Day 7: Goals and Establishing a Routine

Dec09WM7Well, it’s the end of Week One for our December 2009 Writing Marathon. Today, I ask you to reflect on your goals and see how you’re doing. Did you write a lot? Not enough? Did you end up doing penance like I did for your lack of writing?

Admittedly, I didn’t get a lot done out of the gate. Why? Well, partially because Week One for me was about getting back into a well-balanced routine. The tricky thing, though, was that I was pretty far behind on my housework. (Six months behind.) Not to mention, December decided to sound the Winter trumpet with colder temperatures and snow — just last week it was fifty degrees!

You see, I find that I’m more productive when I have a clean house, a decent workspace and a creative hobby. Why? Well, when I have these things I’m no longer distracted by “the things I should be doing” because they are already done. Once the house is already clean, I find I write more. Then, when I do get a break off the computer, I already have “something else” to do like learning how to knit or focus on my artwork. This balance definitely has some other benefits, too. (Like decreasing my stress!)

Now that I forced myself to get some of that back log done, this week I’m adding in an additional layer to round out that balance. Today, I start the Couch-to-5K Running Program from Coolrunning.com.

Even though I didn’t get a lot of original writing this past week, I did take stock of what speculative fiction I do have to help me focus what I’m working on. Turns out I have quite a few marketable stories I could revise, and I do have a few other “plans” I can sort out. However, the novel revisions are a big time sink, and they force me to not publish or submit anything new. Going back to the whole “I typically write-for-hire” conversation, that’s pretty scary to me. After all, if I disappear from a publishing schedule for six months, would you still remember my author name?

Still, the time for asking questions about where I’m at in my career is over. It’s time to get serious.

Original Goal: Revise a little bit every day, average about three chapters a week.
Week One Summary: Figured out how to incorporate back story and cut exposition without having to rewrite novel. Wrote four days, revised most of the first chapter.

And so, I begin Week Two.

December 7, 2009
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Day 3: Oh, How the Unexpected Thrills Me. How About You?

Dec09WM3How’s everyone doing so far? We’re barely out of the gate, and already I’ve had an interesting couple of days. I think gremlins have invaded my home. While I haven’t made a ton of progress yet, I’m still doing my due diligence and trying to get back into a routine. Translation? No filing yet. Hoo-ray for me!

Here’s my account of the first, few days. I have to warn you, please don’t call the grammar police. This was written in a very stream-of-consciousness sort of a way. Don’t want a ticket for bad verb agreement.

Day One: Cats decided to wake me up by having an epic “CLASH OF THE TITANS” battle on my belly at 6:00 a.m. I am dragging and can’t focus, so decide to get a few work-related things out of the way so I can take a peek at my schedule. With a “return-to-the-gym” visit tonight and edits on a nonfiction project, looks like I’ll need to write for ARGENTUM during my lunch hour at work. In the morning, I focus my efforts on getting everything ready for the day and knock out a rough outline for work before heading in. Writing during my lunch hour seems manageable enough; provided I force myself away from the computer for a few minutes. Fortunately, I have plotted out a well-paced outline for the book which will help me revise things a bit easier. Shoot, I’m not going to even bother tracking word count for non-fiction, etc.

Unfortunately, the writing over the lunch hour isn’t manageable. Exhausted, I know I won’t get to the gym so I decide to take a brief walk outside. I realize that it’s probably better if I work out during my lunch hour when I can, because I need the break away from the computer.

So…looks like I’ll have to wait until I get home. Crap. I really don’t want to do paperwork tonight so I’m going to force myself to sit down for an hour after I work on a different project. Remind self to give cats a sedative tomorrow. This six hours of sleep business really sucks.

Fortunately, I opened the file. I looked at the file. I started rewriting the file. But that’s about as far as I got before I called it a day.

Day Two: Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. WHY DOES THE UNIVERSE HATE ME? The coffeemaker has decided to stage a revolution. Apparently I need more fiber because it’s got “a few” grounds in it. Joy of joys. Well, I’m up so I’m going to work on my non-fiction project this morning and make some more headway on that. Work has been extremely busy, especially with the holidays right around the corner. Got home. Want to crawl back into bed. End up writing instead. Unfortunately, the internet has decided to voluntarily take a vacation so I don’t get much non-fiction stuff done. End up refocusing on ARGENTUM. Bugged about the back story and the pacing.

Day Three: Cats decide to have a freak out all morning long and tumble all over the place. Looks like crappy filters might be the cause of coffee pot woes. Hopefully. Internet still out. Grrrrrrr… I stare longingly at a DVD rack and decide to put in an episode of Charmed for fashion-filled background noise while I work on ARGENTUM. (Cheesy acting = great background noise.) Figure out back story still works, just need to cut down on the emo-ness of the main character. Needs more handcuffs. Depending upon how tonight goes, may get back into it.

Hrmm…maybe the mornings really are the best time to write for me.

To be continued…

December 3, 2009
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Guidelines and Rules for the December Writing Marathon

Calendar Writing MarathonIn my previous post entitled Who’s Up for a December Writing Marathon? Some Proposed Rules, I offered some generic guidelines to see what you might think. Because December is a little over a week away, I’d like to share with you the specifics of this marathon. First? Some guidelines to help keep this marathon honest and fair.

What Is or Isn’t Included?

Many of my fellow authors and game designers are under what’s known as a non-disclosure agreement for our projects. For those of you who haven’t sold a particular story, you’re working on something that is speculative, so what you share is up to you.

Because our projects and the amount of detail that we reveal may vary from person to person, it’s easier to explain what’s eligible for this marathon by sharing with you what I feel is not eligible.

Words Not Included Toward Goal

    1. Blogging and other internet-related content on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
    2. Outlines and related planning materials
    3. Research, including works copied/pasted from Wikipedia and other sources
    4. Editorials, reviews or lit crit about other people’s works
    5. Business correspondence (e.g. queries, pitches, emails, etc.)

The goal here is to spend the month writing on a particular project, one that is either brand new or existing. In order to do that, we all need to do a little leg work to ensure that we’re working towards a completed story or project. Some of the things I mentioned above, like the research or the outlines, are things all writers do. Of course, if a project comes up that needs to be revised, that may throw a kink in the works. (I have four out there that I’m waiting to hear back on.) However, this is very similar to what happens in real life. For myself, if a revision comes up? I still have to keep going.

How Do I Get Started?

All you need to do to get started, is to figure out what it is you want to write and what your goals for the month are. For beginning writers, maybe your goal is simply to finish writing 20,000 words in a month. If you’re an experienced writer, perhaps you may want to add a layer of difficulty in like an extra revision or a higher word count goal.

Is That It? How Do I Keep Going?

Here’s the fun part. When you submit your goal (see below), tell me what you’ll do if you miss a day. Do you hate sit-ups? If you miss a day, you could do twenty-five of those. Do you loathe laundry? Promise yourself that you’ll do laundry instead.

To help motivate you, I’ve already started working on drafts talking about the marathon in December. You can subscribe to my RSS feed if you wish or you can stop back once-a-week to check in. It’s up to you. For your convenience, I did create a December Writing Marathon on MLVWrites.com category specifically for this activity.

What Do I Need From You?

If you wish, please blog your goals for the December Writing Marathon by midnight, November 30, 2009. Then, please send me your link using my contact form to your blog post so I can add them to a post about our writing goals. Please include what activity you will do if you miss a day.

If you send me a post at the end of the week, I will be happy to include that in my weekly wrap-up as well. It is not required for you to blog, though, since that word count is over-and-above what you’re working on.

How You Can Keep Track of Your Goals

Many word processing programs have a word count feature. If you want to post your word count on your own website, I recommend using one of these word count tools from this post entitled 6 Word Meters and Trackers for the Word Count Obsessed.

Any Advice On What I Should Avoid?

Recommend avoiding any discussions that cause you to second-and-triple guess either your career or what you’re working on and add to your fears. Be brave. Be BOLD. Write, write, write! The publishing industry will still publish books, with or without you writing them. Also? Recommend identifying your time-wasters up front.

What Happens If You Fall Behind?

If you need a pep talk, give a shout-out to a fellow marathon member or read more for motivation. If you don’t finish by December 31, 2009 – keep going until you do! This marathon is not about speed, it’s about endurance and getting in the habit of writing every day.

What Should I Do When I’m Done?

Since I’d like to do a wrap-up of our goals, I’d like to ask you to write a post describing what you’ve learned from the experience and if there is something “new” that you want. For example, did you learn that it’s really hard for you to write as much as you did? Do you want to find people to collaborate with? Regardless of what your experience was, it’s a good idea to wrap-up what you’ve learned so you can also figure out your 2010 writing goals.

Please send me your link using my contact form by Wednesday, January 3, 2010. From there, I’ll put everyone’s wrap-up together in a post on my blog.

Can You Help Me Write My Goals?

I will offer an optional form tomorrow that you can fill out to help you formulate your goals for this project. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go work on my own to get ready for this too!

November 23, 2009
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Who’s Up for a December Writing Marathon? Some Proposed Rules.

Running Shoes | By Photo.Bugz on FlickrI know that many of you might be writing for National Novel Writing Month, and if you are – I hope that it’s going really well for you. Writing 50,000 words in a month is not an easy task, and it can be very exhausting. I knew that my schedule for November wasn’t going to allow for NaNoWriMo, so I wasn’t able to participate. Admittedly, I feel a little guilty about not making a concerted effort on my writing this month, even though I’m waiting to hear back on several projects.

So, in the interest of “getting back into it” I propose a December Writing Marathon for 20,000 words minimum. The reason why I’m suggesting a smaller word count, is because I know that that “goal” is achievable, even during one of my busier months. Before I invite you to participate, I’d like to propose some rules for this Marathon, in the hopes that you’ll be inspired to get some writing done, too! Remember, if you want to chase the rainbow, you need to put your running shoes on first!

    1. Determine What Your Personal Goal Is – Do you know what it is you want to write? Whether you’re writing for a game, a novel or four short stories of 5,000 words each, before any of us starts writing for this Marathon, we should probably figure out what we want to write.
    2. Post Your Personal Goal On Your Blog – Once you have your writing goal figured out, why not add some content to your blog and write about what you’d like to work on? After you do, feel free to shoot me the link by posting a comment and I’ll collect everyone’s goals.
    3. You Must Write Every Day Or You’ll… – In order for this to be a true “marathon,” I propose that we sit down once-a-day and write something, even if we’re blowing past the 20,000 word count goal. If we don’t sit down and write, we think of a personal activity that we’ll have to do instead. For example, if I don’t sit down and write each day, I’ll have to spend a half an hour going through paperwork or I’ll have to tack on an extra workout.
    4. At the End of Every Week, We’ll Revisit our Writing Goals – Instead of summing up where we are every day, I recommend concentrating on the writing and then revisiting the word count on a weekly basis. Like we did with our writing goals, we could simply sum up where we’re at with the marathon by writing up a short blog post.
    5. If Some of Us Don’t Hit Goal by December 31st, We Keep Going Until We Do – The key with a marathon, for me, is not to worry about the best time but to focus on finishing. Yes, I believe 20,000 words in a month is very achievable, but for some of you it may still seem pretty daunting.
    6. We Avoid Talking “About” Writing, Game Design or Publishing – This is a tough one, but this rule comes from something I’ve noticed. Talking about writing or editing doesn’t help you get the words down on the page. In fact, it can be a huge distraction. December is one of those months where there will be enough distractions, especially if you’re celebrating the holidays. I propose we try to minimize talking about writing while we’re on the Marathon.
    7. At the End of the Marathon, We Write our 2010 Writing Goals – If you’ve never written this many words in a month before, this exercise can help you understand whether or not you’re interested in writing professionally. For me, I plan on focusing on a couple of speculative projects, and I hope that the marathon will help me shape my fiction writing goals. By the time the Marathon concludes, I believe we should all have a pretty good idea of what we want to do next.

So those are some simple rules that I’d like to offer for the Marathon. If you’re interested on providing feedback, feel free to take a look at these rules for the December Writing Marathon and tell me what you think. After I get some feedback from you, I can post more “official” rules before December begins along with some helpful tools.

Photo Attribution

November 19, 2009
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Do You Need Your Own Website? Read My New SFWA Article

If you’re an author or a professional freelancer who is weighing the pros and cons of having your own web presence, you might be interested in reading my new article over at the website of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.

Here’s a brief excerpt of the article:

    The Pros and Cons of Having Your Own Website

    Whenever I’m at a convention, one of the more common questions I am asked is: “Do I need to have my own website?” I always counter with, “Well, what do you want to use the website for?” Several have answered me either with the proud declaration “To get published, of course!” or “To sell my books!”

    Having an online presence may or may not translate to your desired action, in part because your presence really is about “you” as a person rather than “you” the author.

Be sure to visit the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America to read The Pros and Cons of Having your own Website.

August 24, 2009
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