I will start with my personal goal of finishing the rewrite of my murder mystery novel, which should be something like 80-90k words, by Halloween. (I'm actually hoping to do this by the fifteenth, but I'm only promising the 31st.) At that time I will set editing/polishing goals.

One thing I've found out about myself is that I'm a pretty slow writer. I rewrite a lot, becasue it takes me a long time to figure out what I'm tyring to say. Thus, I don't have any goals in that sense--goals on when to finish a project. It's done when I can't do anything to make it better.

My only goal is to write every day, which I've been doing with complete success since I started keeping a notebook. I suppose in my mind my goal is to complete a short-story a month--but I've never made it an "official" goal.

-Multiplicity (1st novella), rough draft by the end of December. Maybe into the 2nd one by then.

I can't promise anything, because unless they're made face to face, I've a tendency to break promises, (it's just the way I'm wired), so instead, I'll post my most relevant New Year's Resolutions, to be completed by the end of the year

--a completed first draft of my novel in progress

--at least one short story ready for sumbissions (done), and five more in some various stage between first draft and completion. (Also done. Sort of.)

--Lose 30 pounds (yeah, right. ). I think this is relevant because like OSC says, healthy body, healthy mind.

That's them, and I'm doing my damndest to make sure they're done. Except for the third one.

CVG

[and if I had ever learned how to type it would go faster!]

1: complete the fairy tale rewrite by the end of this month;

2: write, revise/edit, and submit at least 6 short stories by the autumnal equinox (works in progress included)

3: have at least 6 chapters of a novel done by the winter solstice (Currently seeking another idea to blend into the story; hopefully it will come to me in time!!)

4: lose 30 pounds by the winter solstice (so I can gain 1/3 back at Christmas!! Wheee!!!! *VBG*)

5: write *something* every day, without fail!

Oh, and ah.. work with the horses every day.

Thaaaaat ought to be enough goals for a while, methinks!

I will submit at least one story to a professional market from Reykjavik.

Finish scan through "The Penitent" and let my brother in law finally read it! He's been waiting for ages. Two weeks?

Come October re-edit "A Dream of the West" (Again) and start work again on the sequel! Long term prospects...

Goals. Erg.

But here goes.

1. Have two short stories (Neverking and Lost Horizon) ready to submit by Dec. 31st.

2. Read at least one non-fiction and two fiction books per month.

3. Outline of my restructured novel(s) (translation: Tome turned Three-volumes) by Dec. 31st.

Write everyday, I'm bad at that.

'Winston' ready to edit by the end of the year. (which is sad since it's probably short.)

quote:

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I am going to try the National Novel Writing Month this November, and write my SF murder/mystery "Virus Attached."

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Are we keeping the writing promise report forum active? Because if we are, I am pleased to report that I finally finished the current novel, despite the extreme anxiety and self-doubt which seems to hit near the end of anything I can't convince myself is unimportant. (How did I deal with it? I kicked myself and my laptop out of my apartment and didn't allow myself back in until it was done, that's how. Tough love. And burrito. And tea.)

Now, to the second part of my promise: the sleeping. *conks out, despite it being pitifully early*

I got the scan through of the Penitent done and its printed up. Just have to make it out to the BIL's house sometime in the near future and give it to him.

Oh, and another one - follow up on Short Story "The Wolf's Sister" sent out AGES ago!!!

For a few years now I've been haunted by memories of junior high. Don't ask--I don't know. They just won't leave me alone. In fact, too many of my stories eventually become stories based on junior high. After reading an old interview with Harlan Ellison and an old interview with John Gardner, I realized--no, I think I finally accepted the fact--that sometimes we have stories that we MUST tell, and I saw that junior high for me was a kind of mythical history that, for whatever reason, I need to explore.

So.....

after much thinking, I decided to write a memoir of junior high (which is perhaps why I was interested in starting a nonfiction thread). I don't expect anything from it right now, because right now all I can do is write down the memories as they come. The story--if there is one--comes later.

Anyway, I've found that each night I can write down about 2000 words (10 pages) of memories, so that's my new goal. Though I don't know for sure, I'm projecting that the first draft will be between 600 and 700 pages.

So, needless to say, I'm not writing much fiction now adays . . . at least not for a few months.

As for myself:

a) Sister of Betrayal - 3rd draft finished, at 72k words!
b) Friend or Food - Finished, though one last minor polishing needed.

New promise:

well, I followed up on the short story - it only took a total of 14 months after server failures, mails going missing etc. Not sure if its a record.

I got a rejection, but it was a very nice rejection and quite heartening. It still feels wrong to say "a very nice rejection", but the editor was very complimentary and it was firmly on the "It's not perfect for us" rather than the "this is garbage" side.

To quote (and salve my bruised ego) "I'll have to return it, with genuine regrets." He also invited me to try them again soon.

So now I just have to find somewhere else to submit it and get back to writing. I'm pleased on the whole as I don't write many shorts (and my shorts arent that short to begin with).

I've got a little list...

If you haven't already, try this site for markets:

My goal is to complete the first draft of my first novel during NaNoWriMo, called "Outleaf." I think that is a pretty big goal, so I won't add to it yet.

I would like to commit to writing every day, but I don't do ANYTHING consistently every day (up to and including eating, sleeping and other normalish things. I am the opposite of a creature of habit.)

1. Get the first draft of my short story finished by mid-october (I've seen others of you say you can get a draft for a short done in one sitting, but I'm incredibly slow so I'm giving myself a good range of time ).

2. Complete a draft of my novel, which currently has no title, during NaNoWrMo.

3. Hey, I'd like to loose a little weight too.

Just get it finished.

By New Year's. (<----This is me, talking to myself. That's not right.)

Whew. Wish me luck.

it was Black Gate and the genre was heroic fantasy. I've checked out that site before and its a really handy one.

I'm thinking of submitting the story to the Next Writers of the Future, although I need to have a good scan through it and tighten up a bit. I fully intend to take some of his other comments on board.

Otherwise, I just have to get down to doing some work

1) Finish ANYTHING by the end of the year. This includes 1 short story (working title - Joker and Thief), 1 poss. novella length work (working title - The Great Crossing), 2 novel ideas (no pun intended) that need further plot development, and two screenplay ideas that need development also.

2) Submit something to publication!

I will do 50,000 words during Nano.

Rework my novella, "Last Magewood Standing".

Start and complete that short story that's been buzzing in my brain: "Fire on the Sea".

Get a working outline for NaNoWriMo novel, "Man of Stone" plus all the background information and character sketches and so on.

November:

NaNoWriMo. Word count goal: 25,000. Real goal: Just write the story until it's done.

December:

Begin reworking of "Man of Stone".

Get "Last Magewood Standing" polished up and submitted.

Begin and finish another short story.

Cut 40k off my novel before the new year.

Cya,
CC

PS, Kolona, I hear ya on the Maass wb. It's such a great book, and I hope to implement it the way it should be done after I shave 40k off my novel.

I'll have a short story ready for submission by next February.

-Multiplicity (1st novella), rough draft by the end of December. Maybe into the 2nd one by then. *Close enough to make it*

Trip Trap ready to send as a submission this week!

Neverking advanced draft completed. Must solicit critiques.

Prayer--doing better. Required for sanity these days.

I am still hoping to complete that promise, nevertheless, I feel the need to insert a new promise in here:

I promise to have a once-through revision of this novel completed by the end of this month so that I can write the last couple of chapters. (I've missed something somewhere...the character change isn't set up right or something...I don't know where it broke down but I've got to go back and find it. )

I then make the following promises regarding this work:

1. That I will send the novel to my parents to read during the month of November, while I'm writng furiously on another novel.
2. That I will *SLOW DOWN* and comb through every chapter, every page, and find the strongest way to present material, even if this means rewriting sections of the novel to make it more believable/more interesting/less confusing/less obvious (if that's the case...this is a mystery, after all)
3. That I will start researching publishers and agents but will not submit this novel before it is as good as it can be, including story and wordsmithing.
4. That I will not impose schedules on myself because that's the best way to get my novel thrown in with the other 99.9%. If this takes until October next year to get right, then so be it!

Strange that I am actually taking away set goals and the like, but lately I've realized tha these set goals are forcing me to write crap. (excuse the language) My novel got broken somewhere (that was passive voice...I broke it, actually.) and it might still have happened if I had slowed down and thought about things a little more as I wrote. (Maybe...maybe no.)

Starting in November with National Novel Writing Month I am going to work on novel #2 and I think this will help. Every day my goal is to work on one or the other, whichever the muse strikes me to do. I have a feeling that at first it will be novel #2 because I'm frankly getting sick of the other one, but then again maybe that just means I need to leave it be for a few months and come back to it with a fresh eye.

Rant on!

er, I mean

1st goal: Keep writing on it and try to everyday until it is done. I'm hoping that will be done by Feb '05.

2nd goal: Come up with a title to my superhero genre story. (I don't know how long it will be yet)

3rd goal: Look back at "NightCreeper" revise, edit and re-submit it to F&F for further comments, hopefully by end of the year.

4th goal: Think of a story to do with my favorite D&D character. Had so many thoughts about it at work yesterday.

I think that will suffice for now. I will try to do all of this between working and going to school full-time.

Also I promise to thank each and everyone of you guys that have helped me out with the monster that has become "Olympus Uprising".

THANK YOU ONE AND ALL.

Uh, I mixed in other writing responsiblities that are taking over my life, hope that's ok.

back again at last - albeit briefly I expect. I kind of had to drop off the face of the earth for a while there and all my plans are currently up in the air as my daughter - due at the end of October - arrived four weeks early (so as to disrupt her brother's birthday party, I suspect). She's still in the hospital, although I am home six days now, but she is out of the ICU and well on the road to recovery. Between trips to the hospital, minding our son and trying to stay sane, I haven't been doing much of anything and seem to have an attention span reduced to something akin to a gnat's! I've just started writing again myself. It's very fragmentary.

I don't think I have anything yet to crit, but if I do have something of yours and haven't replied, let me know. I'm sorry if that is the case and will try to get back to you eventually, but things being what they are right now, it will be a while.

When I get everything back on track, and Emily home, I'll be back. That's my promise for now.