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In 2007, I will attend the Literary Bootcamp Basic and complete my first year of my BA program with flying colors.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Dec 2005
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2007 goal: + 20,000 words of new short fiction (4 stories). + 1 collaborated short story. + Finish my screenplay outline. + 100% redraft of my trunked novel. + write my second novel.
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In January 2007 I vow to complete my WIP plot revisions. By the end of 2007 I vow to have the first draft done.
This will probably mean I should quit rewriting the first several chapters and move forward on the second half of the book.
I also plan to seek out membership in a new writer's group, something small (4-5 members). I belonged to a couple of groups I had to drop due to the stress of Real Life(TM), but now I am back on track and ready to focus my attention on my writing again.
1. Finish the first draft of my novel Matchbox by end of January. Polish it by early summer so I can start trying to market it. 2. Go to at least one convention this summer to network (preferably two). Go to World Fantasy Con in Saratoga NY next fall if at all possible (I already know my husband will be gone which creates a problem). 3. Write two short stories (not novelettes) specifically with WOTF in mind and sub in 2007. 4. Read more short and long fiction—specifically newly published fantasy 5. Research, outline and begin second novel by late summer 6. Rewrite older stories as need be and send them out again. Keep stuff out instead of filed away. 7. Sub Suck of Clay for reprint
I’ve succeeded in sticking to my goals for the last several years. This year I’ve set goal that might be tougher to accomplish.
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Spaceman, as far as I know the answer only lies when you believe it is ready. Usually writers do 3-4 drafts before comfortable with what they've written. Posts: 384 | Registered: Oct 2005
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For me, it's not so much knowing it, but hoping that four drafts will be enough. A draft, in my mind, is not going back to fix a run-on sentence, or improper grammar, but to make major revisions of characters, storylines or events.
Posts: 552 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:A draft, in my mind, is not going back to fix a run-on sentence, or improper grammar, but to make major revisions of characters, storylines or events.
In that case, I must have 'leventy-hundred drafts by now. It's why I stopped to reassess my plot.
The handiest tool I've found for finding the major holes in my plot structure is to attempt to summarize the entire book in 250 words - a length which is about right for an agent query letter. As Miss Snark says, if you can't say what your book is about in 250 words, how do you expect an agent to be able to summarize it for a pitch to a publisher?
This exercise is a lot harder than it looks, and in attempting to do so I realized that several important plot threads were too disconnected from each other, and that I had far too many characters as antagonist. It was diluting the impact of the main conflict.
I find the more I learn about writing technique, the more I am forced to confront issues that, in my gut, I knew from the beginning weren't working in the story. But now I know why, and better yet, I have tools now to work the wrinkles out.
To that end, every single person on Hatrack has helped me become a better writer. I am grateful for every one of you! Happy New Year!
[This message has been edited by Elan (edited January 02, 2007).]
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On drafts...Since computers and word processors came into my life, I don't do "drafts" per se, even though I still call them that...I (generally) write one "draft" and fiddle with it...copy it into another file and fiddle with that...then copy that into another file and do any final editing I choose to do on that. (Then I decide whether to send it out or not...but that's another matter.)
Which reminds me...I resolve to, at some point in 2007, dig out a couple of complete-but-unfinished drafts and do some more fiddling with them...
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A good exercise for writing that 250-word summary is to pretend you are writing the back cover copy.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
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In roughing out my Adventures of Waxy Dragon, I have created individual stories with the idea they might be children's books. I have 34 of them, some written by friends, over the past two years. This year, I think I can do a whole lot more. Both previous years, I started late in the year before ideas came. This year, I have nearly a dozen ideas on hand and just have to find time to write. I figure I need about fifty to eighty of these short stories in place before I start editing for publication so I can develop consistancy through the entire series. In the last couple stories, I came up with a change in a key detail which will effect most of the stories. Anyway, I am aiming at twenty stories this year. I am aiming at a total of 200 total adventures when done.....
Posts: 1008 | Registered: Feb 2006
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I've resigned myself to piling up 800,000 more words before I'm ready to publish Well, it's probably less than that, but I've accepted my mediocrity of a certain sort. My mediocrity at expressing the daring brilliance that lies within. But I'll still be rewriting my novel, which I've restructured in a satisfactory way. I know I keep saying that, but each time I change my mind, I dump about 10,000 words into it, so I think it's a good strategy for reaching the 1,000,000 mark.
This is a lot like when I realized that originality was not the be all end all of artistic expression.
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Write what I know of my novel, no matter how complete or otherwise, instead of getting tied in knots obsessing over what I don't know.
It occurs to me that I've undergone a reverse. As a kid, I saw my writing as a "glass half full"--the bits of ideas that were there seemed so good, all I needed was a bit of help with the bits I didn't have plus some time and space to write. The more time and space I got, the more I obsessed over the "glass half empty," until I was defining my stories by what was missing rather than by what was there. It would be good to be able to change this perception and work on getting the glass the rest of the way full.
[This message has been edited by CoriSCapnSkip (edited January 04, 2007).]
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1) As pathetic as it sounds, actually send the novel out to the four agents who asked for partials at the writing conference I went to. In other words, stop polishing the Query letter and let the thing go!
Anyone want to read and give feedback on a query letter for me?
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There certainly is a lot of negativity on this thread. If you guys want to make it as writers, you have to set aggressive but attainable goals that you can influence. If you can't make time to write and you don't want to send out your work, then why are you here?
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
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CoriSCapnSkip, I believe it was George Carlin (the comedian) who pointed out that the glass is neither half full nor half empty--it's just too big for the job.
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Actually, my absurdly high goal was #7 - I already know there is no way I can stop trying to help people. It's just not in me to not do it, but I'm trying to be wiser in my choices so they don't continue to wreck havock on ME.
Horses are in the front yard, the query is going to be on F&F in a few minutes to see if someone else can figure out what's bothering me about it, and the words keep coming.
To everyone who set sending something out in 2007 - Good luck!
quote:In 2007, I promise to try to get my novel moving at a greater speed once again, maybe up to working on it once a day once more...
Well, I got it going, but at a much slower pace than I had been working on it last summer. Usually a hundred words a day, where I'd been doing five hundred. But it still adds up...just this morning I crossed the sixty-thousand-word mark, and figure I'm about halfway through...
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Just checking in... I did some more work on my feature length screen play. It was good, but not quite what I wanted. It's been an odd week.
Posts: 366 | Registered: Sep 2006
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I raise my bottled water to ya. 8))
