Tag: novel

Summer of Fiction Writing Goals

Now that everyone knows about my Holly Lisle addiction loyalty… I’m currently participating in her Summer of Fiction Writing event. Which is almost over. My timing is bad.

HOWEVER. I’d like to fill everyone in on what I’m doing for the event. So.

GOAL ONE

  • My clear target is: Write 19,695 words of my HTWAN project.
  • My reachable deadline is: August 31, 2019
  • My working days are: Tuesday, Thursday, and at least Saturday or Sunday (if not both)
  • My method of measuring progress: Word count
  • My end goal: 19,695 words (plus what I already have written, should total 25,755)
  • My daily goal, and number of available days: 505 words, 3 days minimum/week
  • My leverage — WHY I need to do this: I want to prove to myself that this is something I can do more than once, something that I don’t have to agonize over for years because I “don’t have a good idea”, and something I can do in a relatively timely manner, without burning out.

GOAL TWO

  • My clear target is: Finish Lesson 17 of HTRYN on Some Kind of Savior.
  • My reachable deadline is: August 31, 2019
  • My working days are: Tuesday, Thursday (possibly Saturday or Sunday, but not required)
  • My method of measuring progress: Scenes rewritten
  • My end goal: 23 scenes rewritten
  • My daily goal, and number of available days: 1 scene, 2 days minimum/week
  • My leverage — WHY I need to do this: I want to make this story the best it can be, and to do that, I need to finish this lesson. This thing is so broken, but I know it can be great if I try.

Adventures in Book Writing (and what I learned along the way)

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So. I have a confession to make.

I am a dedicated student of Holly Lisle, and have been since 2013.

Does this mean my novels will be just like hers?

No. We are different people, with different interests, different experiences, and different takes on life. Even if we happened to take the same idea and write it, the two stories would be wildly different.

Does this mean my novels will all be -insert genre here-?

I reserve the right to write in whichever genre I please. (Although… I do tend toward similar genres as Holly.)

Does this mean my novels will appeal to those who like Holly’s work?

Not necessarily. Everyone’s tastes are different. I think our ideal readers are possibly similar, but not exactly the same.

Does this mean my novels will be good?

By damn, I sure hope so.

See, by student, what I mean is I’ve taken Holly’s writing courses, in an attempt to better my writing and get myself to at least a semi-professional status as an author.

Most of my first novel and all of my second were written with How To Think Sideways. My third is currently being written with How to Write a Novel, which has been an enormous help in not only crafting an idea to write, but seeing it through. And my first is currently being revised with How To Revise Your Novel, which I’ll go on to use on my other novels, because this is more than just copy-editing, this is true fixing that steaming pile of crap that is a first draft.

And those are just the big, months-long classes. She also has plenty of shorter workshops (like Write Page-Turning Scenes and How To Motivate Yourself, to name a couple) that are just as helpful, which I’ve also used on occasion for various things.

These are not easy, get-rich-quick schemes to writing. This is serious, hard work that requires you to really think, sometimes in ways your brain really doesn’t want to. More than once I’ve thought myself into a headache.

This is the kind of stuff they don’t teach you in college writing courses. Don’t ask me how I know.

-side-eyes B.A. in English, Creative Writing-

Being a writer isn’t easy. Being a good writer is even harder. But with Holly’s help, anyone can get there. Maybe even me.