February Update: Finally Stuff and Things

I realized in my last post, I didn't announce this, but I finally got my rejection from DAW. So, the MystWatch series is officially on hold indefinitely. Maybe one of these days, it'll make its way out into the world. For now, I'm just going to clean up book three for my beta readers and siblings, then I'm done with it.

I'm finally excited about the first Druid Wars book again. It only took a year after getting it back from my beta readers. But. I got the beta reader feedback incorporated. Now I just need to go through and do a line edit, then a copy edit, then probably one last proof, and it will be READY TO QUERY. It's really close, now. I should have it done this quarter, as I had planned.

I haven't done much to MystWatch book three, but I did add to a scene I'd been struggling with, so I can at least say I have touched it this year. I'd like to get Druid Wars off my plate before diving into it. I don't know if it'll take me all February to wrap that up or not. Either way, I plan to spend at least one whole month on it, and probably whatever time I have leftover once Druid Wars is polished.

I even dragged out the literary agent list I compiled last year for it. I've updated it a bit, and even checked on my query letter. All of that is mostly ready to go, so yeah. I'd say I will hit my quarterly goal of having it ready to submit before Camp NaNo hits.

I'm nervous and excited. The querying process was soul-crushing last time around. This is a better, more marketable book, I think. Better written. A hell of a lot shorter. I'm hoping to get at least a few more requests for partials (maybe even fulls!). I'm not 100% convinced it'll be my big break, but I think it has a better chance than Hunter's Blood ever did.

And hey. Worst case? I trunk it and move on. I didn't make the same mistake with Druid Wars as I did with MystWatch. I didn't waste a lot of energy writing a second or third book, so I can let it go more easily. And hey. It took me about two years to get through all the queries I wanted to do with Mystwatch. By that time, I should have a my next book lined up to begin querying, if Druid Wars doesn't make it.

I know my yearly plan is rather aggressive, editing three books and finishing writing at least one. But last year I didn't manage to get these books off my plate, so I have to do it this year. I have these three outstanding books that have been weighing on me for years. Time to wrap them up and see where my next adventure takes me. The Order and Autonomy world? The Dante novels? Fractured Worlds? Hunker City? Something completely new? Only time will tell.

So far, the quarterly goals are working really well for me. Knowing I have three projects to work on over the course of three months is allowing me more flexibility in following my motivation. I never liked how when a month ended, I had to immediately try to switch gears. Knowing I just have these three things I want to get done before April helps me relax, knowing that if I really don't want to work on something, I've got something else I can slide in. So even though my plan is to work on Druid Wars and then MystWatch, I can swap them, if I so choose. I also would really like to write a short story this quarter, so I can sneak that in, as well.

I've got a lot to do over the next two months, and I lost a week to another cold this month. But. I think I'm ready to dive into line edits. I even told my sister that she'd get to read Druid Wars soon. I told her she'd be reading it while I was querying, but maybe I'll hold off and see what she says about it before I do that. Make sure it's really truly reader for readers.

One last item of business I wanted to mention. Neil Gaiman now has a Master Class on the MasterClass website. It's $90 to take it, and I think I'm going to. For twice that, I can have an all-access pass for a year, and take classes from James Patterson, Judy Blume, Margaret Atwood, and Dan Brown. It's an investment in my writing career, and that's pretty inexpensive for writing classes. It will kill my writing budget line for the year, but I never spend all of it, anyway. I think this would be totally worth it. Short of beta reading, it's been a long time since I did much to improve my craft. It might be about time.

Updated January Update: Revisions

That first post of the year is always a lot to process. It makes me feel a little overwhelmed, and I worked myself into something of a standstill, not sure where to start. So, only about a week after my accomplishments and goals post, I'm already coming up with a somewhat new plan for the year.

I mean, not all that new. Revised, a bit. And a bit more organized. Rather than just saying I want to get x, y, z done this year, I've actually sketched out a rough timeline, breaking down the year into quarters. This year, I've decided to set quarterly goals, alternating writing and editing quarters. I don't know why I had this sudden urge to make this distinction, but I've decided that it is important to my process.

So. First quarter is editing. I want to get a solid pass on book three done so that it's ready for beta readers. I also want to do the final push on Druid Wars so that's ready for querying before I start on SP for Camp NaNo in April.

Second quarter is writing. Start with Camp NaNo, then hit Chain Letter Choice hard. I may poke at it a bit during the first quarter editing months if I feel like writing, so I don't necessarily have to write 30k-40k in two months, but if I need to, I can.

Third quarter is a mix of both writing and editing. I'll start with another SP adventure for Camp NaNo in July. Then I'll probably spend a month or two with Love and Demons in Los Angeles. I may take a break to poke at Once We Were Witches when the autumn nostalgia hits, but that feeling is fickle, so I hold no delusions that I'll be able to write that for any solid amount of time. Besides. The Pandemonium series has been pushed back several times now. I need to finally dedicate some time to it, and taking a quarter to focus on editing between writing quarters is probably a good way to recharge my creative batteries.

Because then, fourth quarter is back to writing, with NaNo proper hitting in November. In October, my plan right now is to try to write a third SP adventure. Unless work is going well on Pandemonium, then I might keep working on that. Or, depending on weather and mood, I might write (or write more) on Witches. But then I dive into crazy writing month, and then December is...well, we've seen what December is the past few years. I call it my wrapping up projects month, but let's be real. December is hibernation month.

The other big change is that I've decided--for now, at least--to put off self-publishing MystWatch indefinitely. I got to thinking that it might not be a bad idea to wait until I find agent representation or get in with an editor at a publishing house before I decide what to do with MystWatch. Agents kept telling me book one was too long for a debut author. So, what if another one of my books gets published and does well? Would they reconsider book one then? I decided it might be worth holding off for. That way, too, Rachel has some more time to focus on her own books and business and not have to worry about me bugging her with my self-publishing journey. Quite honestly, as much as I fantasize about covers and royalties, the time doesn't feel quite right. Of course, the longer I wait, the more chance it'll never happen, I realize. It's a risk, but one I'm willing to take right now. I wrote the books. Even if nothing happens with them, I'm happy to have written and edited them. Nobody can ever take that experience away from me.

I'm slowly shaking off my January funk (where I was debating whether I even wanted to be a writer anymore--it's sure been awhile since I had that fight with myself!). These revisions, this more concrete schedule, has helped perk me up a bit. It doesn't seem as overwhelming, looking at it this way. I still haven't started anything, but I'm still not even two weeks into January. It's not a foregone conclusion yet. I just need to get to work. On something. At this point, I'm not picky which project I pick up. But I'm ready to get creative again. Process planning uses the other part of my brain, which I need to exercise now and then, as well, but writing about writing isn't writing.

It's time to get started.

January Update: Accomplishments and Goals

I had a total slacker December, managing only to get my Cafe story written. I did write a narrative for work but didn't end up submitting it. It's been a slow start as far as January, as well. I have my annual New Years cold, so most of my energy has been focused on feeling better and recovering from all the holiday travel.

I'm finally ready to face this year's goals. But first, a recap of my 2018. Here were my goals for 2018, and a note in parenthesis as to whether they were completed or not:

• Finish writing Scions of Mythos (DONE)
  
• Send Druid Wars to beta readers, incorporate feedback, and hopefully start querying (received beta reader feedback, made editing notes, then stalled out)
• Edit Online Dating for Demons (pushed back to 2019)
  
• Write at least four stories for the Confabulator Cafe, and keep it running (DONE)
• Start a brand new project for Nanowrimo (DONE)
• Finish the first adventure in season two and start the second adventure for Sally Prescott (DONE)
• Volunteer at ConQuest (decided just to drink and enjoy the con)
• Write at least one blog post a month here. (DONE)

I made really good writing progress. Steady progress. In 2018, I:

• Finally finished writing the third book in the MystWatch series.
• Beta read two novels for writing group friends.
• Wrote a short story for the 24-hour short story contest.
• Wrote a short story for ConQuesT's story-in-a-bag.
• Wrote four short stories for the Confabulator Cafe.
• Had a short story published (and was paid for it).
• Sent queries out to publishers for MystWatch book one.
• Wrote one (and a half) Sally Prescott adventures. Put together a query for Carina.
• Poked at Suddenly, Zombies! and Once We Were Witches. 
• Brainstormed two new book ideas (one I wrote for NaNo), and a few short story ideas.
• Finished the line edit on a BCP book.
• Overall, wrote 196,400 words and spent 161 hours editing.

I learned that I can consistently write 15,000 words a month, at least on average. I had some months where I didn't write much at all but compensated by writing more than that other months. And while I didn't get all of my original goals accomplished, I'm really pleased with what I did get done. Especially winning NaNo. I wasn't sure I'd ever be about to hit 50k in a month again. I also managed to gracefully shift all of the things I didn't accomplish forward on my project timeline. So!

My goals for 2019 are to:

• Edit MystWatch book three for beta readers, incorporate their feedback, and send to my brother and sister by Christmas.
• Incorporate beta reader feedback for Druid Wars book one and begin querying.
• Start edit for Pandemonium book one.
• Write at least two Sally Prescott adventures.
• Write for the Confabulator Cafe as needed. No minimum.
• Participate in NaNoWriMo (for the 15th year, holy cow).
• Write an average of 10,000 words each month.
• Write at least one writing blog post a month.

Those are my main goals. I lowered my word count goal since I'll be working on edits for three different books this year rather than writing. That being said, though, I also want to throw in work on some other projects. I may try to work on Once We Were Witches (probably in the fall, since so much of that book is fall nostalgia), and Chain Letter Choice. I can probably finish Chain Letter in about 30-40k words, so it's worth it to at least consider throwing some words at it. And I always poke at Zombies! when nothing else strikes my fancy.

All that might be too ambitious, but right now, I'm following where my motivation leads me. So I want to leave myself open to working on other projects even as I'm wrapping up some projects that have been on my plate for awhile.

No goals as far as self-publishing for now. I may get a quote from an editor, maybe a cover artist, but as much as I'd dreamed of self-publishing MystWatch in 2020, I don't really have the funds for it, so I may have to put it off another year. Besides. I'm still holding out for DAW.

My biggest worry is that my burnout from doing a 50k NaNo will continue through this month. But at the very least, I need to get a beta read back to Amanda. I think, though, that once I dive into MystWatch book three, I'll be into it. I was daydreaming about the world today as I was trying to take a nap. So yeah. It's there, at the edges of my consciousness. I'll go back there soon.