I work. Hourglass is coming along nicely though. It's a bit slow but I'm taking my time. Beginnings are usually really hard for me to write.

I'm starting on another project - not another novel - and I'm getting pretty far with it. I have a few things that I need to do first though. It's going to cost a bit of money but, it's going to happen.

This weekend, I'm going to be contacting the people who I want to do my cover art with. I already picked out the service and I've been stalking the hell out of their website. I'm so excited to be asking them to do my cover for me.

I'll be looking for Critique Partners and Beta Readers soon. Probably at the end of June. It's strange to be doing this. I've written so many novels but this is the first time I've tried to publish.

WriYe Blogging Circle: Decisions On Publishing

Publishing: Is it something you aim for? Why or why not?

Bonus:

Which route would you choose, self-publishing or traditional publishing? 

Hell yes! Actually, it's something I'm working on at the moment. I'm currently going through my new outline for Hourglass and starting to revise it. It's a slow process but it's coming along...especially since I don't have classes this semester. It took me years to decide whether or not I wanted to publish my novels. I finally decided to give it a try, especially with the way that things have been going these days.

Self-publishing has always been something I wanted to do. After a lot of research on the topic, I knew that traditional publishing wasn't something for me. Now that self-publishing has grown, the appeal of publishing my novels has also grown. When deciding to publish, it's important to do your research to find which path is best for you. 
 

Writing Update: Getting Ahead

This has been a good week when it comes to my novel Hourglass. I'm ahead of schedule and want to remain that way. I'm debating over one plot twist at the moment and that it something I'm going to have to layout in front of me to see how the outline will come together. And in order to do that, I'm going to need a large open space to spread out my plot cards. Something to work on this weekend, I guess.

I'm going to be honest, I've been doing a lot of my revisions at work when I have the time and it's been working really well. It's helped me get ahead of schedule and that means I'll be doing the type-ups much sooner.

It's amazing that I'm actually managing to do anything this week. I've been sick but I've been working through it. For the first part of 2017, I've been slacking on these revisions but I'm making up for it. To hold myself accountable, I gave myself a deadline and have put everything in my planner.

The revisions for Hourglass will be done by the end of the summer (type-ups and all). I'm determined to finally finish this. 

Writing Update: Making Plans

Well, I'm back in the swing of things. I just printed out all of Hourglass because I discovered that I can't revise on my computer. I'm not sure why. I just have a really hard time focusing on revisions. So, I printed my manuscript...which took a lot of paper but it was worth it. I kind of like not having to stare at a screen all day and my foot really appreciates me not sitting at a desk all day.

The revisions are going along smoothly. I want to try to finish everything by the end of the month but considering that it's already the 11th of May...It might not happen. I'll keep working on it though. I've been doing some research into some cover artists and I think I found one I really like and could possibly be a good fit for my series. While I'll still be making the cover art for my Wattpad stories, I kind of want my published novels to be professionally done until I get used to the new program I got or until I get better in general...Improvement is always nice.

I've been looking into making my own publishing company and it looks relatively easy. I'm going to look into it more though. I still have to come up with a name for it and do some more digging to figure out if it's what I really want (it probably is). There is just a lot to do for that.

Once I'm about halfway through my revision process, I'll be looking for Critique Partners. I want to make sure that I have something that I can actually give my partner(s) so I want a good portion of Hourglass finished by then.

Since I'm off school for the summer, I'm really hoping that I can continue to work on my novel and start working on my stories for Wattpad (which I've been procrastinating on). I think I'm going to take down my story Spliced until I'm done with my edits for District Pluto: Morality Sentence. Which I want to publish on the site next. I've been thinking about it a lot lately and it's something that I've been really interested in working on.

Another thing I started up again was reading. As much as I would love to go through and re-read the Tamora Pierce novels, I don't have them available for me right now. They are in my dad's basement waiting to be transferred to my apartment. I just need to clean it first. So, instead, I'm reading Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. I will get through this story...I will. This book has been sitting on my shelf for a year now and I still haven't read it.

I'll probably write a review and post it...just to prove I actually read it. 

Writing Update: A Free Semester

I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. I'm typing up my outline and changes on my computer and I'm getting everything ready for when I actually start editing again (tomorrow). I fell behind a lot since the beginning of the year. I'm not even close to being finished. School and work kind of took over my life. I do work full time and I have to maintain my grades for the scholarship I got. I'm 27 and still in school...but I did switch my major. Now I'm working on my degree in Early Childhood Education rather than English (though, sometimes I miss it).

After a really terrible winter/spring semester, I decided to take the summer off of school. It will give me more time to work on my revisions and push toward my end goal. Since I fell behind, I decided to push my deadlines back to sometimes more reasonable. I want to be finished with the revisions by the end of the summer. That is the absolute latest.  I know when the Fall semester rolls around, I'm going to struggled with balancing my time again. Some of my classes are demanding and I have to give them priority.

So, other than that, I'm also going to be working on getting the next chapter of Spliced up and possibly work on the next installment of District Pluto. I don't plan on publishing these professionally. These are just stories that I wrote for a challenge or for experimental purposes. They are still stories I would want to share. Maybe one day I'll take them down and fix them up for publishing but not any time soon.

Update: Revising and About Hourglass

I'm pretty sure I said something about this before, but I put Call of the Piper on the back-burner for a bit so I can break it down a bit better and fix the plot holes and just the big mess I made with it. Instead, I'm writing a novel called Hourglass. Well, it's written, I'm just revising it now (because it's a mess).

There isn't a synopsis right now. I'll be working writing one soon. I'm currently focusing on revising the first few chapters before sending it to my critique partner...but I'm finding a hard time fitting it in. I need to revamp my schedule because classes started up again and the professors this semester aren't messing around. I can't slack off like I usually do. I'm currently working on fitting everything in.

For my WriYe challenges, I decided to jump in on one (like I didn't want to do) and participate in the Genre Challenge. It's Origin Story. It's such a good pick for the month. I couldn't pass it up. I decided to write an origin story for someone in the novel I'm currently working on. It's really good to know the backstory of this character, though I can't tell you without giving some kind of spoiler.

Other than that, I have to say, revising is probably one of my least favorite steps in the process. It's long but it's worth it.

WriYe Blogging Circle: More and more goals

What’s your Wriye Word Count goal and why did you chose it? What are you going to be focusing on this year? What are you doing differently this year compared to last year?

Bonus:

What are you most excited about for in 2017? Writing wise or not. Let us know!

The Blogging Circle for 2017 is up and thought I've already written a post about my goals, I'll be a little more specific on my writing goals and there are things that I didn't talk about. 

My WriYe word count goal this year is 250,000 words. I might raise it later but I'm uncertain at this point how much writing I'm going to complete but 250,000 words sounds like a manageable  goal to me. 

This year, my focus is on publishing. I after many changes, I've decided to nix the Call of the Piper as the novel to publish and just start working on Hourglass. I have a lot to work on for that and I've already figured out my plot and start working on my new outline. Hopefully, I'll be able to start revising by this weekend. 

The biggest thing I'm doing differently this year is having a critique partner or two.  I'm actually part of a critique group in one of the writing groups I'm a part of...but I haven't sent anything to them yet. Maybe this will be a good chance to send them something. I also have a few beta readers and a deadline. Some of the other things that I've done differently is join a writing contest. I might join more or try to write for an anthology. Just trying to get my writing out there is important.

I'm most excited for publishing. This is a goal I've been working toward for some time. After lots and lots of research, I finally feel like I have everything ready to publish this year. It's probably not going to go smoothly, but it will be a good experience.

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.

Progress Update: Slacking

This week hasn't been a good week. So far, I only have 11.75 hours of editing and that isn't including today. Hopefully I'll get that count up soon.

My current novel is kicking my butt. I'm basically rewriting the whole thing and that's where it's dragging me down a bit. My new plot line keeps changing, not in a bad way, I just keep adding things. That's what I get for not giving myself room to move things around so I have to track my scenes a bit differently than I usually do. Maybe I should bust out my index cards but that motivation just isn't there.

I did read through my Hourglass series though and started marking places that need to be changed. I just needed something different to read. I won't be editing the Hourglass series until later but it will happen this year hopefully.

I'm hoping this week will be a better week. My goal is 10 hours of editing. That's all I want to get in. It is possible if I stop being so lazy.