Time To Go Back To Bed!

For the rest of the week...or month. Bleh.

First off, I'm now working more hours. This will leave no time for my usual write before the husband picks me up. So, I don't want my writing to suffer, but one day into my extra hours, and I see that it will likely suffer. I haven't written anything this week so far. Heck, I have A LOT to critique today as well.

I've searched high and low for that list of agents Diane recommended I query, and I can't find it. I am so upset. Words can't describe how upset I am. I just want to take a nuclear bomb to this messy house (and possibly my brain).

My eyes are puffy and nose is stuffed up (perhaps I'm allergic to the messy house), and I cracked my head on the corner of my husband's monitor.

This IS NOT a good week.

And I hate winter. Have I mentioned this before? It's cold, and more cold. And we had a week without water in the kitchen, and our already long commute to work yesterday was longer because of snow and unplowed roads.

I am not in a very positive mood. Sorry, nothing good to report in this week's blog attempt. Oh, I did switch to the New Blogger - that can't nessicarily be termed good or bad. It's neutral. Neutral is as far as I can move right now.

Hope everyone has more luck this week - I'm going back to bed.

Has It Been That Long?

Oops. Yea, okay, please yell at me for not blogging so long.

Last month I was sick half of the time, so that made me not want to do anything. Just what I need, is for things to pile up even more! Joy.

So, I didn't write much last month. I've written some this month at least. Shepherd is coming along slowly, but surely. I'm redifining my word count meters. The weekly one will still be actual word count (calculated by Word Perfect). The full novel one will be the "editor's calculation" though - page count times 250 (words per page when in Courier New double-spaced). Makes my goal more realistic, as that's the word count that will er, um count in the end.

I've rejoined Critters - yay. Well, I had to. Everyone else abandoned me for critiques. :( I hope to mostly do RFDRs (Requests for Dedicated Readers - i.e. novels) for people. It's what I'm most comfortable with. I plan to send my own RFDR out for Shepherd soon.

I also revised my synopsis and query letter for Mind - unfortunately the list of agents I had from Diane is MIA in my piles of papers (and it's likely in the ones in my study which are hard to get at because of piled up, unboxed Halloween decorations). See why I should clean before I worry about writing - heh?

Okay, I think that's all I have to report for now. Lots of critiquing I need to do right now. :p Happy writing all!

2006 Coming to an End

Well, 2006 just zoomed by for me. Not quite sure where most of it went. Yes, there was moving and unpacking and starting a new job. At least one of my stories came out in an anthology. I was happy to have finally completed a rough draft of something since my thesis novel and graduation. But many of the things on my to do list which I posted at the beginning of the year didn't get done. The year is gone and I feel like it should only be half over! Now I understand why some people comment that working part-time can be worse than working full-time. It's not an excuse, though, just something I need to overcome and make myself adjust to.

So, first I will wish a Happy Holidays to everyone since I didn't get around to posting before Yule and X-mas, and since my next post likely won't be until after the first of the year. And I am not going to look back at the goals I had for 2006 because I am too embarassed to do so. :p What's the point of dwelling on the past anyhow (and my husband constantly reminds me I do so far too often)? What's done is done, and I can't worry about what was, and I should concentrate on what will be. That is sacrily positive, even for me...

With that said, I do have more goals that I drew up for 2007. I don't think I'll ever get rid of that list making OCD. Nor will I ever not make goals that are above and beyond what a normal person should be able to accomplish, even if aiming too high and not reaching the goals is one of the reasons my psychological disposition is the way it is at times. Just can't change some things. :)

Here are my tangible writing goals for the year:

- Finish the rough draft of Shepherd of Dreams novel by April 30
- Finish 2nd or 3rd draft of Shepherd of Dreams novel by December 31 (the 2nd or 3rd depends on how many people I can find to critique the novel and how long it will take them)
- Finish the rough draft of Daina's Dance novel by September 30
- Set up a monthly word count/productivity tracker (I loved doing the report card for NaNo - for some reason I have a fascination with numbers - I have already drawn up the template with the equations, might need some tweaking, but so far good to go)
- 10 hours a week OR 5k a week of new material (this is mainly during the times I am doing the novel rough drafts - when I am doing heavy novel revision, my new material word count will be lower)
- Begin and complete 6 short stories (this could include continuing some I already started the rough drafts of)
- Revise the backlog of short stories that have been waiting to be looked at, and possibly get more feedback, then revise again
- Keep all completed short stories in circulation (well the ones that haven't been banished to the "Shouldn't see the light of day" category)
- Start querying agents and editors again for The Mind Behind the Mind novel
- Critique 1 to 2 items a week (item defined as chapters or stories consisting of 30 pages or less)
- Reactivate Critters
- Blog and Update my Website once a week
- Keep up with my writing groups, newsletters, magazine subscriptions, and writing books

That's a long list, and that's really only my writing goals (oh, you don't want to know my other goals, trust me, far too much reading). I will also try to maintain a word count meter here for the projects I am working on. And, depending on how I feel, perhaps I'll set up a rejection/acceptance total tracker at some point.

What are your writing goals for 2007?

See you in the New Year, and Happy Writing!