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: 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: 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.

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.

Writing Traditions

Traditions
Zombies are a July tradition here at Wriye. Do you have a writing tradition of your own? How did it come about?

Bonus: Share an example of your tradition!

I think the closest thing to writing traditions I have are NaNoWriMo and WriYe. Even the prepping is part of the tradition because it gets me excited to do what I have planned. Then I fall flat on my face (with WriYe) half way through. But I try. I really do.

How I came about NaNoWriMo was by accident one year. I don't even remember how it happened, I just stumbled upon it my Freshmen year of high school (12 years ago) and I've kept going since. I don't normally get involved with the local writing events that happens with NaNo. I mainly just use the site to keep track of my word count, and to lurk in the forums from time to time.

I came about WriYe a few years later. I can't remember how though. Probably by accident - like everything else.  WriYe is a huge commitment and I have a hard time staying on the forums for the whole year but that doesn't mean I forget to accomplish my writing goals. Though, I do tend to lose track of where I'm at in my goals.

That's really all I have to say about my traditions involving writing. I don't really participate in any other writing events, not yet anyway. I'm trying to get everything organized and I have too many manuscripts to edit. Though, I might stop editing from time to time to write a new novel to add to the stack.

...Editing my own work is hard but I'm slowly getting there.

Tell A Fairy Tale Day

On Friday, February 26th, it's Tell a Fairy Tale day!

So naturally, what better time to re-write a fairy tale. Most of my day was spent plotting out the story I wanted to tell. It's a sci-fi version of Beauty and the Beast. I didn't intend for it to be Sci-fi but it kind of happened to be that way, which is fine because I can re-write it however I want. It should be interesting, I hope.

My goal is to have it finished by the 26th, if not, then the 28th. It will be a nice break from the novel I've been editing very slowly. I haven't been in the editing mood lately. All I want to do it write, so that's what I'm going to do. Maybe in the end, it will be something I actually share with someone.

...After editing it a few times, of course.

The Editing Begins

This week was pretty good. I'm currently 44,148 words into my novel. After it went astray for awhile, I finally got it back on track. Thankfully, I'll be able to edit those scenes out later this year when I decide to edit it.

I recently printed out my stand alone novel Dowsers for editing. I just started editing it so it should be fun. I'm pretty excited about editing this one. I'm not sure if I'll publish it but I'll enjoy it, at least.

Well, other than that, that's all that really happened for me this week. Reaching 750 words is getting harder and harder. I might change my goal to something lower. Maybe 500 words next month. 

Keeping Up with 750 words

This week was a bit tricky. My work hours make it a bit harder for me to fit in my writing time and with my class starting on Monday, it's going to make it even harder. 750 words a day becomes hard. Though I managed to keep up with it on top of the things I had to do for work.

I can't say how many words I wrote for this week, but as of right now my monthly total stands at 30,121 words. With editing, I clocked in my 10 hours for the month. Now, I'm going to prepare to work on it in February. I need to print everything out.

As far as reading goes, I'm not doing too well in that department. The book I picked isn't really holding my interest which isn't good. I'm going to push myself through it to see how it goes.
There is a whole list of books I want to read this year and I'm stuck on the first one.

Overall, it was a pretty good week.

WriYe Goals

WriYe Blogging Circle is back. Hopefully, I can keep up with it this year.

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:
Set your intention for this year. Share it with us!

My WriYe word count goal for this year is only 300,000 words. It's not a large goal but a more reasonable one for me this year. I decided to aim low so I could actually reach my goals (both writing and personal). My main focus this year will be writing my novel series. It's a 5 novel series, the first two novels are already planned out.

Another thing I'm focusing on is editing. I still have that short stories series that needs to be edited, but after the 3rd short story, I need to rewrite the other two and add several more 10,000 word short stories to go with it. There are just so many things that need to happen with this project that I realized it won't be finished any time soon. So my main editing focus is a stand alone novel called Dowsers (for now, at least). I wrote this novel two years ago and it currently stands at 122,000 words. There is a lot of work that needs to go into this novel.

Last year, I focused mostly on editing. I didn't get very far with that. In fact, I think I only finished about 2 1/2 stories. I'm pretty sure I wrote more than I edited. My goal is still pretty low for word count but it's manageable. That's what I'm going for.

My intention for this year, in terms of writing and editing, is to prepare for publication at some point. Currently, I know I'm not ready for publishing, since I don't have a single story that I would share with others. Hopefully, soon, I'll be at that point.

January Goals

The beginning of the year is going to be harder to start off than my normal years. With my classes starting mid-January, I need to try to get ahead of the game before then but if I don't manage to finish, I still have the rest of the year. Because 2016, I'm taking it a bit slower than I usually do.

Here are my writing/editing/reading/etc goals for January:

• Write book #1 (no real title yet)
• Edit 10 hours in District Pluto
• Read 1 book
• Blog once a week

It's simple enough right. That's just my goals for writing. I have personal, work, and school goals that are not added to the list. For now, I'm keeping my blog strictly writing related until later in the year. Smaller lists help me stay focused. I won't feel so overwhelmed with all the things I need to do.

We'll see if it helps at all.

Planning For 2016

2015 was a huge fail. I had a lot of plans but I didn't leave any room for changes in my plans. This is where I tend to go wrong. I bite off way more than I can chew. So, in 2016, I plan on taking it easy. I'll just work on getting these goals in one at a time rather than having huge plans for myself.

• Write one whole novel series (first draft only) - There should be about 5 novels total. I need to do a lot of planning when it comes to this series but I think it's something I can do in December.
• Edit District Pluto Series (to the second draft) - I don't want to try to do too much so I'm sticking to the low end here. I'm already on the third story and I know that the last two are going to need a lot of reworking. If I happen to finish the second draft of all the the stories, then I'll work on the next edit. 
• Read some books - No set goal for this and I don't have plans for writing reviews for this unless I really feel like it. This year, my reading was on a low end of the spectrum, I plan on reading at least 10 books this year. 

My ultimate goal is to maintain some kind of balance. My work life is getting very busy. I just started a full time job 3 months ago at a daycare and my hours aren't always consistent. On top of that, I'll be going back to school to get my bachelor's degree.

It's going to be a busy year. I plan on trying to make it all work out. But the first thing that I need to do is plan out the 5 novels I want to write. I have a lot to do by the end of December.

Progress Update: A Balanced Schedule

So, I haven't updated in awhile, which is usually when I disappear for months and pop up around October. I'm snapping out of that pretty early. But, sadly, I don't have any major plans for this month. I was going to join CampNaNo but I decided against it. I want to try to make a balanced schedule instead.

I'll still be writing and editing but I want to do it in moderation so I don't burn out quickly. That always seems to be my problem. I find that writing down a list of the tasks I need to do helps. I try to finish them as soon as I can but then I have a lot of free time on my hands, which isn't a bad thing but I tend to get in  the habit of procrastinating when I realize that I have plenty of time to finish my tasks. Eventually, I stop doing them.

So, making a schedule/routine that will stick with me for a long period of time will be helpful. If something comes up, that extra time will be helpful to move things around as needed.

It's still a work in progress but I hope I find a schedule that helps me be more productive.

Results of January

This January wasn't one of my best considering my goals and all but I learned a thing or two along the way about editing. I'm not sure if it's just for this particular novel but that's something I'll figure out as the year goes on.

My totals for the year are:

• Editing: 50 hours
• Writing (typed): 22,515 words
• Writing (hand-written): 1,219

I think that's all I have for this month's goals. I didn't finish editing Call of the Piper but I did figure out where I wanted to go with the story. It's not going to be perfect but after I finish rewriting some of the scenes, I'll be on the right track. I won't have to go through and change everything again.

February is going to have a nice range of goals. Some of them are more personal.

• Finish editing Call of the Piper
• Continue working on handwritten novellas
• Write Hush for the Keeping Warm in February challenge
• Consistency Challenge (750 words a day)
• WriYe Blogging Circle 
• Work on creating a healthy lifestyle
• Apply for Jobs

 That is all I have for now and frankly, that's all I really want to have for the month of February. There are going to be small challenges during the month that I might partake in but I'm not sure I'll have time. I want to keep them simple. I want to start working out again and eating better. Hell, eating more at home would be a good start.

I have my art goals that I want to do as well but I think I'll leave that for my crafting blog.

A Year of Editing

It's finally the new year! That means, setting goals. For me, it's editing. I mean, all editing. I have several novels and short stories that need to be revised and looked over. There will be some writing, but only 2 or 3 novels this year and some short stories randomly scattered about the year.

The goal is to bring at least one novel to the final stages and possibly releasing it into the world, published. There's still a lot of work to get to that stage though.

The first novel I'll be working on is Call of the Piper (temporary name). I've been working on this since March (2014) and I have so much work to do on it. A good chunk of the novel will be changed. I can't wait to get started.

Planning For 2015

At around this time is when I normally start planning new novels for the coming year but not this time. I still have some novels that could be planned but my main focus is on editing this year. Since November was the most productive I've been in years, I have a lot stored up that needs to go through the dreadful editing stage.

It will get things onto the next level. A level I've never actually been on before. After these edits, I plan on trying a critique group. That is when my novel gets to a point where I can no longer do anything to it. That is when I know it needs another set of eyes.

At some point in 2015, I want be able to hand off my novel to someone or send pieces of my novel(s) to someone to get it looked over. None of my novels are to that point yet. A lot of them are messy and have plot holes. I need to clean them up and fill some plot holes before I can even consider being at that point.

So, now I will begin the process of planning my editing filled 2015. I already have my goals for the year. Right now will just be what I have to plan for.

1. Go through the edits of Call of the Piper so I can continue in January
2. Finish Writing Firewall
3. Print Out Hourglass to edit later
4. Clean up workspace

These are my basic things that I need to do before the end of December. It seems like a small list but I have a lot edited for Call of the Piper. I have a lot to write for Firewall. There is a lot going on in December so we'll see how this goes.