Goals Revisited

So, it seems appropriate for the last day of the year to look back at my goals and see where I got.  Mostly, I've decided not to have goals anymore because goals are a big freaking pain. At some point, I added submit one short story per month, but it's not showing up on here... huh. 

Here are my goals from this year (I made them in March, so that's how I could cheat and add the agent thing) : 

Writing Plans for 2011:

January:

Finish Honor 7. (Completed) 

Revise Secrets of Skin and Stone. (Completed) 

Submit short stories. (Completed--both stories were accepted in the anthologies I submitted them to.  Mystery Times Ten 2011 and Undead is Not an Option.) 

February:

Get agent. (Wooo wahoo!) (Yay)

March:

Do revisions of Secrets of Skin and Stone. (Completed a set of revisions)

Work on short story project. (I probably did.) 

April:

Finish Sentinel's Run. (At some point during the year I finished Sentinel's Run.)

May:

Revision of Curse Me A Story for Sarah. (I did... but it's not quite done.) 

"Six month" scheduled revision of Versus the Bounty and The Unseen Kingdom. (Nope.)

June:

Finish My Other Life. (Nope.) (I wrote Promises of Light and Dark instead.)

July:

Finish Chosen Changeling. (Nope.)

August:

Revise Honor Series. (Crap. No.)

September:

Work on short stories or Honor 8. (Short stories... done.)

October:

Revise Scorched. (Crap. No.)

Revise Good Girls Don't Date Mutants. (I started a revision on Mutants but I haven't completed it.)

November:

NaNoWriMo novel (Completed 50K. I did five novellas instead of a novel.)

December:

Revise Sentinel's Run and begin Sentinel's Run Book Two. (Uhh. No. I did manage to submit 11 short stories during 2011.) 

I'm still working on a revision of Secrets of Skin and Stone... well, I'm waiting on Sarah with that.  I've revised it three or four or five times this year.  

Per my earlier announcement I did get a short story picked up by Entangled Publishing. 

I did actually finish writing my entry for Mystery Times Ten for 2012, but I need to do another revision on it. I could have probably powered through it and subbed it tonight, but I like eleven better than twelve anyway, so there wasn't a lot of incentive.

I fell behind in some ways this year and made some progress in others.  I read around 89 books, did five betas, and I did quite a few requested revisions for editors and for Sarah.

Outside of writing, I lost fifty lbs this year--so that's pretty cool.  

Then, there were parenting struggles and sickness and injury.  It hasn't been all fun and games.  

Next year... okay, I do have some goals.

Goals for 2012

I want to do more reviewing. I'm hoping to review all my favorite books on Amazon--just my favorite books--and just on Amazon. 

I want to lose the last fifteen lbs. to my goal. 

I want to finish revising Secrets of Skin and Stone for the last time with Sarah.

I intend to submit to Mystery Times Ten Contest by its deadline of January 31st. 

I have some short stories to revise for editors, and I'll do that.

My only specific writing goals are that I want to revise and resubmit Honor.  I want to finish my revision of Mutants.  Also, I want to do NaNoWriMo again this year. That's about it. 

In social media goals, I want to work a little harder on keeping up on my blog and creating an author website.  It's been a tough year, and I keep feeling like I'm dropping behind--in fact, I need to write a few blog posts and retro-post them in regards to Christmas and the nativity display. (I did take a bunch of pictures, and I'll post them--soon.)  I can't seem to keep up.  B got the stomach flu for Christmas and my son had it before her.  It's been... fun. 

Anyway, that's it. I hope everyone is having a good New Year's Eve.  See you next year. ; ) 

News! News! New news!

So, earlier this week, I signed a contract with Entangled Publishing for them to publish in ebook a short story/novella that I wrote.  (It's 10K, so I'm not sure how that precisely shakes out in most people's minds.) I received permission from the editor I'll be working with (Heather Howland) to announce it, so I announced it on Twitter earlier. It's titled "On the List" currently.

It should be published in the spring in ebook. (So, it'll hit Amazon and such sites.) Here is a little more about the Flirt line: http://networkedblogs.com/rg0vo  The covers of the books from Entangled are gorgeous... and that has me extra, extra, extra excited about it.

This will be my third short story published this year, but this one isn't a contest or for publishing credits, so it's a bit more exciting in terms of progress.

I've submitted other stuff to Entangled that they're currently considering so it's possible I might have more news with them to announce in the future.  I hope.  *fingers crossed*

Thanks, everyone, for your support.  *hugs all around*

November--the Long and Short of it

It's crazy to think that it's been a month since I posted.  I actually started drafting a post at the beginning of the month, and I just couldn't really get into it.  Tonight, I'm so exhausted that when I was reading to the kids right now, I was stumbling over my words, but it seemed wrong not to post at all in November.

I mentioned before the month started that I was working on short story submissions.  I submitted a superhero novella that wasn't picked up for the anthology but they've asked to consider it for another line of novellas.  I also submitted a bunch of other short stories and novellas... and I hope to have news to announce about those soon.

My goal for this year was to submit 12 short stories by the end of the year.  It's nearly December, and I've submitted 9.  I plan to enter the Mystery Times Ten contest by December 31st, so that leaves 2 more submissions.

I also completed NaNoWriMo this month.  The novel I'd planned kept getting pushed back in favor of short story revision and submission and, in the end, my muse refused to cooperate and work on a YA horror story. Instead, I did five novellas that were holiday/season-centric.  It was fun.  I completed my 50K on 11/11/11.

I'm finishing the month of November with some really long days working on some silhouette murals for the nativity collection display at our church.  I've done similar murals in the past, but this year in addition to the "Jerusalem" skyline they asked for wisemen, shepherds, camels, sheep, and then trees of various types.  So, I've spent hour upon hour since Monday sketching and cutting and putting up the silhouettes.  The murals are over 100 feet in length so it's a big task.  Especially since camels are the hardest things I've ever sketched.  Seriously... even when they look right... they don't look right.  Their anatomy appears to defy all that I know of the natural world.  I'm exhausted... partly because it's really stressful to work on projects like this where you have an immediate audience of other volunteers and you're trying to quickly adapt art to fit on the spot.  Plus, there were also a few other non-mural things that came up that I've been helping with or making decisions on.  It's just a very intense week.  On Friday, it'll open to the public and there'll be hundreds of people going through to see several hundred nativities... and it'll all be worth it.

My nights have been long too.  B isn't sleeping well.  Yesterday, she stayed home from school because she wasn't feeling well due to lack of sleep. (She'd only slept a few hours all night.)  My own insomnia kicked in to full gear around fifth grade, so seeing her struggling with this... kills me.  I know it's not my fault, but it feels like my fault.  I brought these genes to the mix and between her OCD and her insomnia... she really got nailed by the worst of what I brought.  I think it's partly hormones and partly stress at school causing this insomnia... and her OCD.  It just sucks, though.  She can't seem to stay asleep more than a few hours and then sometimes she can't get back to sleep.

I also managed to injure my foot really bad two weeks ago.  I tripped over the kids' metal stilts.  It didn't swell at all, and I had it x-rayed and there's nothing wrong with it... per se... other than it's been two weeks, and I have to keep slamming it with the maximum dosages of ibuprofen and naproxen around the clock or it's crippling.  The ER doctor called it a gnarly stub, but she said if it wasn't healed by 10 days, I should come back in or see my doctor because it's possible it's something else or they missed a fracture.  I just really don't want to go back in, so I keep tossing back the meds... for a stubbed toe.  It's ridiculous.

Then, there was Thanksgiving... and I really wanted to blog about all the things I'm thankful for, but time slipped away from me, and this mural thing started up.  *sighs* I need a few more hours in my day.  Hours that can be spent sleeping, not sketching or writing or revising. Maybe I'll manage a post on that in December because I really do have a lot to be thankful for.

So, that's been my November.  I really need to submit another two short stories in addition to the Mystery Times Ten short... and I have a lot of revision ahead of me.

Somebody Wants Something

And I'm tempted to give it to them.

*raises eyebrows*

No, I haven't lost my mind.  Well, a little, but that's beside the point.

So, I was reading this article and, being as I've now passed my three years as a writer point (mid-October), I was feeling a bit snide when I read the title.  I thought, "Yeah, I've written so many novels... I don't need to read this over-simplified advice on how to write a novel."  I scoffed.  *Wendy tsks self*

Here is the article: How to Create a Story.

To create a good story, you must first understand what a story is. I have a simple formula:

"Somebody wants something and has a hard time getting it."

Now, if you're like me, you're thinking, "It's not that simple and even if it is, so what?"

So what?  SOOOO WHATTT?  I give you gold, and you dare say, "SO WHAT?"  GOLD!

Actually, that's exactly what I thought. Then, I boiled down the novel I'm preparing to write for NaNoWriMo:

A Mused: An artist wants peace and inspiration; an unusual girl he meets near the lake is going to make sure neither comes without a price... in fact, he might not even survive to see either.

My mouth dropped open, and I thought, "But that's like a tagline.  That's sort of brilliant.  It can't work every time... can it?  But... really?  Can it?"

Okay, fine...

Secrets of Skin and Stone: Piper wants to know if she's to blame for her dog's death... and if it's not her or her OCD... what dark secrets are hidden in Hidden Creek, Alabama.  (Alternately... Gris's side would be: Gris wants to solve the mysteries of the neighbor girl and keep her alive--all while keeping the monster inside him hidden.)

I then mentally ran a bunch of my novels through this.  It was fascinating.  They all could be summarized with that same formula.

Still, what use is that for someone who clearly can write a complete novel?  Writing the novel isn't my problem.  On the other hand, I'm going back under the knife for yet another revision of Secrets of Skin and Stone.  Sarah and I have been going back and forth on a few scenes I want to keep, and she says they need to contribute to the narrative in some way.  (Isn't the fact that I like them and want to hug them enough?  NO?  Wuh?  Why?)  As I examined these scenes in light of the boiled down plotlines above... *coughs* they may not further the plot or entirely contribute to my MCs' main driving forces (those things they want, but are having trouble reaching....)

One of the downsides to pantsing is that you end up with these straggling scenes or narrative fills where you needed a plotpoint or scene to get you to the next scene or to fill in exposition.  These aren't final copy scenes, but they're hard to cut completely or replace because they're entrenched.  *sighs* I need to get rid of or fix a bunch of those in Secrets of Skin and Stone.  I may be talking a lot about revising for the first part of November as I'm doing what I hope is my last revision.

Anyway, I found that article interesting and useful, and I hope you did too.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

Trapping Plot Bunnies

NaNoWriMo is almost upon us!  (National Novel Writing Month--where writers try to crank out 50K in a single month.)

So, I've gotten the go-ahead from Sarah to participate this year.  I'm trying to decide which story to go with.  I have two WIPs that I'm tempted to cheat and ADD 50K onto them to finish them, but that feels wrong.  Then, earlier this week, I thought maybe I'd write a MG book which I plotted out a bit.  My sisters are pushing me to do Honor 8 for this, and I'm almost tempted because Honor's head is fun to be in and that might help with stress--plus, with Honor on Twitter, there'd be someone to talk to about the plot. I also have a few sketched out ideas in their own documents that I've had... that could be expanded on.

So, in the end, what do you write about when you almost have too many choices?

You write the one that won't get out of your head--the one that won't leave you alone.

I've had this one story stuck in my head since April of this year which is in the sketched out idea in a document category.  I considered asking opinions on what I should work on, but the fact that my brain keeps going back to this one idea and has since April... I'd just be annoyed with myself if I went with anything else.

It's nice that I've decided... now, I just have to write it--starting November 1st.  By the way, the title is A Mused.

Five Things Thursday

Since I've been down and depressing lately, I thought I'd post five things you might or might not know about me.

1. I once ate roadkill squirrel.  My grandfather brought me some meat on a plate and said, "Taste it." I should have known better by then because my grandpa is funny in so many ways.  It was only after I'd eaten a piece that I found out where it was from.  (Yes, it tasted like chicken... greasy chicken.)

2. I used to work as a Barney impersonator, and I wanted to be a mime.  I really did... on both.  I used to do children's birthday parties, and I made some kickin' cash... but then it got too violent.  (No joke.)  I got punched in the stomach by a bunch of guys when I was dealing with heat exhaustion after being in a parade in Utah in 100 degree heat.  I was done.  I was around 18 then... and just over 100 lbs.

3. I lived in Vegas when a chemical plant in Henderson blew up.  I was at school at the time and we went outside and saw a huge mushroom cloud in the distance.  They put the school in lockdown and I was in art class (my favorite class) for three hours that day.

4. I went to high school in Vegas and on my first day of high school--freshman year... we went to homeroom, the school went into lockdown, and we were sent home because someone had been killed (gang war) in the cafeteria.

5. I met my husband fourteen years ago after bumping into him all over the state of Utah but never meeting...  Our first date went until five in the morning and the moment he kissed me--I knew we were going to get married.  We were talking about marriage within days, and we were married less than five months later.  It was crazy, but I just knew.

WIP Wednesday - Revise Me, Baby, One More Time!

So, I'm working on revising that novella but, sadly, I'm not working on it.  I can't seem to work up the motivation to revise.  I'm not sure what's wrong with me, but it's making me crazy.  I keep on hoping I'll magically feel motivated to do it but, thus far, Past Wendy isn't doing any favors for Future Wendy.  My husband is out of town for the week, and I was busy today.  I ran in and out of my house.  So, it's not entirely just me slacking off, but I've been reading to calm down at night, and I have to go cold turkey on reading other people's fiction and watching TV for the muse to play nice.  I have a very finicky muse.

I really need to get it done... not only is there a deadline, but there is also NaNoWriMo approaching, and I might still need to do another revision of SECRETS soon.

So, how do you magically motivate yourself to be creative?

Maybe I'll go sit in front of the fire tomorrow and turn the internet off.