Tag: writing goals

GOAL 1) PUBLISH SKOS

• My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
• Where I planned to be: Spent at least 30 mins
• Where I am: I am bad at tracking time, but I definitely spent some time here
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Welp, posted the next group of cover mockups on the forums. Feedback seemed a little more positive, but still not quite there.

Lo and behold, one of the mods messaged me offering to help. She mocked up some dummies and I’m gonna try to emulate those, see where that gets me. It’s a lot more work though.

GOAL 2) REVISE SYCU

• My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum; 1 chapter/day
• Where I planned to be: Through chapter 13
• Where I am: Through chapter 16
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
The dreaded 1Bs are done! Couple more worksheets and I’m on to Lesson 2.

Some of you may have noticed I changed my site theme. If not… I changed my site theme. 😀

GOAL 1) PUBLISH SKOS

• My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
• Where I planned to be: Spent at least 30 mins
• Where I am: Spent …several hours, at least
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I posted the four covers for one title on the forums and got some great feedback. Most of it was not positive, unfortunately. And I had to seriously contemplate what genre this thing really is.

At first I thought it was Paranormal/Urban Fantasy. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s not some subset of Horror. Or maybe Dark Humor…? Either way, I’m reworking most of the covers I’ve already done, and trying to really focus on what the cover is saying.

This is a lot more difficult than it looks.

GOAL 2) REVISE SYCU

• My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum; 1 chapter/day
• Where I planned to be: Through chapter 10
• Where I am: Through chapter 12
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Great! I managed to squeeze in a couple extra chapters this week, leaving only four to go. I’m gonna try to get through them next week.

I’m still amazed at how clean this draft is. We’ll see if I change my mind on that later.

Goal 1) Publish SKoS

• My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
• Where I planned to be: Spent at least 30 mins
• Where I am: Spent Idk I keep forgetting to actually count mins
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
After finally figuring out how to save as a PDF from Google Docs *facepalm* I threw my hat in the ring to have this content edited by Matt Turano (aka Holly Lisle’s husband/personal content editor). He has a few other people ahead of me in line, and he doesn’t rush these, but hopefully I hear back soon on when I can send it in. I’m excited!

I also got a few more covers mocked up. I think I’m gonna throw some of them on the forums soon to get some feedback.

Goal 2) Revise SYCU

• My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum; 1 chapter/day
• Where I planned to be: Through chapter 7
• Where I am: Through chapter 7
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I went through and counted. I have 16 chapters.

If my math is right (which… if you don’t know me, my math is questionable at best), if I do two chapters a day for three days, and just one for another three days, I can be done with this part by the end of the month. Alternately, I could just add three more days, likely the next two Wednesdays and next Saturday, at just one chapter a day.

Do I need to get it done by the end of the month? Not really. But I’ve got a long ways to go to on this, and if I want it ready for editing by the end of this year, time’s ticking down.

To be fair, this is definitely less messy than SKoS. Still some work to do (MC is currently reading a little like a psychopath, unfortunately), but I’m still really pleased with how good this came out in first draft.

As far as a new novel goes…

I’ve been thinking about it. I want to. I really do. The college cancelled one of my classes due to low registration numbers, so I’m only in two classes this semester. (Makes things difficult in the long run, but I can work with it.) This definitely frees me up to work on something new.

The question is, work on something new, or revive an old idea…

Goal 1) Publish SKoS

• My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
• Where I planned to be: Spent at least 30 mins
• Where I am: Spent …so many mins
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I have four mockup covers for each of two titles so far. And it looks like I’m not gonna get any bites on the forum for a freebie edit so… professional edit it is. And as broke as I am… I’m leaning toward the expensive one. It’s my first novel, and I know it’s probably still not top-notch. But if I can make it salable, well. I will.

Goal 2) Revise SYCU

• My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum; 1 chapter/day
• Where I planned to be: Through chapter 4
• Where I am: Through chapter 4
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
Measuring this by time doesn’t feel right, so I’m going by chapters now (because I… happen to have this one separated into chapters). No idea how many there are because I haven’t looked. I’m just kinda winging this one. (Ha. Haha, punny. Because this one’s about people who have wings.)

I continue to be fascinated by how good this is. And it’s not because I’m too close to it; I literally haven’t looked at it since the day I finished it. Six years ago. They don’t feel like my words anymore, even though I know better.

Maybe this will be easier than the first one after all.

Goal 1) Publish SKoS

• My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
• Where I planned to be: Spent at least 10 mins (cause short week)
• Where I am: Spent …many mins
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I’ve already done some testing on my titles in Holly’s forum, so I’m taking the top 7 and sketching out covers. I’ve found some photos on Scop.io I can probably use, but I may end up taking some of my own. (Writer, amateur photographer, what else can he do?) All that’s left to do now is start mocking up covers so I can get some opinions.

As for getting edits, I can use Holly’s forum to find folks who will do it for free, but I’m also looking into professional edits. One option is much cheaper than the other, but I know more about the more expensive one and I’m convinced of the quality. Not that I’m not convinced of the quality of the cheaper one, but I haven’t heard much about it. I’ll have to seriously weigh all my options.

Goal 2) Revise SYCU

• My Goal: Spend at least 10 mins, 3 days/week minimum
• Where I planned to be: Spent at least 10 mins (cause short week)
• Where I am: Spent ~20 mins
• On Target or Behind: On Target

How’s It Going:
I read the first chapter and uh… not only do I not remember writing any of this…

It’s REALLY good. At least as far as first draft goes. Maybe not the best beginning, but… I don’t have much bad to say about it. Nothing that jumped out at me as “this is a huge problem”. Mostly it’s just a little clunky in places. Easy fix. Later.

But for now, so far, so good.