Writing Goals for 2011

Well, it’s the New Year and most of us have spent a bit of time looking back on the year that was, pondering how well we succeeded with our goals, be it with writing or otherwise, with an eye aimed toward setting newer ones. Perhaps one or more of these will simply be carried over to 2011. It can definitely be a time of great personal satisfaction for having achieved much, as well as a time of disappointment for not having done as well as we might have hoped. No matter where you find yourself at this moment, I hope you are looking toward the New Year with anticipation and a renewed spirit.

Many of you faithful readers of mine may recall the year that I had. One year ago today I was sitting before my pc, wondering when my first novel was going to be released as an e-book. I had not yet received the keys, as it were, to my blog that my publisher had been good enough to design for me. I did not have one review yet, nor had I begun writing blog posts for myself or for others. I was yet to be social networking. I had yet to begin writing articles for Kings River Life Magazine, either.

Although most every writer knows that the way to be a writer is to do exactly that: write every day. Luckily for me, I had the second novel in the can and mostly ready to go, so I wasn’t all that concerned about writing. Instead, I was focusing on doing the promotion that I felt I was going to have to do in order to attempt to get my name out there. So that’s what I did. One by one, I took on new assignments, casting as wide a net as I could. I joined the local Chamber of Commerce; printed business cards; sponsored my kid’s all-star baseball team, enabling me to have a banner at the baseball field, etc., etc., etc.

Well, it’s a year later; now what? My e-book has just recently been released as a paperback, arriving Wednesday afternoon (that's it in the photo). My second novel has been sent to my publisher for the editing process, so hopefully sometime this month I should be receiving that back. Obviously that means that there is some heavy editing in my future. With a little luck and a lot of hard work, potentially by late spring I will have two novels in the marketplace in all formats.

Many of us are all in different places with regard to what we can do. I have a day job which has me for nearly eleven hours for five days a week. My iPhone keeps me in the loop with e-mail and social sites, but that leaves only a few hours each day to devote to this second career of mine. Couple that with the fact that I am pushing 42, with a wife and two teenagers at home who need some attention, one can see that I cannot at this moment promise to give the next five years and all of my time to this endeavor.

When you are setting your goals, if you have yet to do so, I think everything must be considered. For me, 2011 will mirror the past year, as I simply keep the promotional machine going. I hope it isn’t, but 2011 might end up being a make or break year for me. The third novel is currently an outline, but I really don’t feel a burning desire to begin writing it yet. If I work this New Year the way I worked the last one, with barely time to breath, and it amounts to very little, I may have to make a tough decision come 2012. The question then would be press on or take a time out. Were I 19 years old, I would most likely quit my job and dedicate myself to writing. Unfortunately 19 was a very long time ago, and I cannot do that.

I apologize if you have looked to me for guidance with regard to setting your goals. I understand that my situation isn’t necessarily the norm. Not only that, but my original goal has already been achieved. My dream was to be a writer. After twenty years of dreaming about it, I am a published author. If I end up having to walk away from this in another year or so, I can do so with a content heart. I'll have no regrets.

How about you? What are your goals for this New Year? Are they bigger and better ones, pushing the envelope even further? Are they the same as last year’s goals? If so, how are you planning on tackling them this time around? Perhaps you have some guidance for me. If so, what would that be? We would very much like this forum to be as interactive as possible. We do look at the number of followers that we have, but I don’t think it is what drives us. How is having 400 followers who we never hear from better than 75 that we get to know well and share constantly with?

I don’t think it is.

Grueling Goals

This week we're talking about our writing goals for 2011. I briefly mentioned my goals on my blog, here, but I'm going to expand on that post today.

Last year I changed my tactics and decided to focus on only one book rather than working on which ever one struck my fancy. It didn't work out the way I wanted it to - not even close. I thought if I focused on only one book at a time, I'd get them completed faster and have multiple books done by the end of 2010. I had the idea that jumping around from book to book was wasting time as I had nothing ready for submission yet. I took a workshop in January of last year and set out goals to have at least 5 books done by December.

Not even close. I don't even have one book fully ready. Yes, I am closer than I was at the start of the year, but not where I really want to be.

Granted, I did begin submissions for Burden of Prophecy, part 1 of my faery series, but the two rejections and NaNo made me realize the book was not finished.

So, I decided to go back to my old ways and work on whichever story strikes my fancy. I was getting tired of the one book I forced myself to work on last year, so I switched. So far it's proven a good decision as I'm excited and eager to write and even edit.

My goals for this year I hope are more realistic and actually attainable. I'm putting my main focus into only two books, rather than the 5 I set out to finish last year.

While I'll still skip around to whatever books I feel inspired to work on, I set a goal to have these two start submission rounds this year - by May at the latest for Burden of Prophecy and the other - Cleanse Fire - I'm getting ready for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. So right now most of my time is spent on editing Cleanse Fire, but I visit Burden of Prophecy every once in a while.

One thing I need to do for this year, to help both of these stories get off the ground, is more promotion. Right now I talk about both of them in general terms, like in this post here. I need to really start full promotion, especially for Cleanse Fire. I'm going to see about setting up a Facebook Fan page again. Last time it was pretty much a failure, and while I'm not sure of the exact reason why, I do have a few things I want to try differently this time. We'll see how it goes. (In fact, I might create that page today!)

2010 wasn't a total failure. I did discover that skipping around from book to book depending on my mood, is the best thing for me. It's how my brain works naturally and trying to force myself to work on only one fried my mind for sure. I really got discouraged doing this, especially when the rejections came in. Not that I was rejected but I realized that after everything, the story STILL wasn't done.

So, I'm going back to my old ways and we'll see how far we get this year! What about your guys? Did you discover some things about yourself this year or reach a major goal?

Paving a Path to Publication

Hello Wicked Writers and Readers,

Yes, I'm back from my holiday vacation, and I feel great. I needed the change in scenery and routine. I had a blast, but I'm also happy to be back among my writing friends. If you want to read more or see some pics from my travels, click here.

Other wise, this week's topic is all about writing goals for 2011. Usually plotting goals for myself is pretty easy because, usually, there's not much difference between one year and the next, other than remembering to write 11 instead of 10 when I date a document.

However, at this point in my writing career (or lack-of), I find myself in an odd, yet surely common, spot. I'm stuck between trying to get an old MS published and trying to write a completely new one. I'm sure those of you who've been writers for many years are used to being in this spot, but it's foreign territory to a newbie like me.

And, I am sure, for those non-writers out there, this may not seem like such a bad predicament. So, let me peel back the layers to expose the true problem: Dark Heirloom was supposed to be under contract in 2010, according to my writing goals from last year.

That obviously didn't happen. But unlike most failed goals, this one wasn't from lack of trying.

Before I went on vacation, I was very near to giving up on Dark Heirloom altogether, and threw myself into a new project (the new project I mentioned earlier). But, after spending twelve days in Mexico - NOT thinking about writing the entire time - I somehow found my muse and a new hefty dose of determination.

I now see hope for my writing career. One that must be done in alternative ways which were suggested to me before, but that I had naively shrugged off until now.

Like last year, my main goal for 2011 is to get Dark Heirloom published. And, just like last year, there are at least a dozen steps required to get to that point. But, those steps are not the same ones I took in 2010. For I have gone back the drawing board and reformatted my plan to publication.

Goal #1: I will rewrite/edit Dark Heirloom one more time. Yes, I'm going on, like, the 100th edit here, but truth is the MS clearly needs some reworking if it's not garnering any interest at all yet. I'm mature enough to be honest about when my work is lacking. And Ana, don't even start with me, Missy! I know you think DH is perfect, but it's not. And don't you worry, the characters and plot will be very much the same. It's some other key stuff - like the crappy beginning for one thing - that will change.

This first goal is to be accomplished no later than February 1st, and you'll see why in a minute. But first, any one want to volunteer to be a beta reader? Seriously ... I'm going to need you guys because of Goal 2 .....

Goal #2: I will submit Dark Heirloom to the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest - which must be done no later than February 6th.

Goal #3: Assuming DH makes it to the second round of the contest, I will then take some promotional pointers from C.J. and create a Facebook author page in which I will promote the bejesus out of my MS and beg for votes. Should I win this prestigious contest, I will then have a publishing contract with Penguin. However, I do, of course, realize the huge amount of competition and the very small chances of winning. So I'm not counting on this alone. However, I would be very pleased if DH made into the top 10. I would be very proud and it would be something I could use as an author credential when I eventually get to an other round of query letter writing.

Goal #4: Once the contest is over, and assuming I lose (hey, this a back-up, I'm not being negative, just prepared!) I will then dive into the art of writing short stories. I'll write one every month or so, edit them, and then submit them to publishers. This little side job is also to build up author credit. It's no coincidence that a writer with a few published shorts has an easier time publishing a novel than a writer who's published nothing in the past.

I'm estimating that Goals 1-3 will carry me well into March or April, and Goal 4 will be done through-out the year or however long it takes to get a couple shorts published. Since a lot of this is up in the air - and I certainly have my work cut out for me - I'm going to stop here before I "goal" myself into a plan that's too rigged. Always good to have wiggle room. However, I hope to begin re-submitting DH to publishers sometime in late summer or fall, with the contest and published short stories to back me up. Either way, I'll hopefully have something published by this time next year!

What are your writing goals for 2011? Wishing you all the best of luck in whatever hurdles and successes the new year brings! :)

Outlining your Goals

Hello again bloggers. This week we are discussing the topic of setting realistic writing goals or outlining. I'm going to try and touch on both of these because I think they go hand in hand.

I used to be a panster. No outline, no character sketches, just go! It was the worst thing I ever did. While I had a story there, it was written so poorly that it sickens me to see the first drafts of some of my stories. I had characters with magically changing hair and eye color, thier personalities would take a sudden 180! The plot would jump and skip and go off on a side direction - completely out of control.

So I tried writing notes and keeping them in a notebook. This quickly became disorganized so I switched to loose paper in a three ring binder. It really made a difference in my writing but even still, I felt like my stories were missing something and I couldn't figure out why.

I took a workshop earlier this summer about outlining and plotting. The workshop used the book JD mentioned yesterday First Draft in 30 Days by Karen S. Wiesner. I enjoyed it so much, I actually bought the book. Do I follow her steps completely? No. But I do use many of them.

I write very, very detailed character and setting sketches using the sketch worksheets in Karen's book. I added a few things of my own of course, to work with my fantasy level stories. I also made a few changes to make them work with my series. In Karen's book, I believe she says to make new sketches for each book of a series (or maybe I heard it somewhere else). I think that is a waste of valuable time and paper. When I go to outline/plan the second or third book, I merely add to what is already there. I don't create brand new sketches.

Now when it comes to actual plot outlines and summaries, I don't do this. Occasionally I'll write down a few notes or ideas in a bulleted list, but I don't actually outline the story in order or anything like that. It doesn't hinder my creativity when I do, I just don't like to do it. Since I character and setting sketch so deeply, I get extremely excited about the story and just want to write it.

Before I edit any story however, I always write an outline. I don't know why I do this, but it seems to help me stay on track. Usually as I go to edit, I come up with great ideas for scenes or things to add that take away from the main plot of the story. So, I have to have an outline handy to make sure I stay on track.

How does this relate to setting realstic goals? Well first point, if you don't know how you write, you can't set any time frame or goal to complete anything, in my opinion. I can say that I can sketch and write a full draft in a month - without the crazyness of NaNoWriMo. However, editing takes at a bare minimum, three months. (And that's not counting my main WIP that has taken forever - that's how badly it was written the first time.) So, I realistically set a goal to write a new book and have it finished in the next four months. Extra time given for when life gets in the way and to make sure I don't skip school and things like that.

Also, sketching and outlining the way I do helps me to stay focused - so that four month goal I can actually keep. Without focus, it would take me much longer to write and edit a book! My main WIP is a perfect example of this. I've been working on this story for EIGHT YEARS! But I have many other stories that are ready and waiting for a final polish or even the first edit.

Sketching out details greatly helps and I recommend this method even to pansters. At least get some notes written down about the setting and characters to help you stay on track - without hindering any of the plot. It works great for me - and I wish I used this method years ago.

Outlines ... and a Contest!

[caption id="attachment_3384" align="alignleft" width="142" caption="Recomended for help with Outlining."][/caption]

Hello readers and fellow Wicked Writers. After last week’s beautiful stories honoring heroes and remembering lives lost on 9/11, it is apparently now time to get back into the business of writing. This week’s topic is:  Setting realistic writing goals and outlining.

I can hear everyone groaning like a bunch of teenagers in an English Comp 101 class. Let me start by saying that I could probably spend all week enthusiastically talking about goals and outlines. So be happy I only get one post.

I’m going to leave goal setting for someone else to talk about so I can discuss my newest obsession. Outlining.

It baffles me that a lot of writers refuse to outline. They say things like “It hinders my creativity.” Um, excuse me? What? I have to disagree. Outlining may not give you brilliant ideas, compelling characters, or an amazing plot arc, but it doesn’t take those things away either. On the contrary, a good outline is like a snap-shot of your novel, so you can easily see where those elements need to be developed.

I’ll admit, when I first started writing I thought it was just a matter of sitting down and typing a story. Outlining seemed like an extra step that would take up my time. I’ve come a long way since then.

I think the reason so many writers turn the other check to outlining is because they don’t know how to go about it, and thus, they are afraid of it. There’s no reason to be. We’re not talking about query letters here. No one is going to read or judge your outline. You can write it however you want. It’s your ideas, organized in a fashion that allows you to find them, use them, and build off them, again and again, at any stage in the writing process.

And yeah, whether we like or not, outlining is essential to success, reduces stress, mistakes, and prevents wasted time. How many of you ever spent an hour searching through post-its and scrap paper for that brilliant idea you scribbled down in the middle of the night? Hmm. Too bad you didn’t jot it down in your outline, right in the exact scene you intended.

Since no one is going to see your outline besides you, you do have the option of making it really simplistic. A list of plot points, for example. However, I favor a more detailed outline, with character sketches, setting sketches, research notes, a plot summery, and ideas for scenes all ready to go – typed up and handy. Trust me when I say it makes life easier.

Like I said, I didn’t always use outlines. There was a time when they seemed taunting to me too. If you still cringe at the idea of outlining, there is a book I recommend that will help you get started. It’s called First Draft in 30 Days by Karen S. Wiesner. Just don’t be fooled by the title. You won’t have a first draft in 30 days, but you will have a constructive, detailed, and organized outline that’s almost good enough to be your first draft. Even more awesome than that, Wiesner teaches you how to revise your outline so you don’t have to revise your first draft. When done correctly, all you should have to do is edit and proofread.

Ahh, yes, outlines are beautiful.

Now for the CONTEST! It’s my turn to host this week’s contest, and I’ve put a lot of thought into this. *Insert wicked laugh here* I’m going to use this opportunity to do some shameless self-promotion. Please real ALL rules and instruction below:

J.D. BROWN’S SCAVENGER HUNT !!!!!!!

I’m hosting a scavenger hunt that runs from Monday, September 13th, 2010 at 9:00am Central time to Monday, September 27^th, 2010 at 12:00am Central time.

How to enter and WIN:

1.    Subscribe to the Wicked Writers blog, then leave a comment below with your first and last name and “I SUBSCRIBED TO WICKED WRITERS FOR THE SCAVENGER HUNT” somewhere in your comment.
2.    Follow me on Twitter.com (http://twitter.com/authorjdbrown) , then send me a direct message on Twitter with your name and “I’M FOLLOWING YOU FOR THE SCAVENGER HUNT” in the message.

3.    Go to my personal blog and follow OR subscribe to my blog. Then leave a comment on my blog with your name and “I’M FOLLOWING YOUR BLOG FOR THE SCAVENGER HUNT” in your comment.

4.    Go to my website and sign the guest book (yes, you have to look for it). Include your name and “I’M SIGNING YOUR GUEST BOOK FOR THE SCAVENGER HUNT” in the message.

5.    When you’re done with the above items, send me an email at jdbrown.author@gmail.com and include your FIRST and LAST NAME and an EMAIL ADDRESS that I can reach you at. Make sure the subject of your email is “THE SCAVENGER HUNT_YOUR NAME”. For example – THE SCAVENGER HUNT_J.D.BROWN.

Rules:

1.    You must complete ALL five (5) of the above requirements. If you are missing one, you will be disqualified. I will email anyone who is missing an item, so long as I receive your email entry before the contest closes at 12:00 am central time on September 27^th, 2010. Anyone missing an item after midnight on September 27^th will not be notified and will be disqualified from the contest.

2.    You must remain a follower on Wicked Writers, my Twitter, and my blog until after I have announced the winner (which will be on September 27^th, 2010 at 9:00 central time).

You do not have to be active or continue to post comments other than the ones required for the contest and you are free to stop email subscriptions/unfollow me after I have announced the winner.

The PRIZES:

First place is a $25.00 Borders gift card!

Second place is a $10.00 Borders gift card!

Winners will be selected at random by my Pomeranians. Hopefully they won’t eat the prizes…

Happy hunting!

J.D. Brown