• What were your goals last week and did you accomplish them?
• Describe what you worked on.
• Set goals for next week.
• Did you learn something during this week?

Here is a list of things that you can do each week as we work on our novels (suggestions welcomed).

• Writing on a novel
• Characterization
• World Building
• Relevant research

=-=-=-=-=

Last Week's Goals

I'm still in that slump. Not sure how to get out of it yet.

My goals for next week:

• Improve scene details
• Write detailed scenes

I will try again this next week. Hopefully this will be the week I get back into the writing flow.

What did I learn this week?

Once again, just keep moving.

DREAMER'S ROSE: Continue to let this one rest while I contemplate what almost amounts to a rewrite.
Easy goal.

THE SHAMAN'S CURSE: Let it rest for a while longer.
Another easy goal.

THE IGNORED PROPHECY: Time to start thinking about getting back to this.
Nope, didn't even think about it in any meaningful way.

BLOOD WILL TELL: Nothing for this week.
Another easy goal.

MAGE STORM: Continue to work on the synopsis. *sigh* Start the revisions for the third draft.
Yes to both.

SEVEN STARS: Work on chapter two.
Nope.

OTHER:
Update my blog twice a week.
Pull the short story version of "Mage Storm" from Bull Spec after five months. Complete the revisions and send it to Daily Science Fiction.
Work on revisions to another short story.
Yes, yes and no.

Next Week's Goals:

DREAMER'S ROSE:
Continue to let this one rest while I contemplate what almost amounts to a rewrite.

THE SHAMAN'S CURSE:
Let it rest for a while longer.

THE IGNORED PROPHECY:
Time to start thinking about getting back to this. I mean it this time.

BLOOD WILL TELL: Put the first chapter or three of this out for critiques. I need independent assessment of whether the voice really is YA before I can move forward.

MAGE STORM:
Start the revisions for the third draft.

SEVEN STARS:
Work on chapter two. Try to find the MC's voice. With everything else, this goal may be a long shot. Still, this is my new work, aka, the sandbox.

OTHER:
Update my blog twice a week.
Work on revisions to another short story.

Mainstream novel: I managed less than 100 new words this week. Not great, but I did do some rather successful editing work.

"Agents of the Fourth Wind" (SF): For the third straight week, I did not touch this story in any capacity. That empty row on my progress sheet is getting rather depressing looking. But, at least my science research is working well for me.

UPCOMING WEEK
"Metzgerhund Empire" (YA): Complete the last few scenes of the last chapter, and rewrite the agent query letter.

Mainstream novel: Figure out where I left off, and get back to writing.

"Agents of the Fourth Wind" (SF): Continue my technical research.

BLOGGATHAH
No new postings this past week. I blame the NHL season. Oh…and I blame my kids, too.

NOTES
Short story overview: Two weekends ago, I purposely paused my SF short story efforts in order to get my YA novel out the door. Between spending time on the short stories that are based on the characters from the YA novel, and the fact that I’ve still not beaten the agent query letter into submission, I’ve not gotten back to my SF short stories. However, I’ve started to get antsy about a new SF short that recently made its way to my queue…

Three of my science fiction short stories, and one mainstream short story, currently reside on the desks and/or slush piles of various editors.

If you’re interested, check out the details of all my writing exploits on my site.

But I have a bit more time so:

#1 (as in importance and I started it first)
"Storm Born" I have nine chapters and after the one danger scene I'm doing I will start on ten. I got some good writing in it this week but I'm not sure how many words.

#2 (in importance and the fact I started it second)
"New Mage On The Block" I think it could probably use a new title it's not quite going the way I pictured for that title. But I did some good writing in it also this past week. Just started chapter four two nights ago and probably have 200 or so words in it.

#3 "Kin To Angels" Or "Cousin To Angels" same as the last two. But I am just finishing chapter two and I may put it down for now and concentrate on the other two. I just did those two chapters to get the idea out of my head. I like the idea however and I may not be able to put it down. I will have to decide in Dec..

This part may belong on that other thread mentioned and I will see about moving this part if need be.

Each one is Urban Fantasy but each one has a slightly different twist to UF. New Mage is sort of, kinda of modeled after laura anne gilman's Costa Nostradamus-Retriever novels. With a touch of both Butcher's Dresden Files and John Levitt's Dog Days series and maybe a bit of Murphy's Walker Papers

Storm Born isn't modeled after any idea that I can think of. My MC has some special abilities but he isn't a mage or wizard etc. They are kinda of secondary except for the bad guy who is a wizard. My MC runs into elves, makes friends with an AI ward on his house and his fiance-even though he doesn't know it yet- belongs to a family with special powers that I haven't quite, positively decided on.

I converted it to YA (although it may still be a bit intense for that genre) It took me about fifteen hours.(lots of late nights this week.)

I'm going to throw it at some readers. In its previous form, I let one person see the first draft. I needed some depth so I basically changed the MC's gender as well as a few of the characters and added some more character reflection.

Tower of Secrets
This is a YA novel I outlined this summer. It's ready to be written. I may do an unofficial NaNoWriMo on it and spend most of November drafting it. *Edited to say: an official NaNo*

Motes & Meddles
I solemnly put this one on the shelf for a bit. I was doing a redraft and, frankly, couldn't get excited about it. I didn't get enough life into the MC and I'm sure the book was a plodder. I'll have to use the same premise but totally re-outline the thing and write a different novel. An alternative will be to write this as an e-book because I can't see how I'm going to get this to 80,000 words, my target. This is part of a series and perhaps put the whole thing up as an e-book.

[This message has been edited by Owasm (edited October 30, 2010).]

"Bright Lights and Chaos"

Titled after a music video I saw advertised. Haven't seen the video nor know which group does it.

And no it's not a Maxwell Smart spin off or rip off.

It's... you guested it a UF story...this one about a half fey. Not sure yet what type of fey than again maybe I am since I know who her mother is.

It's loosely inspired by a series by Seanan McGuire, about October Daye,

Love the writer's name too bad I can't use it on a character.

My current project is called The Princess and The Dragon. Sorry about the lame title, it's really just a working title and I'll come with a really awesome one later. (hopefull) I'm in the very beginning of it and still have a bit of plotting to straighten out. I've finished the first chapter and I am working on the second one.

Wotf 2nd draft - I.F. - almost finished.

On the fence - Took a strange turn. Almost like the story is out of my hands and it's writing itself. It's now going to be a short story far different from how I imagined.

Seeds, Unbeliever's, The Burning, on hold for now. Till the top three are complete.

Goals- work my butt off.