writing goals: February

OKAY THEN.

This was buried at the bottom of a previous post, but it’s kinda big news. (In Gracetopia. Not like, “Cure Found for Cancer” big news, but like “What is Up with Grace” big news.)

The Project That Was Eating my Soul (referred to here as “BY”) has been officially shelved.

And I feel great.

I feel… free. I feel like I’ve been weighing myself down for the past year or so trying to make every word I write The Perfect Word so as not to waste three years of work. But that’s gone. There was a brief mourning process, but now? Now writing is a joy again instead of a task.

Because I am writing. In the past 48 hours I’ve written 7000 words in a new project. Yes, this is the Shiny New Idea (SNI) phase, but I’m hoping to keep up this momentum long enough that I get through the first draft without getting to the overthinking phase. (ie, I’m doing NaNo in February. Shorting myself 2 days. Sigh.) I mean, I’m not going to write 3500 words a day (wow just the idea is tiring) but I want to keep pushing forward.

Forward forward forward.

But back to BY for a minute. This manuscript isn’t entirely shelved. Which brings me to my writing goals for February, because I have 2 writing goals this month:

1. Work on BY for one hour a week (at least). I refuse to give up on this story entirely, but I refuse to let it own me. I’m now going to treat it as a purely academic writing exercise, working on the process of finishing something. It’s going to be sketchy, some sections might just be “then this happens and then this and this and okay next chapter.” Basically my goal for BY now is to get it “finished” enough that I could hand it to a beta reader and they’d have a complete story that made at least some sense. (I wouldn’t actually do that to someone.)

2. Work on Shiny New Idea for one hour a day (at least). This project’s code name is M!S! And I’m going to write it. YEAH.

Watch me go. vroooom.

~
Post edited on 2/4 to remove one errant apostrophe. Yes. I’m that person.

writing goal: January

Because ’tis the season for goals n things.

I think—we’ll see if it lasts more than one month—I might try a new writing goal for every month. To keep me focused. And having a short, discrete goal sounds much less hard than “Finish Novel by June.”

So I think for January my goal is: write 600 words/day in BY.

600 is a small enough number that I could actually accomplish it. But it’s enough words that I could perhaps finish the draft by the end of the month, which then leaves me mountains of time to complete the rest of my BY-related goal.

So here we go. New goal. New plan. I can do this. Rawr.

For the newly-initiated, BY is my codename for the manuscript that is eating my soul.

 

update on 2010 goals and resolutions

Last year I wrote the obligatory “goals for the new year” post, so. Let’s see how I did! I haven’t actually looked at these since last January so I’m expecting a big pile of failsauce.

Finish my WIP. Not any WIP. This one. BY. The one that I’ll have been working on 2 years in March. I am going to fucking finish this thing or die trying.

Lolzers. Still working on it. BUT I AM SO CLOSE GUYS REALLY SO CLOSE.

Write a query letter for BY. Even if it’s not query-worthy by the end of the year, I’m going to write a letter. If BY is query-worthy, then I will add onto this goal “mailing the query letter,” but we will cross that bridge when it gets to us.

Hmmm yeah. Forgot about this one.

Write and submit a short story. Not even get it published. I aim small. Just submit. Also, I am horrible at short stories. Ugh.

Nope! Didn’t even start writing a short story.

Lose 20 lbs. I am tired of people suggesting I go on or assuming I already am on a diet. Fuck you all. I’ll lose 20 lbs.

Well, I joined a gym. That’s a start, right? I think my problem is I just don’t care enough about losing weight to actually put the effort into doing it. And I’d rather eat a mound of pasta and be happy than eat a bowl of lettuce and be cranky. I’m all about being happy. We’ll see if I include this in 2011′s goals…

Eat better. (This is not necessarily related to the previous goal.) I’ve starting eating out/prepared food SO MUCH because I am SO LAZY—but NO LONGER. You can tell I’ll stick to this goal because of all the caps.

I alternate here. Some weeks I’m like NOM NOM NOM FROZEN PIZZA AND TWIZZLERS and some weeks I actually make almost every meal I eat. I’ve started eating better when I go out, too, less meat-and-potatoes and more palak paneer. So I’m going to call this a draw.

Write at least 500 words per day. I was going to make this 1000, but I know I’ll fail if I do that. So. 500. That’s easy, right?

Lolzers.

Hmmm, once again I’ve failed at all my New Year’s Resolutions. Insert shocked face. Do we think 2011 will be any better? New goals coming soon. (to a theater near you.)

question: how do YOU plot novels?

Hello there Gracelings. Gracettes? Minions. I require your assistance.

I have decided that for my Finish BY or Die Trying During NaNo project, I am going to hardcore plot. In most everything else I do in life I make plans and lists and put things on calendars and so on and am generally quite organized. With writing I tend to be more loosey-goosey about structure and organization. But I’m thinking for this I will try to be strict and write out the plot very distinctly. I mean, I’ve been working on this for so long, I basically know what happens. There aren’t going to be a lot of twists left for ME. And having it mapped out might help me finish.

BUT. I’ve always been a “pantser.” I’m bad at plotting. I know what some techniques are, but I don’t really know what works for me.

SO. Minions. How do you plot things? I tried the index-card method once so I still have a bunch of those around. And I have about 5000 notebooks of various sizes that I could use (it’s a bad idea to let me in office supply stores). I’d prefer something tactile and by-hand, but if you have something you do with a computer I am also interested. Basically, what works for YOU? How do you structure things? How detailed do you go? Etc.

Throw things at me. I’m looking for ideas.

Mwah.

NaNoWriMo 2010

So. It’s that time of year. The Boston air has turned crisp, the sky has turned a pleasant shade of gray, and writing is in the air. It’s a mere 20 days til National Novel Writing Month begins, and the plot bunnies are starting to stir.

For those of you not in the know, NaNoWriMo is a month-long, very intense novel-writing experience shared by thousands of people around the world. The goal: to write a 50k word novel in 30 days. Yeah yeah yeah, 50k isn’t a “real” novel, anything you write that quickly probably isn’t going to be really “good,” but that’s not the point. The point is to get that shit written.

Last year was my first NaNo year, and it worked out really well for me. I mean, I was faking it (trying to write 75k in a month and a half), and I didn’t finish (big shock) but I met some absolutely amazing people, which was actually my main goal. So I count it as a win.

However. I’ve been wavering about doing NaNo this year. I really, really, really, really want to finish BY. And I’ve gotten to the point where—I believe the phrase is it’s time for me to shit or get off the pot. I either need to finish BY or pack it away. And I’m not ready to give up quite yet.

So. I’m giving myself one more month. My goal for November has nothing to do with wordcount and everything to do with finishing. I am going to attach myself to the momentum of NaNo and finish. this. novel.

Or I’m putting it away.

Deadline.

So. This will be my second year of “sort of but not really” doing NaNo. Feel free to cheer me on. I get the feeling I’m going to need it.

on bbqs and writing

Hello, blogosphere. Did you have a nice 4th of July weekend? I sure did. I wandered the Boston Public Gardens with a friend, taking pictures for my New Project (PG, I am calling it—no points for figuring out what that stands for), and then I went to a cook-out where I got hit in the nose with a tennis ball. C’est la vie.

A cook-out, by the way, is different from a barbecue. A barbecue involves barbecue sauce. Everything else is a cook-out. Got it? Cool. Moving on.

Other than that my weekend was pretty uneventful. I wrote about 1k on Saturday, which was nice. I have a new outlook on writing. Do you want to hear it? Of course you do.

I was talking to someone the other day about writing, and how it’s hard (somewhere a tiny violin is playing just for me) and how I’m trying so hard to finish BY and blah blah blah—nothing you guys haven’t heard before. And he was like, “Why do you write?” and I was like, “Because it’s so much fun and I love it,” and he was like, “But it doesn’t sound like you’re having fun.”

And like. Yeah.

I write because I like to write. If, someday, I get published—that would be great. Assuming I ever finish BY, yes, I will sub it to agents. But I don’t write for publication. I write for me. And if I am not enjoying it, then what is the point?

I am not a professional writer. If, someday, I become a professional writer then yes I will have to force myself to deadlines and structures and finish things on time and write quickly and force control.*

But for now, I am going to have fun. Maybe I’ll finish this year. Maybe I will finish next year. Maybe I will ditch BY entirely and write something new. But whatever I do, I am going to have fun.

Yes, this is not how I am “supposed” to do it. Whatever. I’m in it for the ride. Wanna come?

____

*“I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately, I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.” ~William Faulkner

in defense of time

This post is kind of rambly, for which I apologize.

I have been working on BY* for 2 years and about 3 months. I am maybe 2/3 of the way through what will be only its first finished draft.

While there are supposedly people who labor over every word and then produce a nearly perfect first draft, in general one is “supposed” to get that first draft out out out and then fix it. Write that first draft quick and dirty, and then revise until it’s perfect. Or write it longer and a bit scummy, and then revise til it’s perfect. But in general, the writing advice that is floating around says, “Write the first draft quickly. It’s a first draft. It’s supposed to be ugly.”**

Well, okay.

But now here I am with BY, 2+ years later. And the last book I worked on (like, hardcore “this is the book I am writing” worked on, not “oh I’m writing this for a while oops nevermind”) took 5 years of my life. I never finished it. I realized it was holding me back so I cut it and moved on to BY.

And in some ways I regret how much time it has taken, how long I have been chipping away at the same block of marble, but in other ways I think it has been good for me and for the book.

So I wanted to write a post in defense of taking your time.

I mean, first of all, a lot has happened in the Life of Grace. Since starting BY, I’ve graduated from college, moved halfway across the country, hunted for and found a job, and moved across the city. That sort of sounds like I’m making excuses, but it’s more like I occasionally have to remind myself of all the other stuff I have done in these 2+ years, instead of writing.

Instead of writing BY, I should say.

At various points during these 2 years, I had between 1-3 novels in progress. BY is the one that stuck, but I don’t think working on the others was necessarily bad. A distraction, perhaps. But I kind of feel like I was cross-training. And when I was ready to concentrate 100% on BY, that is what I did.

Also, I participated in NaNo last year for the first time, as kind of an exercise. I decided to put BY on hold for a month and see what happened. The main thing that happened was I met some super-amazing people, and flexing my writing muscles on something entirely different (even though I of course didn’t finish the 50k) can only have been good for me. But mostly, the people. I don’t regret that lost month at all.

A lot has changed in the novel itself. The number of protagonists went from 1 to 2, and the tense changed from third/past to third/past and first/present. The structure of the novel was completely turned on its head. If I were a faster writer, each of these changes could have been its own draft. But if I make a drastic novel-changing decision partway through a draft, it just makes more sense to me to start over. That’s just how my brain works. Again, not something one is “supposed” to do, but it’s what I do.

But mostly—and I realize this will make me sound like an overly-dreamy artistic type—I don’t think you can write something until you are ready to write it. BY today is so incredibly different than BY 2 years ago, it’s really almost like a different book. And I’m not the same writer I was 2 years ago. BY and the other things I have worked on over that time have changed the way I write. I simply could not be writing this book 2 years in my past.

My hope is that when I do finish this draft, which I will, it will be—not perfect, obviously, but a lot farther along than a “real” first draft.

We shall see.

So I’m not really in a position to give real advice, or even to say “this works for me!” because it hasn’t really worked quite yet, but I wanted to put out there some reasons I think my “method” is actually okay.

So how about you? Are you a quickie (uhm) or do you take your time like me?

____

*because I now have multiple projects, I’m going back to having a code name (well, initials) to help keep them straight. see “on writing” to the right.
**and for the record, I am not at all disagreeing with this wisdom. I know a lot of people for whom this method works perfectly.

Goals and Resolutions, 2010 edition

Okay, as promised. Goals for 2010. New Year’s Resolutions, if you will, though if we call them that I will certainly fail in a fiery ball of fail.

After much thought and deliberation (scribbled these on the back of a post-it yesterday), I have decided upon the following for my 2010 Goals:

• Finish my WIP. Not any WIP. This one. BY. The one that I’ll have been working on 2 years in March. I am going to fucking finish this thing or die trying.
• Write a query letter for BY. Even if it’s not query-worthy by the end of the year, I’m going to write a letter. If BY is query-worthy, then I will add onto this goal “mailing the query letter,” but we will cross that bridge when it gets to us.
• Write and submit a short story. Not even get it published. I aim small. Just submit. Also, I am horrible at short stories. Ugh.
• Lose 20 lbs. I am tired of people suggesting I go on or assuming I already am on a diet. Fuck you all. I’ll lose 20 lbs.
• Eat better. (This is not necessarily related to the previous goal.) I’ve starting eating out/prepared food SO MUCH because I am SO LAZY—but NO LONGER. You can tell I’ll stick to this goal because of all the caps.
• Write at least 500 words per day. I was going to make this 1000, but I know I’ll fail if I do that. So. 500. That’s easy, right?

You guys are all going to have to hold me to these because, as we have already proven, I have no willpower whatsoever.

These goals seem pretty paltry compared to what everyone else I know is doing, but, hey. If I finish it all by June then I can feel like an overachiever, right?

writing again

OKAY.

That week I was going to take off after NaNo slowly grew, and now it is 3 weeks later and I’m finally opening up my WIP. Not the NaNo WIP—that has died a deserved death (by drowning).

I’m back to the WIP that I was cleverly calling Chrysanthemum, which I can hardly spell. I’ll just take it back to its actual name—or rather, its actual acronym, BY.

I am going to finish this fucking novel if it kills me.

Okay. We’re at 6k. Here we go.

POST EDITED for ROGUE APOSTROPHE AAAHHHHHHH *kills self*