Okay, so no crazy, wacked-out blogging today. Really. I promise. Maybe. Depends on what you think is crazy. =)
You might think it's crazy for me to come back to my scary yearly goals list and pick apart what I've done and what I haven't. You may also think the goals list was crazy to begin with. To me, that's not crazy, that's just me being normal.
Here we go - what have I done this year so far?
- I have not written 4k per week - the baby chasing only leaves me so much writing time, and recently I have been concentrating on other things besides fresh words
- I have not critiqued 1 thing per week, but I am critiquing on a more consistent basis - so far a total of 3 things for the year, as far as I can see, so hopefully I can pick that pace up a little bit
- The allotted hours I had listed...yea...little one says "I don't think so, mommy." (except when she says it, it sounds like "Eh, ma, ga, mmm, eh.")
- Obviously Shepherd of Dreams is not finished, and it is past April 30 =( - the Daina's Dance rough draft I am thinking might be pushed to next year
- Track Word Count/Productivity - I did when I was writing fresh words, but have not been with the story revisions...oops
- Out of the 12 short stories that need to be revised and submitted - "Cold...Oh So Cold" was edited and is currently in a slush pile; "This Is Where I Stand" has been revised, I recently received some editing feedback, will edit it next week and it will be out in a slush pile then as well; "Path of One" has been revised and I received suggestions for the last line, so i just need to make a decision for that line, then it's going to a slush pile (likely next week); still have 9 other stories to deal with
- Haven't worked on any of the rough drafts of the 6 stories I had listed (or any other stories I didn't have listed, for that matter)
- All completed short stories ARE in slush piles - yay!
- I have submitted a total of 9 queries this year for The Mind Behind the Mind - 1 full manuscript request, resulting in a rejection; 3 rejections; 2 no responses, which looking at the websites means rejections; and 3 were just sent out last night
- Newsletters, magazines...? Remember, I'm not superwoman!
- Listerves, writing groups...see above
- More like once a month for the blogging, but I'm okay with that for now
- I haven't done much with my website - cleaned it up a bit once, but I have an idea for a Writing Prompt, and I really need to post it soon
- Backing up files has been pretty consistent
- My reading has plummeted - it may just be I really am not digging the third George R. R. Martin novel - political fantasy may be my brother-in-law's cup of tea, but not mine, and it could also be the fact that I'm too exhausted to read by the time bedtime rolls around
- Um, the study...the loveseat is cleared off, does that count? Still way too many boxes (and cobwebs), though
- I will not be attending the WPF Alumni Writing Retreat this year - money, alas money, is the main reason...if we are short $6k to paint the outside of our house, we definitely don't have the funds for me to go to Pennsylvania =(
That's the update. I am no where near on schedule. I'm at least keeping up with submissions, and I think once I have a bunch of short stories off the revision pile, I'll feel much better. Should I be crazy and set some basic goals for the next triannual status update? Hehehe - why not?
- Revise, possibly get more feedback, and submit the following stories: "Dreams in Shadow", "Hell Hath No Fury", "Ode to Buses and Libraries", "The Awakening", and "Ancient Ways"
- Write 25-30k more for Shepherd of Dreams
- Critique 6-8 things
- Post that Writing Prompt on my website
- Finally get my study cleaned (this is I think the most difficult to do)
- Get through Storm of Swords and move onto something more to my liking for reading!
That's not too scary/crazy of a list...right? Baby willing, I'll try my hardest!
How are everyone else's yearly goals moving along? Please post to my comments so I know what everyone else has done this year. =)
Happy writing, all!
Friday, May 01, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Waiting Over...For Now
So, I finally received a response from the agent who was looking at my full manuscript. I have struck out again! But in the way rejections go - it was a GOOD rejection. She suggested I submit to another agent.
This always makes me think when my writer friends and I talk about good rejections. Oxymoron-land here we come. It's a rejection, negativity inherently in the word's meaning. Yet we have to modify the word rejection with good or bad. I think it's our way of protecting ourselves from the horrid things rejections can do to writers. A rejection is like a drop of acid - it eats away at you, add a new drop and the deterioration accelerates. So we need to dilute the acid to save our souls from being eaten away too quickly, our muses from drowning in the vile stuff, and our drive to write from disintegrating. That is why the rejection needs to be modified with good once in a while, otherwise there would be no writers left. =P
Fun fun - the psychology of writers could be a study in and of itself.
With that said, I got a GOOD rejection because of the recommendation to send a query to another agent. Which I will do next week, along with queries to at least two more agents. One of these days my itch to send things out in threes because I think it's good luck will pay off. Really. I hope. Maybe...
*fights off the pessimism trying to burn a hole through her psyche*
Did I mention this was rambling blog day?
Waiting - I used this in my last blog title, and in this one. Kind of funny when I think of it. I have been revising a short story, "This Is Where I Stand". I started revisions just after my last blog post, and it is in great need of dialogue fixes and rhetorical question scrubbing, among other things. But one of my themes throughout the story is the repetitiveness of waiting - my main character is a Queen in Waiting (not a Princess, she will succeed the Queen because all the female warriors battled to see who would be the Queen in Waiting, and dear Zenya won). For example, here she is at a meeting with the current Queen: "She raises an eyebrow, but waits for me to continue. Now she's doing the waiting, but it's not the same. She's waiting for me to speak, waiting for the silence to break, waiting for her own death." The funny thing is, I forgot I had this repetitiveness with waiting until I started revising, so the title for my last blog entry was unintentional.
What does all this mean? Nothing really. I just think it's interesting how some things seem to converge - like I think about something and then that same word or subject is heard in a song on the radio. As if the universe bends to certain ideas, thoughts, or words at a given moment - as if coincidence wasn't really just coincidental, but certain things are more likely to happen at certain times so that same thing happens in many instances at that moment or over a short period.
I know, that doesn't make sense. Okay, it makes sense to me. But I doubt it makes much sense to anyone else.
What does this have to do with writing? Ha! I can actually explain that. You just thought I was speaking nonsense for the hell of it. Maybe I was and just decided to connect it to my writing - you'll never know! Anyway, when I'm writing, and especially when I write a scene I think turned out great, I wonder if it would have turned out different if I would have written it at any other time. When characters do things I don't expect, I think that just maybe this wouldn't have happened, something else would have resulted, if I wrote that scene or story at another point in time. The universe bends my writing to that point in time, just like other occurrences, so when I write something is just as important for the outcome as how I write it.
Well, I guess my craziness should be wrapped up. The universe just told me to go to bed by having the last lightbulb in the room burn out. Damn universe.
Happy writing (and delusions) to all!
This always makes me think when my writer friends and I talk about good rejections. Oxymoron-land here we come. It's a rejection, negativity inherently in the word's meaning. Yet we have to modify the word rejection with good or bad. I think it's our way of protecting ourselves from the horrid things rejections can do to writers. A rejection is like a drop of acid - it eats away at you, add a new drop and the deterioration accelerates. So we need to dilute the acid to save our souls from being eaten away too quickly, our muses from drowning in the vile stuff, and our drive to write from disintegrating. That is why the rejection needs to be modified with good once in a while, otherwise there would be no writers left. =P
Fun fun - the psychology of writers could be a study in and of itself.
With that said, I got a GOOD rejection because of the recommendation to send a query to another agent. Which I will do next week, along with queries to at least two more agents. One of these days my itch to send things out in threes because I think it's good luck will pay off. Really. I hope. Maybe...
*fights off the pessimism trying to burn a hole through her psyche*
Did I mention this was rambling blog day?
Waiting - I used this in my last blog title, and in this one. Kind of funny when I think of it. I have been revising a short story, "This Is Where I Stand". I started revisions just after my last blog post, and it is in great need of dialogue fixes and rhetorical question scrubbing, among other things. But one of my themes throughout the story is the repetitiveness of waiting - my main character is a Queen in Waiting (not a Princess, she will succeed the Queen because all the female warriors battled to see who would be the Queen in Waiting, and dear Zenya won). For example, here she is at a meeting with the current Queen: "She raises an eyebrow, but waits for me to continue. Now she's doing the waiting, but it's not the same. She's waiting for me to speak, waiting for the silence to break, waiting for her own death." The funny thing is, I forgot I had this repetitiveness with waiting until I started revising, so the title for my last blog entry was unintentional.
What does all this mean? Nothing really. I just think it's interesting how some things seem to converge - like I think about something and then that same word or subject is heard in a song on the radio. As if the universe bends to certain ideas, thoughts, or words at a given moment - as if coincidence wasn't really just coincidental, but certain things are more likely to happen at certain times so that same thing happens in many instances at that moment or over a short period.
I know, that doesn't make sense. Okay, it makes sense to me. But I doubt it makes much sense to anyone else.
What does this have to do with writing? Ha! I can actually explain that. You just thought I was speaking nonsense for the hell of it. Maybe I was and just decided to connect it to my writing - you'll never know! Anyway, when I'm writing, and especially when I write a scene I think turned out great, I wonder if it would have turned out different if I would have written it at any other time. When characters do things I don't expect, I think that just maybe this wouldn't have happened, something else would have resulted, if I wrote that scene or story at another point in time. The universe bends my writing to that point in time, just like other occurrences, so when I write something is just as important for the outcome as how I write it.
Well, I guess my craziness should be wrapped up. The universe just told me to go to bed by having the last lightbulb in the room burn out. Damn universe.
Happy writing (and delusions) to all!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Waiting...
What am I waiting for? We'll get to that later. *flashes an evil grin*
I have updated the Links section on my website. If anyone has any other links for me to add, please let me know, as my list is no where near comprehensive. I had an idea for a writing prompt, which I hope to post in a couple weeks.
I have now signed up for Twitter. Since I don't blog as often as I'd like (and since typing a blog entry takes a lot of time), I figured it might be a good thing to try. You can find my Twitter updates on the left side of my blog, right above my Current Project info.
Speaking of Current Project info, no I have not managed to get anymore words out, but next week my brother-in-law will be visiting during his spring break, and besides putting him to work painting the bathroom, I intend to make him babysit his niece for at least an hour each day so I can write - heh. Also, the silly word meter is down, and I can't find another word meter that I like as much, so I just left the numbers up at least and I'll try to update those (even though I might work on a short story next week).
I did get a critique done, and I've started another - daylight savings time really threw a wrench in things because babies do not adjust easily, and I have had 2am nights all week.
I also sent three stories to slush piles, two have already come back as rejections, so I need to send them out again.
As for the queries I sent out, I received responses from the three I mailed out in February, but still nothing from the three I e-mailed in January. Two of the responses were rejections.
But query sending has been suspended for the month until further notice. Yes, I did say only two rejections...
I got a request from an agent to see my full manuscript! *cheers*
Hopefully I will hear back either way soon. I was told maybe two weeks (speedy in the agent world from what I know), but agents get busy and their current clients come first. Going back to the title of my blog post, that's what I'm waiting for, and I am a bundle of nerves, as usual. =)
Okay, true I didn't get any new words written, but at least I've done a bunch of writing related things. Until next time, happy writing, all!
I have updated the Links section on my website. If anyone has any other links for me to add, please let me know, as my list is no where near comprehensive. I had an idea for a writing prompt, which I hope to post in a couple weeks.
I have now signed up for Twitter. Since I don't blog as often as I'd like (and since typing a blog entry takes a lot of time), I figured it might be a good thing to try. You can find my Twitter updates on the left side of my blog, right above my Current Project info.
Speaking of Current Project info, no I have not managed to get anymore words out, but next week my brother-in-law will be visiting during his spring break, and besides putting him to work painting the bathroom, I intend to make him babysit his niece for at least an hour each day so I can write - heh. Also, the silly word meter is down, and I can't find another word meter that I like as much, so I just left the numbers up at least and I'll try to update those (even though I might work on a short story next week).
I did get a critique done, and I've started another - daylight savings time really threw a wrench in things because babies do not adjust easily, and I have had 2am nights all week.
I also sent three stories to slush piles, two have already come back as rejections, so I need to send them out again.
As for the queries I sent out, I received responses from the three I mailed out in February, but still nothing from the three I e-mailed in January. Two of the responses were rejections.
But query sending has been suspended for the month until further notice. Yes, I did say only two rejections...
I got a request from an agent to see my full manuscript! *cheers*
Hopefully I will hear back either way soon. I was told maybe two weeks (speedy in the agent world from what I know), but agents get busy and their current clients come first. Going back to the title of my blog post, that's what I'm waiting for, and I am a bundle of nerves, as usual. =)
Okay, true I didn't get any new words written, but at least I've done a bunch of writing related things. Until next time, happy writing, all!
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