Goals for 2010!

As 2009 draws to a close, it is time to once again sit down and set goals for the months and year ahead. With that in mind, here is an expanded list of my goals for the first three months of 2010.

January:

Start my writing day by 9am each day and finish by 4pm. Aim is to edit 5 pages per day.

Finish editing SMU and ‘The Billionaire Lie’, was previously titled, ‘If I Were a Rich Man’ ready to submit in February.

- SMU submit to eHarlequin Spice Briefs or Noble Romance for CC.
- The Billion’s Lie submit to eHarlequin.

Have ‘Cruisin the Blog’ posts started by the Tuesday of each week ready to post by the Saturday evening.

Work on ‘Bookshelf Saturday’ throughout the month ready for posting by the last Saturday of the month.

Gather more information on the founding years and growth of the RWAus for Wikipedia article.

Saturday and Sundays – critiquing days as well as updates for Goodreads and Shelfair.
Blog each Tuesday and Thursday on my blogspot site.

Blog on first of the month on both my Heroine Diaries and Heroes Blogs.

Update Challenge and Novel Blogs the second Sunday of the month.

Blog on the 109ers Bootcamp Blog every three weeks.

Send updates to Kiki for RWAus website on Thursdays and Sundays.

Read at least one novel a week.

Exercise for 30 minutes each day.

Stick to my diet to lose 5kgs.

February:

Edit ‘By Her Father’s Design’ was previously titled ‘Right Where I Need to Be’ and IT, ready to submit in March.

- By Her Father’s Design ready to submit to eHarlequin.

- IT submit to Noble Romance. For CC

The third Saturday of the month is NewMait Writers’ meeting.

The rest are as January!!

March:

Edit ‘Tyler’s Return’ was previously ‘We Were in Love’.

- Tyler’s Return ready to submit to eHarlequin

The third Saturday of the month is NewMait Writers’ meeting.

The rest of my goals are the same as January, except for my weight which I hope to be at the stage I’ll just need to maintain my goal weight.

That is it for the first three months, I’ll have word counters in the side panel so you can see how I’m progressing.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

Sandie

Making Plans

From where I’m sitting at the moment, I don’t think I’m going to get a lot more achieved with my writing from now until the New Year. I’m lucky if I’m editing two pages a day, and that’s on hard copy, still have to enter it into the computer. With that in mind, I’m setting my goals for next year so I can work everything I need into my week.

Now, I’m not an early riser so this may take some doing, but I’ll give it a try. Here’s what my day will (hopefully) look like:

6.00AM – Put washing on, and then have breakfast

6.30AM – Check emails and respond to any that need attention.

7.30AM – Do Housework (Now that just sent a shiver down my spine, ewww). Hang out washing.

8.30AM – Have coffee and work on ‘Cruisin’ the Blog and Members News.

9.00AM – Start writing/editing day

10.30AM – Have a coffee break.

11.00AM – Back to writing/editing

12.00PM – Lunch

12.30PM – Back to writing/editing

2.00PM – Have coffee break.

2.30PM – Back to writing/editing or work on RWAus stuff.

4.00PM – Finish up for day.

There, see I’m all organised. All I need to do now is pull it off. Maybe I better start getting up early now so by the New Year my body is use to the early rises.

My goals for 2010 will be posted on the Bootcampers 109 blog on Wednesday.

Happy writing
Sandie

The Editing Merry-go-round

Okay editing is not one of my strong points. I am too easily distracted. When I’m writing my first draft, I’m focused, nothing can drag me away from the computer when the words are flowing. So why, when I have all the words before and I know that they need work, a lot of work, can’t I sit still long enough to get the thing done?

I am also fighting the urge to start something new, yes; a new story has started to develop in my head. I should be making notes, but I know the minute I do that, I’ll start writing, I won’t be able to stop myself. I have no will power in that area. Maybe I need to join a ‘New Story Anonymous’ group or something. Arrrrrh, I hate this!

I’ve edited the same pages three times, Margie (see previous post) is doing my head in. I’m dreaming of power words. I don’t think my opening is strong enough even after the re-writes. I’m doing it all on hard copy hoping I will connect with the characters, that they will once again lead me in the right path. Something is missing and for the life of me, I can’t put my finger on it.

Okay, I’ve had a nice long bath and took some time to think. Here’s my decision. It I read each scene and make notes, like you would if you were plotting the novel from scratch, then I might work out what’s missing. It should also tell me if the conflict is strong enough for each character. You see, I think the conflictis there for the hero but maybe not so much the heroine, she needs work. Yes, that’s what I’ll do, it can’t hurt, and anything is better than going around on the merry-go-round I’m on at the moment.

Shall let you know how I go next week. Now I’m going to bed.

Happy Writing
Sandie

Editing: Do Not Disturb

For the next seven months I’m editing. I’ve put a ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ sign up at my Head Motel, so far all is quiet. CC is happy because at least two of her novels will be the first to be edited, that should keep her at bay for a month. So why seven months of editing? Easy, I have at least seven or eight novels finished sitting there waiting and I sure as hell won’t get published if I don’t edit what I’ve written. I also need seven months so I can work my way through Margie Lawson’s lecture packs.

I’m starting with ‘Empowering Characters’ Emotions’ and ‘Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More’ you can also do these and others as one of ‘Margie’s Online classes’. I’m already feeling better about this editing thing and my even learn to like the process.

Since Tuesday, I’ve edited seven pages of ‘SMU’, now this is a novella, so I’m hoping to have this finished by the weekend. Then I’ll do some more work on ‘Rich Man’ and aim to have that finished by Christmas. I’m working very hard at being good and only working on one project at a time. None of this jumping from one story to the other. I have a plan and I’m going to stick to it even if it kills me. Yes, I have my calendar all filled in with which novels I work on and when, not jumping ahead. I wrote them in with a pen so I can’t rub them out if I change my mind.

Okay, this is not getting my editing done today. I’ve been updating our Horse Stud Site with the latest news. But now it’s my time, I’ll let you know how I’m going in a day or two.

Happy Writing
Sandie

Knowing When to Stop

You know when we start our journey each year or in some cases every six months to undertake writing 50K in 30 days, we have all the rules we intended to stick by.

Just write, do not edit.

Ignore the outside world.

Writing comes first.

Make sure your family knows you will not be available. And so on.

Then one day you get a phone call to say your Mum has spent the night in hospital, but it’s not serious. Then you go down to visit and realise for the normal person a bit of vomiting may not be serious, but for your mother who weighs less than 50 kg, can’t afford to lose any more weight it could turn out a big problem.


This was my weekend, then things got a little more serious on Monday. My Mum had a fall, not that she hurt herself bad, but we have now been told her illness could have started to take a turn for the worse and progress faster than it had been. You see, my Mum has late on setting Huntington's chorea disease. For the past few months, my family and I have watched small things change within my Mum, now instead of the disease taking dolly steps it has moved into giant steps.

My point is that no matter how good you intentions are at the start of the challenge, sometimes life steps in and you have to accept defeat. Not reaching 50Ks is NOT the end of the world, the novel will be there for you when you’re ready to start again.

Sometimes you just have to know when to stop.

Sandie

Mind over Matter

I’ve hit the 25K mark for NaNoWriMo, YAY. Unfortunately I’ve also hit the midway stumbling block. I spent most of today doing anything I could on the computer except write. Well except for 581 words. Better than nothing, yes, but not near enough, or anywhere near what I have been doing.

Here’s the thing, it happens every challenge. I get so far along, either in word count or in days/weeks and I hit the wall. Slow right down for a few days and then I’m right again, ready to write up a storm. Today I started thinking this is crazy, I expect it, I am convincing myself this is going to happen and of course it does. Mind over Matter. I am training my mind to believe this is how it should be, instead of fighting my way through it, pushing myself that little bit harder. So here I sit complaining about not being able to write, yet I’m writing this blog. I wrote my report for RWAustralia web team and my job description thingy. (Mind you these should have been done over a week ago.) Why can’t I write more on my story. I’ve opened the file twice and nothing! Not a thing, it’s like the characters have gone to bed and turned off the lights. Not even CC’s characters are coming out to play. I might have an early night and start fresh tomorrow, that may help.

I’m ‘Not happy Jan.’

Sandie

A Cosy Mystery for NaNo

So here I am at day five of NaNoWriMo and all is going well. Maybe a little too well. The story is coming together even with a couple of added point of views. My original idea was to tell the story from just my granny sleuth, however when I sat down at my computer on day three a second point of view character arrived. That character was my young Detective; I could live with that I thought. Instead of slotting in his point of view scenes in the original work, I decided to open a new file for him, so now I’m working between two files and one has to play catch-up. I should also point out the all my planning and plotting by this stage had been forgotten, didn’t even get a look in really. Maybe the fact that I had written it all down stuck a little because I did still have my original suspects and murder victim.


Come day three and I woke with a headache, not that this is uncommon for me but it did throw me for a while. Why? Because I had a third character wanting a point of view in the story. What could I do? Not much, if a character decides they know best, it is best to go along with them. So open file number three. Yes I’m writing novel between three files each with its own point of view. NOTE: These are in third person POV, I don’t think I do first person very well.

Anyway, today I’ve spent the day playing catch up with my two new POV characters. I think I’m almost there, which is a good thing, now do I continue to work with the three separate files or start a new file with all three POVs. Will have to think on that one.

So far in the story I have, one murdered tap dancer, up until today I had four suspects, this afternoon I gained another suspect and I can tell you I didn’t see this one coming. I have no idea what impact this person will have on the story.

My four amateur senior citizen sleuths are just starting to cause a little bit of havoc for my nice Detective and the manager of the nursing home. Oh, and said detective and manager were once married. Not sure where this is going to go either as they were not in my planning stage. Well they were but not as a once upon a time couple.

To date I’m 30% of the way through, which is great, I have a few non-writing days coming up, so I need to be in front. Word total 15,023 words. For now I’m happy, and I’m really enjoying writing something completely different.

The secret to my word count, is the internet on my laptop has had a major "Male Moment", so no connection, which means I have to come into other office to post comments, email etc. Easy really, no internet means lots of writing time.

Hope your NaNo Month is going well.

Happy Writing.

Sandie